Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.

Abstract

Indian cottons arrived in England in the early decades of the 1500s, but information is sparse on the scale of this commerce in that era. Portugal at this date controlled the only direct sea route between Europe and Asia’s monsoon trading regions. Along with the royal trading system, a circle of wealthy Portuguese merchants expended vast sums to acquire and then resell Indian merchandise including cotton, operating warehouses in Lisbon, Seville and other European cities. Not surprisingly, small shops selling calico were common in sixteenth-century Lisbon and outside Portugal their peddlers and merchants were active agents moving Indian cottons through European markets. Thus, it is no coincidence that Portuguese traders were mentioned landing ‘Callicowte Clothe’ in Southampton in 1541. Henry VIII himself owned an embroidered calico shirt and Jane Seymour, the king’s third wife, had a piece of embroidered calico among her possessions. The Portuguese were instrumental in channelling Indian textiles into well-established trade network, both seagoing and land based.

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