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File:Shah Allum in distress (BM 1868,0808.10034).jpg

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Summary

Shah Allum in distress   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
Shah Allum in distress
Description
English: A design in two compartments illustrating an article in Biblical phraseology, 'The First Chapter of the Book of Kings' and 'The Lamentations'. In the upper part is depicted a meeting of the General Court of the East India Company; the directors seated at a table on which are writing materials, a book, and a hammer. In the foreground a large man, Governor Johnstone, is holding up by the seat of his breeches 'Shah Allum' or Sir George Colebrook for the derision of the other directors. In the background, behind a barrier, a crowd of men, apparently the proprietors of East India Stock, watch the proceedings with amusement.


A ship with broken masts in heavy seas is driving on to rocks (right), on which is a flag-staff with a flag inscribed 'Treasury Cape'. On the right margin is inscribed "L. 40,00,00". This symbolizes the ruinous state of the Company's finances, on the verge of bankruptcy and burdened with an annual tribute of £400,000 to the Treasury. See 'Ann. Reg.' 1773, pp. 62 ff., and 'Camb. Hist. of the British Empire', iv, pp. 181 ff. See also BMSat 5101, &c. January 1773


Etching
Depicted people Representation of: Sir George Colebrooke
Date 1773
date QS:P571,+1773-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 181 millimetres
Width: 110 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.10034
Notes

A duplicate of 1855,0609.1928

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) The first (January) number of the 'Westminster Magazine' appeared in January, contrary to the custom. In 1774 each number appeared at the beginning of the following month. >From the 'Westminster Magazine', i. 41. This illustrates a meeting of the General Court of the Company on 1 Dec. 1772, [Four Courts a year were held, the qualification for a vote being raised by North's Regulating Act of 1773 from £500 to £1,000 Stock.] at which Governor Johnstone threw the blame of all the Company's miscarriages on their Directors who were "buoying up the spirits of the Proprietary with a pompous account of their affairs. . . ." Colebrook, a banker and M.P. for Arundel, was a leading director of the East India Company, and had been chairman in 1769 and 1771. At this time his affairs were in great disorder as a result of over-speculation: he had contracted for "all the alum in Bohemia, all the chip hats in Italy, . . ." 'Letters of the Earl of Malmesbury', i. 271, Ap. 6, 1773. See also Hume, 'Letters', 1932, ii. 263. The crisis was that in which Fordyce was ruined, see BMSat 4961, 5016. The name Shah Allum is here given because he had become rich by monopolizing alum. 'Westminster Magazine', i. 40.

Over the lower design is inscribed "The India-man wrecked. L 12" (probably a reference to 'The Lamentations' on the opposite page).
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-10034
Permission
(Reusing this file)
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Licensing

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Public domain

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current13:45, 15 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 13:45, 15 May 20201,322 × 2,155 (1.55 MB)CopyfraudBritish Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1773 #10,134/12,043

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