Staying Embedded: The Rocky Existence of an Indigo Maker in Bengal
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| Publication date | 2017 |
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| Book title | Embedding Agricultural Commodities |
| Book subtitle | Using Historical Evidence, 1840s–1940s |
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| Pages (from-to) | 11-29 |
| Publisher | London: Routledge |
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| Abstract |
Thomas Machell was a remarkable character. Born in 1824, he was the son of a Yorkshire parson who wanted him to become a clerk in a mercantile house. But Thomas showed an adventurous streak. Not enamoured with ‘the idea of quill driving in an office’, he decided, at the age of 15, to run away from home to seek his fortune. His ten-year-old brother demanded to be taken along. ‘We walked three hundred miles [to London, Portsmouth and Brighton] and endured considerable hardships before we discovered that we had left our good fortune behind us and that we had better go back and look for it’. After this adventure, Thomas begged his father to send him to Australia ‘where I secretly determined to amass an immense fortune and bring it all home to him’.1 Instead, his father sent him to sea.
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| Document type | Chapter |
| Language | English |
| Published at | https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315579122 |
| Published at | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315579122-2 http://www.willemvanschendel.com/chapters/staying-embedded-the-rocky-existence-of-an-indigo-maker-in-bengal/ |
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