DeclarationAcknowledgementsNote on Conventions usedIntroductionChapter One: Robert CowanI – John Cowan, (? – 1733), and Ulster BackgroundII – Robert Cowan and Lisbon, c. 1710-19III – Cowan’s Early Patronage CircleChapter Two: Goa and Surat, 1721-2I – Cowan’s Personal Experience at GoaII – The Treaty NegotiationsIII – The Anglo-Portuguese Expedition of 1721IV – Robert Cowan and his Posting to Surat, Apr.- Aug. 1722Chapter Three: Mocha, 1724-7I – The Mocha Coffee Market and Company TradeII – Cowan’s Personal Experience of MochaIII – Cowan’s Personal Finances and Trade 1724-7IV – Cowan’s Interpersonal NetworkV – The East India Company Withdrawal from MochaChapter Four: Bombay, 1728-35, Part II – East India Company Trade in the Western OceanII – The Bombay Military and Power ProjectionIII – Cowan and Anglo-Portuguese RelationsChapter Five: Bombay, 1728-35, Part III – Cowan’s Interpersonal NetworkII – Cowan and Company Politics in LondonIII – Company Politics in the Western Presidency 1733-4Chapter Six: Cowan’s Return to England and Legacy, 1735-39I – Cowan’s Private AccountsII – Cowan and the Diamond TradeIII – Cowan’s life in England and WillIV – Court Pleadings and Cowan’s LegacyConclusionGlossaryAppendix OneRecipients of Correspondence from Robert Cowan during his time in India, 1719-35Appendix TwoDraft Articles of Alliance for the Anglo-Portuguese Expedition of 1721BibliographyManuscript SourcesBritish LibraryNational Archives, KewPublic Record Office of Northern Ireland, BelfastPrimary Printed SourcesSecondary SourcesElectronic ResourcesIn the early eighteenth century, the Indian Ocean was a dynamic crossroads of commerce, politics, and shifting power. European trading companies, Indigenous rulers and polities, and long-established merchant networks all competed and collaborated across a region stretching from the Red Sea to the South China Sea. This book explores that world through the remarkable career of one man: Sir Robert Cowan, an Irishman who rose from provincial origins in Derry to become Governor of Bombay and one of the East India Company’s most influential servants.Drawing on Cowan’s extraordinarily rich archive, one of the most extensive personal collections surviving for any Company servant, this book follows his journey from Derry to Bombay, and all stops in between. Through his letters, accounts, and private dealings, we see not only the daily realities of Company rule but also the vibrant network of personal relationships, patronage ties, and commercial opportunities that shaped life in the early modern Indian Ocean world. Cowan’s pursuit of wealth, his role in diplomacy and security, and his navigation of both Company policy and private trade reveal the blurred lines between public duty and personal ambition that defined the age.Intended for readers interested in the history of empire, maritime trade, and the East India Company, this book offers a fresh perspective on a formative period in the Indian Ocean. By using Cowan’s life and career as a lens, it illuminates the human connections and competing interests that underpinned the expansion of colonial power, and places Irish involvement in empire at the centre of British early modern colonial history.