The EIC's Forgotten Enclave: Bencoolen and the Pepper Trade

Long before Singapore, the East India Company pinned its hopes on a swampy settlement on Sumatra's west coast: Bencoolen (now Bengkulu). For over 150 years, this backwater outpost was the Company's only direct source of pepper, a spice that drove European expansion long before tea or opium. Lucas and Luna explore how the British ended up there in 1685, the brutal climate that killed half of every garrison, the fort they built—Fort Marlborough—and the uneasy trade relationships with local rulers like the Sultan of Bencoolen. They also touch on the enduring legacy of the settlement, which remained in British hands until the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty, when it was swapped for the Dutch colony of Malacca. This episode digs into a neglected chapter of Company history: the gritty, disease-ridden reality of a single-commodity colony that never turned a profit but stubbornly refused to die. #EastIndiaCompany #Bencoolen #Sumatra #PepperTrade #FortMarlborough #BritishEmpire #AngloDutchTreaty1824 #SpiceTrade #ColonialHistory #Bengkulu #IndonesiaHistory #17thCentury #18thCentury #StamfordRaffles #SultanOfBencoolen #CompanyBahadur #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo