author
Charles Marjoribanks
1794–1833
A Scottish merchant, politician, and East India Company figure, he is remembered today not just for Parliament but for a rare text explaining Britain to Chinese readers in the early nineteenth century. His life connected Edinburgh, Canton, and Westminster at a moment when trade and empire were reshaping the world.
1 Audiobook
Brief Account of the English Character
by Charles Marjoribanks
About the author
Born in 1794, Charles Albany Marjoribanks was the son of Sir John Marjoribanks of Lees, a prominent Scottish politician and lord provost of Edinburgh. As a young man he worked in China for the East India Company, building the experience in trade and diplomacy that would define much of his short career.
Marjoribanks later became a director of the East India Company and, in 1832, was elected MP for Berwickshire. Although he served in Parliament only briefly before his death on December 3, 1833, he was active during an important period of debate over the Company and Britain's role overseas.
He also has an unusual place in literary and cross-cultural history. A work attributed to him, Brief Account of the English Character, was prepared for Chinese readers and translated by Robert Morrison, offering a compact early nineteenth-century portrait of British manners and society from the viewpoint of a company official in Canton.