Century in Malabar – The History of Peirce Leslie and Co., Ltd, 1862-1962

[1962]. 158pp plus several black and white plate illustrations. In red cloth covered boards with gilt titles on spine. 8vo. Boards a little faded, rounded at corners and spine ends, front board a tad loosened. Endpapers a little smudged, pages creamy. In its original worn and torn dust jacket, cracked along leading edge, rubbed at edges and spine ends, shelf worn. A history of the Peirce Leslie Co., an old British firm in India, founded in Cochin in the late 1850s, which went on to become one of Independent India’s leading commerce houses; the book, written when Independence was the word of the decade in India, is revealing of the relationships between British businessmen and those of former colonists, as well as the passion for independence and the context in which the Company operated. Hard to find title.