Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co Ltd

Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co Ltd

The founder of the 'British India Steam Navigation Company' (BI) was William Mackinnon (b.1823-d.1893) who, in partnership with William Mackenzie (ca.1810-d.1853) operated as a general merchant near Calcutta. In the mid- 1850s Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Company secured the East India Company's mail contract between Calcutta and Rangoon and founded the Calcutta & Burmah Steam Navigation Company Ltd, registered in Glasgow in 1856, with a capital of £35,000 .

Within five years of its foundation, the company had expanded considerably: from Burma, its ships were serving Penang and Singapore, while dozens of small ports along the Indian coast were being opened up to large-scale traffic by its service between Calcutta and Bombay. A mail contract to cover the whole of this route was being negotiated, and a similar contract up and down the Persian Gulf was being contemplated by the Government. In 1861 Mackinnon raised £400,000 to establish the 'British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd', and ordered six larger ships. The new company, which absorbed the Calcutta & Burmah Company, was registered in Scotland in 1862 .

The original 'Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Company' in Calcutta continued to exist and operate as BI’s managing agents, a function which they were to fulfil for nigh on a hundred years. BI secured a network of mail contract services – Bombay/Karachi, Bombay/Gulf, Bombay/Calcutta and Madras/Rangoon – which became the backbone of i tsoperations until the opening of the Suez Canal<ref name=POHeritage>.