 In June 1857, while dining at their club, three leading businessmen of that time, J. Oughterson, C.E. Mirus and R.H. Pierce discussed the need to fulfill a long standing desire of Cochin that of establishing a Chamber of Commerce. Consequently, later that year, on the 28th of December, nine European merchants, representing a sizeable section of trade, decided to set up a Chamber of Commerce in Cochin on the lines of those established earlier in Bombay, Madras and Bengal. |
| Situated at Fort Cochin then part of the Madras Presidency the Chamber has the singular distinction of being the oldest mofussil Chamber representing European interests in South India.The first Chairman of the Chamber was Mr. James Oughterson. Though the rules of the Chamber did not withhold membership to the native merchants it did stipulate that only Europeans engaged in mercantile produce of the Malabar Coast may be admitted as members of the Chamber.Later, this rule was amended to admit Indian firms of standing as regular or associate members of the Chamber.At the Chamber’s meeting held on 11th September 1917, new members were elected to the Chamber through a secret ballot.On June 11 1962, the Chamber shifted to its present address on the Willingdon Island. The inauguration was done by Mr. H. Mackay Tallack the then President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India of which the Chamber was inducted a member in 1919.On August 18, 1963, the name of the Cochin Chamber of Commerce was changed to The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry. | |
