George Baldwin (diplomat)

George Baldwin
Lithograph of George Baldwin by Joseph Bouvier (1780)
British Consul-General in Egypt
In office 1785–1796
Personal details
Born	May 1744 Borough, London
Died	19 February 1826 Earl's Court, London
Spouse(s)	Jane Maltass

George Baldwin was a British merchant, writer and diplomat of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries whose career was principally based in Egypt, where he established valuable trade links for the East India Company and negotiated directly with the Ottoman governors. Despite repeated warnings of the importance of Egypt to links with British India, his advice was ignored and thus when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798 the British were ill-placed to respond directly. In 1801 he assisted the British counter-invasion of Egypt and later returned to Britain with his wife Jane Maltass, a famous society beauty. Although a highly successful merchant and diplomat, Baldwin found himself a subject of ridicule on his return to Britain for his belief in the healing power of magnets, then widely considered a pseudoscience. He retired to Earl's Court in London and died there in 1826.

George Baldwin was born in May 1744 (although some sources give 1743), the son of hop merchant William Baldwin of Borough, London. Aged 16 he was sent to join his brother in Cyprus, where he was consul-general and three years later was sent to Acre.

During his trading operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Baldwin became increasingly aware of the political and commercial structures of the Middle East, and in 1768, he traveled to Britain to seek permission to investigate the possibilities of trade running from British India across Egypt via the Red Sea. Although this route was nominally blocked off to non-Muslims, developing trade would be possible if it brought profit to the rulers of Egypt. On his brother's death, Baldwin returned to the Mediterranean and took up his post on Cyprus. In 1773, Mehmed Bey summoned him to Cairo and encouraged British shipping to use Suez, declaring that he would cut a canal from Suez to the Nile for ships to pass directly from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. He was also well received in Constantinople.