John T Arundel, son of a LMS official, was born in England in 1841. His early work for a London firm with interests in guano, or phosphate, took him into the Pacific. By 1892 Arundel had formed his own company, J T Arundel & Co, which had acquired concessions over a number of islands in what is now Kiribati - Kanton, Enderbury, Gardner, Hull, Flint and Manra (Sydney) - to plant coconuts, make copra and mine phosphate. The Pacific Islands Company Limited (PIC) was formed in May 1897 and, in 1898, took over plantations and trade stores of Henderson & McFarlane Ltd in the mid-Pacific. Lord Stanmore, formerly Sir Arthur Gordon, the first Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, was Chairman of the PIC. Arundel became its vice-chairman. PIC business interests stretched from Mexico to Fiji, with ready markets for copra and phosphate in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Japan and the UK. In 1902 the PIC divested itself of all non-phosphate interests and merged with the Jaluit Gesellschaft of Hamburg, forming the Pacific Phosphate Company Limited (PPC). This new company was granted exclusive rights to mine phosphate on Banaba and Nauru. Phosphate mining ushered in an era of ruthless colonial resource exploitation that effectively dispossessed the indigenous peoples of these islands who were paid minimum annual royalties while the company made millions of pounds in profit. This correspondence documents the early corporate history that eventually led to the environmental devastation of both islands, the diaspora of Banabans to Rabi in Fiji and elsewhere, and the near-bankruptcy of Nauru.

Presscopy letter-books of outward letters from George C Ellis, A F Ellis, H E Denson and J T Arundel of the Australian Office of J T Arundel & Co and the Pacific Islands Co Ltd to business associates mainly in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Some indexed by subject and/or addressee. All arranged chronologically.

See also PMB 1175 & 1176, Pacific Islands Co Ltd & Pacific Phosphate Co Ltd, London and Australian Offices, and PMB 480-495,497-498, for diaries, correspondence and further papers of J T Arundel and A F Ellis. See reel list for further details.