The World Of The Indian Ocean Merchant 1500 1800

This book is a collection of essays of the late Professor Ashin Das Gupta - one of the pioneers of maritime history in India. It is divided into two sections: the first contains the author's general essays and the second deals with the projects on Malabar and Surat. It will interest students and scholars of history, particularly those interested in maritime history of India.

This collection brings together some seminal essays of the late Professor Ashin Das Gupta, one of the pioneers of maritime studies in India. It is organised into two parts: one containing Professor Das Gupta's general essays, and the other his more specific ones on Malabar and Surat. These essays chronicle the rise and fall of Indian port cities and of the communities of merchants who traded from them.

This collection of essays surveys the history of maritime India from 1500 to 1800, focusing on trade and economic history as well as on the activities of European merchants and local traders. It convincingly argues that even though the Europeans often traversed the Indian Ocean to trade, their presence was not crucial to India's economic stability.

The focus of this volume is the rise and fall of the Indian maritime merchant in the early modern period: the heyday of Moghul Surat, the appearance of a group of independent merchant shipowners, and their eclipse at the end of the period in the face of European competition and monopolies. Much of the evidence for the activity of these Indian merchants comes from the records of the Dutch and English East India Companies, as well as the papers of English private merchants, and this is carefully assessed by Professor Das Gupta in these articles. He is also concerned to set the picture thus gained in the context of the trade of the Indian Ocean region as a whole, and to relate it to the questions of continuity and change raised by Van Leur.

This Omnibus Brings Together Two Of Ashin Das Gupta`S Works-Malabar In Asian Trade 1740-1800 And Indian Merchants And The Decline Of Surat. It Has A Detailed Introduction By P.J. Marshall And A Memorial Essay By Irfan Habib. Useful For Students And Historian Working On Maritime Trade In Indian History And Interested General Readers.

The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways. The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans' commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses how over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of these interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period. This collection of essays will be of interest of the historians of India and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.

This enthralling book offers a new approach to Indian economic history, placing trade and mercantile activity in the region within a global framework.

This book charts the convergence of science, culture, and politics across Portugal's empire, showing how a global geographical concept was born. In accessible, narrative prose, this book explores the unexpected forms that science took in the early modern world. It highlights little-known linkages between Asia and the Atlantic world.

Gaining prominence as a seaport under the Ottomans in the mid-1500s, the city of Mocha on the Red Sea coast of Yemen pulsed with maritime commerce. Its very name became synonymous with Yemen's most important revenue-producing crop -- coffee. After the imams of the Qasimi dynasty ousted the Ottomans in 1635, Mocha's trade turned eastward toward the Indian Ocean and coastal India. Merchants and shipowners from Asian, African, and European shores flocked to the city to trade in Arabian coffee and aromatics, Indian textiles, Asian spices, and silver from the New World. Nancy Um tells how and why Mocha's urban shape and architecture took the forms they did. Mocha was a hub in a great trade network encompassing overseas cities, agricultural hinterlands, and inland market centers. All these connected places, together with the functional demands of commerce in the city, the social stratification of its residents, and the imam's desire for wealth, contributed to Mocha's architectural and urban form. Eventually, in the mid-1800s, the Ottomans regained control over Yemen and abandoned Mocha as their coastal base. Its trade and its population diminished and its magnificent buildings began to crumble, until few traces are left of them today. This book helps bring Mocha to life once again.