A Voyage To Surat In The Year 1689

Giving A Large Account Of The City And Its Inhabitants And Of The English Factory There. With A Foreword By H.G. Rawlinson.

This volume takes a pan-Indian view of different professional groups and service providers mainly based in towns. While Persian texts provide limited information on the subject, European sources in the form of travelogues, letters, memoirs and official reports unfold an interesting panorama on the subject. Here focus has been on the seventeenth century, as some prominent European share holders’ Companies established their warehouses-cum-residential complexes in India in this very century. Officials of these Companies sent to India or elsewhere, maintained proper records of their transactions and interaction with the state officials, common people, servants inside the household and outside, and through their reports attracted many European freebooters also to have a firsthand experience of the East. Here from, we get numerous details on the social life, working conditions, wages and other aspects of life of people who earned their livelihood through manual labour, as conditions in India appeared novel to them and they meticulously recorded everything with much interest. Their information is corroborated with the Indian sources. In both types of sources – Persian and European – artisans, labourers and service providers have generally been projected as ‘poor’, ‘miserable’ and ‘wretched’; who faced exploitation at all levels. Still, their contribution to the economy and society was im­perative. Aspects of life of such people deserve a detailed discussion as this volume amply proves. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

A social history of sea travel from the passengers' perspective, encompassing all walks of life and vessels departing from a variety of UK ports. Simon Wills tells the stories of ordinary people who travelled by sea between 1600 and 1940, from early Ameri