Merchants Of Maritime India 1500 1800

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 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 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.

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.

Collection of essays presented at an Indo-French Seminar on "the Bay of Bengal in the Asian Maritime Trade and Cultural Network, 1500-1800" held in New Delhi in December 1994.

This volume discusses the various socio-economic and political processes that evolved over centuries in the vast coastal fringes of India and out of the circuits of the Indian Ocean, ultimately giving it the distinctive consciousness and identity of Maritime India. The book comments on a wide range of issues, including the nature of maritime trade of the Sassanids with India; the impact of maritime trade on the political processes of Goa; the impact of Portuguese commercial expansion on the traditional Muslim merchants of Kerala and the role of private traders in the structure and the functioning of Estado da India.

Professor Arasaratnam has drawn on his own researches into the overseas trade of India and its commercial economy. He supplements this with a thorough study of the current historiography on these themes. The author presents a profile of the maritime region in what is arguably its most dynamic and productive period.