Portuguese Trade in Asia Under the Habsburgs, 1580–1640

Portuguese Trade in Asia Under the Habsburgs, 1580–1640
Author: James C. Boyajian
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2008-02-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780801887543

This fascinating history reassesses the consequences of Portugal's flourishing private trade with Asia, including increased tensions between the growing urban merchant class and the still-dominant landed aristocracy. James C. Boyajian shows how Portuguese-Asian commerce formed part of a global trading network that linked not only Europe and Asia but also—for the first time—Asia, West Africa, Brazil, and Spanish America. He also argues that, contrary to previous scholarly opinion, nearly half of the Portuguese-Asian trade was controlled by New Christians—descendants of Iberian Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in the 1490s.

European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India

European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India
Author: Om Prakash
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 1998-06-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521257589

European traders first appeared in India at the end of the fifteenth century and began exporting goods to Europe as well as to other parts of Asia. In a detailed analysis of the trading operations of European corporate enterprises such as the English and Dutch East India Companies, as well as those of private European traders, this book considers how, over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy expanded and was integrated into the pre-modern world economy as a result of these interactions. The book also describes how this essentially market-determined commercial encounter changed in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the colonial relationship between Britain and the subcontinent was established. By bringing together and examining the existing literature, the author provides a fascinating overview of the impact of European trade on the pre-modern Indian economy which will be of value to students of Indian, European and colonial history.

Feeding Globalization

Feeding Globalization
Author: Jane Hooper
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0821445944

Between 1600 and 1800, the promise of fresh food attracted more than seven hundred English, French, and Dutch vessels to Madagascar. Throughout this period, European ships spent months at sea in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but until now scholars have not fully examined how crews were fed during these long voyages. Without sustenance from Madagascar, European traders would have struggled to transport silver to Asia and spices back to Europe. Colonies in Mozambique, Mauritius, and at the Cape relied upon frequent imports from Madagascar to feed settlers and slaves. In Feeding Globalization, Jane Hooper draws on challenging and previously untapped sources to analyze Madagascar’s role in provisioning European trading networks within and ultimately beyond the Indian Ocean. The sale of food from the island not only shaped trade routes and colonial efforts but also encouraged political centralization and the slave trade in Madagascar. Malagasy people played an essential role in supporting European global commerce, with far-reaching effects on their communities. Feeding Globalization reshapes our understanding of Indian Ocean and global history by insisting historians should pay attention to the role that food played in supporting other exchanges.

Beyond Empires: Global, Self-Organizing, Cross-Imperial Networks, 1500-1800

Beyond Empires: Global, Self-Organizing, Cross-Imperial Networks, 1500-1800
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2016-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004304150

Beyond Empires explores the complexity of empire building from the point of view of self-organized networks, rather than from the point of view of the central state. This focus takes readers into a world of cooperative strategies worldwide that emphasises the role played by individuals, rather than institutions, in the overseas expansion and consequent development of European empires. While unveiling the practices and mechanisms of cooperation between individuals, this volume show cases the role played by individuals for the creation, development and maintenance of self-organized networks in the Early Modern period. Applying new conceptual and theoretical inputs, this book values the contributions of different ‘worlds’, bringing to the fore the interactions of Europeans and non-Europeans, Christians and non-Christians, people living within-, on- or just outside the border of empire.

On the Economic Encounter Between Asia and Europe, 1500-1800

On the Economic Encounter Between Asia and Europe, 1500-1800
Author: Om Prakash
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000943356

The history of the economic contacts between Asia and Europe dates back to at least the early years of the Common Era. But it was only after the overcoming of the transport technology barrier to the growth of trade between the two continents following the discovery by the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century of the all-water route to the East Indies that these contacts became regular and quantitatively significant. The Portuguese were joined at the beginning of the 17th century by the Dutch and the English East India companies. The Europeans operated in the Indian Ocean alongside the Indian and other Asian merchants with no special privileges being available to them. The present collection of essays by Professor Om Prakash first deals with the Indian merchants’ participation in the Indian Ocean trade on the eve of the Europeans’ arrival in the Ocean. The subsequent essays include a discussion of the Portuguese involvement in the Euro-Asian and the Indian Ocean trade. Attention is then turned to the trading activities of the Dutch and the English East India companies. The volume also contains essays on textile manufacturing and trade as well as on coinage and wages in India. The concluding essay deals with trade and politics in the province of Bengal.

Free Trade and Free Ports in the Mediterranean

Free Trade and Free Ports in the Mediterranean
Author: Giulia Delogu
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2024-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040093493

How did free trade emerge in early-modern times? How did the Mediterranean as a specific region – with its own historical characteristics – produce a culture in which the free port appeared? What was the relation between the type of free trade created in early-modern Italy and the development of global trade and commercial competition between states for hegemony in the eighteenth century? And how did the position of the free port, originally a Mediterranean ‘invention’, develop over the course of time? The contributions to this volume address these questions and explain the institutional genealogy of the free port. Free Trade and Free Ports in the Mediterranean analyses the atypical history and conditions of the Mediterranean region in contradistinction with other regions as an explanation for how and why free ports arose there. This volume engages with the diffusion of free ports from a Mediterranean to a global phenomenon, whilst staying focused on how this diffusion was experienced in the Mediterranean itself. The contributions to this volume bring together the traditional issues of religious openness and tolerance in physically separated areas and the role of consuls and governors, via fiscal techniques, architectural and administrative aspects, with questions about geopolitical balance and primacy. The book will be of interest to scholars in a wide range of historical sub-disciplines (early modern, Mediterranean, global economic, political, and institutional, just to mention a few) and to students wishing to perfect their knowledge of the Mediterranean and its global interconnections, and of the origins of free trade.

The Economic History of India

The Economic History of India
Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2023-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 9356401888

The economic history of early India is a rich and diverse area of study, covering agricultural developments, trade, markets, occupation and professional groups, urbanization and the institutions that govern the economy. Recent research has expanded our understanding of the processes of transformation of the economy in different temporal contexts within the Indian sub-continent. They have particularly led us to explore connected histories given the trans-continental trading networks and movements of people from very early times. This volume seeks to draw attention to this vast and unexplored terrain in the economic history of early India, by bringing together essays on a new and rich historiography. Essays in the volume cover neglected regions, economic processes and structures. Scholars have looked at questions of settlements, crops that were cultivated and market orientation. Essays cover material culture and provide insights into how early Indians lived, what kinds of activities they were engaged in, and how they organised their production activities within and outside domestic spaces. Further the volume bring new insights on hierarchy of settlement types, nature of exchange, and the significance of a nodal site in exchange networks. Maritime history as well as the understanding of trade in its varied forms and manifestations are covered in several essays.

The English Gentleman Merchant at Work

The English Gentleman Merchant at Work
Author: Søren Mentz
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9788772899091

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, servants in the East India Company established a private English trading network that was successful and highly competitive. How was this development maintained seeing that the group of private merchants was constantly changing? The answer must be found in the close ties connecting Madras with the City of London. London was the financial centre of the British Empire as well as the generator of overseas expansion. Colonial societies in the West Indies and North America were economically and socially dependent upon the metropolis and so was Madras. This book places the activities of the private merchants in Madras within the framework of the first British Empire. It focuses on a hitherto neglected field of study, uncovering a private trading network, a diaspora, built on gentlemanly capitalism, trust and ethnicity.

Between Empires

Between Empires
Author: Christopher Ebert
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004167684

This study examines the wholesale trade in sugar from Brazil to markets in Europe. The principal market was northwestern Europe, but for much of the time between 1550 and 1630 Portugal was drawn into the conflict between Habsburg Spain and the Dutch Republic. In spite of political obstacles, the trade persisted because it was not subject to monopolies and was relatively lightly regulated and taxed. The investment structure was highly international, as Portugal and northwestern Europe exchanged communities of merchants who were mobile and inter-imperial in both their composition and organization. This conclusion challenges an imperial or mercantilist perspective of the Atlantic economy in its earliest phases.

Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800

Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800
Author: Francisco Bethencourt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2007-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521846447

A unique overview of Portuguese oceanic expansion between 1400 and 1800, the essays in this volume treat a wide range of subjects - economy and society, politics and institutions, cultural configurations and comparative dimensions - and radically update data and interpretations on the economic and financial trends of the Portuguese Empire. Interregional networks are analysed in a substantial way. Patterns of settlement, political configurations, ecclesiastical structures, and local powers are put in global context. Language and literature, the arts, and science and technology are revisited with refreshing and innovative approaches. The interaction between Portuguese and local people is studied in different contexts, while the entire imperial and colonial culture of the Portuguese world is looked at synthetically for the first time. In short, this book provides a broad understanding of the Portuguese Empire in its first four centuries as a factor in world history and as a major component of European expansion.