Early Indonesian commerce: a study of the origins of Śrīvijaya

This study is offered as a contribution to the early history of western Indonesia. It describes the economic background to the rise of the south-eastern Sumatran empire of Srivijaya in the second half of the seventh century A.D. Srivijaya played an im- portant part in medieval Asian trade for more than five hundred years, and, after its resurrection by historians in modern times, has become famous in Indonesian history and especially among Indonesians, who honour it as a great naval power and the earliest empire in their national history. Frontmatter Abbreviations (page 11) 1 Some problems of Srivijayan history (page 15) 2 Early Asian trade routes and South East Asia (page 31) 3 A glimpse of western Indonesia in the third century A.D. (page 49) 4 Early Indonesian trade with India (page 63) 5 The development of Asian maritime trade from the fourth to the sixth century (page 71) 6 The vintage texts (page 87) 7 The pine resin of the southern ocean (page 95) 8 The guggulu of the southern ocean (page 111) 9 The 'Persian' trade (page 129) 10 Shippers of the 'Persian' cargoes (page 139) 11 Early 'tributary' kingdoms of western Indonesia (page 159) 12 Isolated coasts in western Indonesia during the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. (page 173) 13 The favoured coast of early Indonesian commerce (page 197) 14 The heritage and prospects of Srivijaya (page 229) AppendicesA The Lo yang chia lan chi as a source on Ko-ying (page 255) B Yeh-t'iao and P'i-ch'ien (page 259) C Chinese transcriptions of the names of the tributary kingdoms (page 261) Notes (page 263) Maps (page 351) Glossary of Chinese characters (page 357) Glossary of Chinese texts (page 365) Bibliography (page 367) Index (page 387)