Merchants and Ports in the Indian Ocean World : Across Sea and Land

The Indian Ocean world has a rich history of socio-economic and cultural exchanges across time and space. This book and its companion, Connecting the Indian Ocean World explore these connections around the wider Indian Ocean world. The book looks at the extensive range of maritime networks that crisscrossed pre-modern Asia and the Indian ocean region connecting ports, peoples and cultures. It explores the connected histories of these regions and the movement of merchants, commodities and money which created the multi-cultural and cosmopolitan port cities like Surat and Nagasaki. With contributions from Indian and Japanese scholars, the volume analyses travelers’ accounts and trade routes between Japan and India offering insights into how maritime movement shaped culture, politics, and the social life of people in the most populated and production regions of the world in the early modern period. Rich in archival material, this book will be of interest for scholars and researchers of Indian ocean history, maritime history, economic and commercial history, Asian and South Asian history, and social anthropology. The Indian Ocean world has a rich history of socio-economic and cultural exchanges across time and space. This book and its companion, Connecting the Indian Ocean World explore these connections around the wider Indian Ocean world.The book looks at the extensive range of maritime networks that criss-crossed pre-modern Asia and the Indian Ocean region connecting ports, peoples and cultures. It explores the connected histories of these regions and the movement of merchants, commodities and money which created the multi-cultural and cosmopolitan port cities like Surat and Nagasaki. With contributions from Indian and Japanese scholars, the volume analyses travellers'accounts and trade routes between Japan and India, offering insights into how maritime movement shaped culture, politics and the social life of people in the most populated and productive regions of the world in the early modern period.Rich in archival material, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Indian Ocean history, maritime history, economic and commercial history, Asian and South Asian history and social anthropology. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Maps List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction Part 1 India and Japan 1 Trade and Culture in the Seventeenth Century: the Japanese Traveller Tenjiku Tokubei’s Idea of India 2 Textiles in the Pre-Modern Economies of India and Japan: a Comparative Study 3 Gold Trade Between Japan and India by the Dutch East India Company 4 Surat and Nagasaki: a comparison of two international port cities in the seventeenth century Part 2 Merchants and Trading Networks 5 Roads and Security Between Agra and Surat During the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries 6 Merchants of the Coromandel Coast in the Seventeenth Century: From Masulipatnam to Fort St. David 7 Trade of Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur: Textiles, Spices and Horses (1489–1686) Index