Author: Om Prakash
Publisher: Manohar
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 426
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8173045380
Description
The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the India Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways.
The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses ho over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of thee interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period.
This collection of essays will be of interest to the historians of Indian and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.