Author: Ashin Das Gupta
Editor(s): P J Marshall / Irfan Habib
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 602
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195666704
Description
Ashin Das Gupta pioneered the field of Indian Ocean studies of the period from 1500 to 1800. This omnibus brings together two of his classic works exploring the complex reasons behind the decline of Indian merchants in the eighteenth century.
In his introduction to this edition, P J Marshall provides a detailed overview of the two works and presents Ashin Das Gupta and his seminal contributions to readers. Irfan Habib's memorial essay contextualizes Professor Das Gupta's work within the shifts in the history of the subcontinent from the vantage point of the maritime historian.
MALABAR IN ASIAN TRADE 1740-1800 traces three main trends in eighteenth-century Malabar: the growth of the southern state of Travancore into a strong economic power under Martanda Varma; the decline of the Dutch who lost all hope of commercial supremacy; and the collapse of the independent merchant class of the coast. This is a pioneering work that made historians think afresh about the history of Indian trade.
INDIAN MERCHANTS AND THE DECLINE OF SURAT is a product of in-depth research using English, Dutch, and French sources as well as Persian chronicles and Gujarati texts to chart the decline of the port city of Surat and place it in the wider context of the fall of the Mughal and Persian empires.
Elegantly written, combining narrative skill with insightful analysis, this volume will be very useful for historians and students working on maritime trade in Indian history, as well as for scholars of politics, sociology, and economics, and the interested general reader.
REVIEWS
Ashin Das Gupta provided us with essential building blocks and arguments to fashion the commercial history of pre-colonial and early colonial India. These have already stood the test of time and will become more valuable yet as Indian history and Indian Ocean history become richer and more diversified.
-Chris Bayly, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Distinguished interpreter of early modern India's maritime history…was a man of extraordinary intellect…His studies were marked by insight and a clarity of writing rarely encountered in our field.
-Frank F Conlon, University of Washington
Contents
INTRODUCTION - P J Marshall
Reading Ashin Dasgupta - Irfan Habib
MALAAR IN ASIAN TRADE 1740-1800
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Map: The Coast of Malabar, about A D 1740
The Crisis in Malabar
The Monopoly of Travancore
Jan Company in Asian Trade
The Medieval Merchant
The Close of the Century
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index
INDIAN MERCHANTS AND THE DECLINE OF SURAT C 1700-1750
Acknowledgments
Preface to 1994 Reprint
Introduction: Initiations and Afterthought
The Blessed Port of the Mughals
Mulla Abdul Ghafur
The Logic of the Decline
Arms and the Merchant
Episode in Decline
Appendix A : Some Data on Indian Shipping from Dutch Sources
Appendix B : Sources for the Study
Index