INDIAN OCEANIC TRADE; EUROPEAN COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE- KERALA, COROMANDEL COAST; WESTERN

INDIA

Petunia Fernandes

The Indian merchant investing in the trade of the Indian Ocean was the most important figure in the country’s
overseas trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was only in the eighteenth century that the Indian
trade declined and made way for European carriers and trade with Europe. India’s mercantile trade, in the
fifteenth century, was largely controlled by Gujarati Muslim merchants who were deployed in the Middle Indian
Ocean and dominated the sea routes between Cambay and Malacca. In the west, Indian ships engaged in a vibrant
trade with the ports of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and this trade was controlled by Arab ship owners. In the
east, Chinese vessels dominated the waters between Southern China and Malaya, while Malay and Javanese crafts
were dominant in Indonesian waters. This loosely-jointed structure was the basis of Indian overseas trade for the
ensuing 300 years. Notably, there was a clear distinction between India’s shipping interests which were dominated
largely by the Muslims and the shore-based merchants who were feeding the shipping lines were pre-dominantly
Hindu. This arrangement continued throughout the period. However, as a result of European intervention in the
Indian Ocean trade, the deployment of Indian shipping changed from time to time, the fortunes of particular ports
and their hinterlands fluctuated and Indian maritime trade on a whole waxed and waned within this structure
evolved by tradition. Initially, European trade in the Indian Ocean remained a part of this tradition, but situations
changed when gradually these powers began to establish their empires. This gradual change in the outline of the
of the Indian commercial structure in the Indian Ocean can be found in the documentation left by the Portuguese
and their north European successors as they took over trade in the Indian Ocean. It is on the basis of these
Portuguese chronicles of the early years of the sixteenth century that we have an introduction to the previous
hundred years.

The most important development in the history of the Indian Ocean in the fifteenth century was the emergence of
Malacca as an entrepot where Indian, Chinese and Javanese met to exchange their wares. As mentioned above,
among Indians, shipping was dominated by Gujarati Muslim merchants, while a large number of Hindu merchants
visited the port from the Coromandel Coast while other Indians came from Bengal. Arab and Persian merchants
journeyed to Cambay to take ship to Malacca but direct sailings between Malacca and the Red Sea were known.
The main aim of both the Indians and Chinese was to buy spices from the Indonesians with some trade taking place
among them. Indian merchants purchased cloves, nutmeg and mace and even Chinese porcelain and silks. Indian
textiles was the principal commodity that was in demand in the Indonesian islands, probably did not sell in China
and were also purchased by either Japanese or people from islands near Japan. The Chinese demand for pepper
was considerable and part of their purchases of pepper from Malacca may have come from Malabar. Chinese
merchants were interested in Indian opium and sandalwood, various types of incense and cornelian from Cambay.

However, due to a lot of complications in the China Seas, trade between India and China wasn’t so considerable.
The energetic emperor Yung-lo (1402-1424) took a keen and personal interest in asserting Chinese presence in the
Indian Ocean. Between 1405-1433, various expeditions were led by the Muslim eunuch Cheng-ho in the Indian
Ocean to encourage the states in the Indian Ocean to trade with China and to discipline private Chinese merchants
who belonged to a pirate fringe. This was maritime policy was stopped in the 1420s due to Mongol invasions as
also the raids carried out by the Wako pirates based in Japan. Despite all of this private Chinese merchants
persisted in their trade but their trade was confined to the sea lanes of Malacca. The Indian ships were not sturdy
enough to withstand the typhoons of the China Sea nor adequately armed to deal with the Wako marauders and
there wasn’t much Chinese demand for Indian goods. However, Indian textiles did clothe both the rich and the
poor in South-East Asia.

There was no direct Indian shipping in the Spice Islands. By the end of the fifteenth century these islanders
specialized almost exclusively in the production of spicery and depended on Indian textiles and Javanese grain,
which was conveyed to them via Javanese shipping. The southern Javanese port of Grise, established a monopoly
in the spice trade to Malacca. Indian merchants who had settled in Grise were involved with the Javanese in
managing the spice monopoly.

In the west, Indian trade flowed along the two established maritime channels, one through the Red Sea, Cairo and
Alexandria and the other through the Persian Gulf and up through Basra and Baghdad. At this time and afterwards,
Indian merchants bought their wares to two different markets in the Red Sea. One was the market of the hajj to
which long-distance caravans converged from the entire area now known as the Middle East and Muslim pilgrims
arrived from the Indian Ocean shores as well. It was through this belt that Indian produce and goods transshipped
in India found their way in the European markets. Besides this, Indian commodities were sold in a regional market
which included the towns of Hijaz and Yemen, ports like Suakin, Massowa and Zeila on the African coast of the Red
Sea and the towns of Hadramaut coast like Shihr, Kish and Zofar.

The carrying trade between the Red Sea and the west coast of India was dominated by a Cairo-based mercantile
organization called the Karim but they had no monopoly over the traffic. R.B. Serjeant has shown evidence from
contemporary Arabic chronicles written in Hadramaut that Indian vessels called regularly at South Arabian ports
and Gujarat Baniyas had settled down there. However, the Karim that had come into existence late in the twelfth
century were already under serious pressure towards the close of the fifteenth century, before the Portuguese
appeared in the Indian Ocean. It has in fact been suggested that the Karim ceased to exist as early as the 1470s.

There was no such dramatic changes in the Persian Gulf route where Homruz had become the center of a
miniature maritime empire, commanding the allegiance of Muscat and stretching till Basra. Even here Indian
merchants settled down. Since Persia was in a state of political confusion, the interiors were closed off for trade.
Therefore, the trade of the Gulf was more of a transit trade.

In East Africa, Gujarati shipping called at Kilwa, Mombasa, Malindi and Pate and obtained gold and ivory in
exchange for textiles. These Swahili city-states were controlled by Arabs even though some claimed Persian
origins. This trade was done immediately before the Portuguese came upon the scene and emphasized the
cooperation between Indians and Arabs in the western Indian Ocean.

Just as Indian merchants were welcome to settle down in Arab territories. Arab merchants were welcome to settle
down along the west coast of India. Cambay, which was by far the most important Indian port of the period, had
large colonies of Arab and Persian merchants dating back to the tenth century. But by the fifteenth century, this
port had silted up which led to looking for other ports to replace Cambay. Diu, under the able administration of
Malik Ayaz emerged as an important center for the Red Sea trade, while Surat, under Malik Gopi, hoped for the
destruction of Diu to safeguard its growing prosperity based on the same commerce. Further down in Konkan and
north Kanara the four roadsteads of Chaul, Dabhol, Goa and Bhatkal served the needs of the sultanates of
Ahmadnagar and Bijapur and the empire of Vijayanagara. In Malabar the dominating presence belonged to Calicut
which was the principal rendezvous for the Karimi merchants in India. On the eastern side, Pulicat and Negapatam
were the principal ports of southern Coromandel. It is possible that Masulipatam in North Coromandel had
established itself but it was soon going to do so. There was some obscurity about the Bengali ports of which
Satgaon and Chittagong were the principal ones but Sripur also began to function during this time. Apart from this,
there were roadsteads which had the function of assembling and distributing the exports and imports of India’s
maritime trade.

India’s exports to the markets of the Indian Ocean was principally textiles, the mass of it was of the coarser kind.
India also exported common foods like rice and pulses, wheat and oil. Bengal, Orissa and the Kanara coast to the
north of Malabar were the major grain-surplus areas. The pattern of Indian exports remained constant. Besides the
items mentioned here, Bengal exported sugar and raw silk, Gujarat exported raw cotton, while Malabar sent
pepper. Indian imports, however, were limited to bullion, spices and horses, besides minor items like tin from
Malaya, ivory from eastern Africa and dyewoods in the main from the Persian Gulf. Since, the Persian Gulf yielded
a rich bounty of precious metals, India depended on these markets for the inflow of much-needed currency.
If we now turn our attention to the Indian merchants who travelled across the seas, they can be put under three
categories. First, the ‘substantial merchants’ who travelled in style with valuable cargoes and establishment of
domestics, claiming and obtaining special treatment on board as well as in Indian Ocean ports. Secondly, the
merchants who travelled as agents of their principals, who were not on board as they were either managing
business at home or were travelling elsewhere. The third were the small merchants who provided a ship with the
majority of its passengers. The world on board an Indian vessel reflected Indian society. Merchants interested in
foreign trade were overwhelmingly small men but each Indian port was dominated by a few wealthy traders. One
of the most striking features of the Indian merchants was the combination of a merchant with his broker.

If one has to look at the role of the government in this trade, it seldom interfered in the affairs of the merchants
provided there was peace at the ports and the official revenues were smoothly gathered in. Golconda, Bijapur,
Vijayanagara or the Mughal Empire had no serious interest in maritime trade and usually relegated all matters
relating to the sea to their local administrations. The total absence of an Indian navy, willing and able to protect
India’s considerable commercial marine interest was a natural outcome pf this attitude. Only the coastal state of
Travancore established a state monopoly in trade during the 1730s. The Indian merchant therefore neither
enjoyed the patronage of his state nor did he go in fear of his government.

The Indian merchant lived in a keenly competitive world but accepted important social limits to competition.
Business was organized round the family with an occasional trading partner from the same social group. Instances
of Hindus and Muslims working together in close business relationships were known but unusual.

The emergence of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires in the western Indian Ocean which was a major
political occurrence set a new scene for India’s maritime trade. In India, the Mughals linked the eastern and
western seaboard with the heartland of the subcontinent and provided further links for the overland trade to
western and central Asia. The Safavids, similarly established a better-regulated hinterland for the Gulf ports and
transport in Persia. This emphasis on the Red Sea was a result of the diversion of Indian shipping from Malacca.
This decline was caused by the Portuguese occupation of the port in 1511.

On the whole, trade in the Indian Ocean remained firmly in the hands of the Indian ship owning merchants with an
occasional flutter and only in the early sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries did this change when the
Europeans threatened to cut in. In fact, the scene upon the Indian Ocean altered greatly during the sixteenth
century by the establishment of formidable empires in its western regions, the development of the Portuguese
maritime empire and by the virtual disappreance of the Ming imperial presence in the eastern seas.

The appearance of the Portuguese on the coast of Malabar towards the end of the fifteenth century marked the
beginning of change in trade relations in the Indian Ocean. Their initial purpose was to look for Christians and
spices, as addressed to some Tunisian merchants present in Calicut. Two years later, when Vasco da Gama
returned to Lisbon, bearing the news of his discoveries, King Manuel declared himself, in a letter written to the
Cardinal Protector in the Vatican as, ‘Lord over conquests, navigation and trade with Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and
India.’ This claim to maritime domination found further expression in the instructions issued to Pedro Alvares
Cabral, commander of the fleet that sailed to India in 1500. He was instructed to inform the King of Calicut of the
ancient enmity that existed between Christians and Muslims, which imposed on every Catholic king to wage a war
against the enemies of the holy faith. The ‘Moor’ merchants who resided and traded with Calicut could not be
exempted from this duty and the king must know that if the Portuguese encountered their ships at sea, they would
take possession of them.

During the first two decades of the sixteenth century, there was a rapid transition from the stage when the
Portuguese planned only individual attacks on Muslim shipping trading between the Red Sea and the western
coast of India to one in which a carefully formulated policy was aimed systematically at a comprehensive control of
the spice trade. The Portuguese succeeded because of a clear naval superiority over Asian ships and the
establishment of a few key outposts on land which could act as strategic bases for the naval fleets and men left in
charge of the trading operations. However, it was not until the capture of Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1510
under the governorship of Alfonso de Albuquerque that the foundation of the future Portuguese maritime empire
in the Indies was truly laid. In 1511, they went on to capture Malacca which controlled the sea route to the Far
East, following which Sao Tome de Meliapor on the coast of Coromandel, Hugli and Chittagong in Bengal, Macau
on the estuary of the Pearl river in China and Colombo in Ceylon were captured. These territories later acquired
the name of Estado da India.

The Portuguese claim to exclusively control the sea routes and the maritime trade of land-based states and
empires of Asia was a relatively new concept for the Asian rulers. This followed the introduction of the cartaze
system wherein every Indian ship sailing to a destination not reserved by the Portuguese for their own trade had to
buy one of these passes from the Viceroy of Goa, if it was to avoid the seizure and confiscation of its merchandise.
As a result of this and the Portuguese naval watch. At the end of the sixteenth century few Indian ships could
venture to east Africa, the Spice Islands, or to China and Japan unless, of course, the ship owners entered into
indirect partnerships with Portuguese officials or merchants in Goa.

Due to these policies followed by the Portuguese, the Gujarati Muslim merchants bitterly opposed the Portuguese.
While the Hindu merchants were less hostile and cooperated with the Portuguese. The Portuguese, however, had
to mend their ways and cooperate with the Indians was because of the customs that they were getting from Indian
ships and also for their private trade. But despite all of this, Portuguese trade, as also European trade was
exceeded many times by the trade carried on by Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Javanese, Indians from Coromandel,
Gujarat and Malabar, and Arabs, till the eighteenth century. The Portuguese, through the use of their force
destroyed Calicut and eclipsed Deccan ports.

But situations changed during the seventeenth century with the emergence of the English and Dutch Companies in
the Indian Ocean. The final breakdown of Portuguese restrictions liberated Indian Ocean trade which caused the
rise of prices in several places. But this initial buoyancy declined as the Dutch East India Company followed in the
footsteps of the early Portuguese conquistadores, only with considerable greater efficiency and ruthlessness. The
near-complete abandonment of Indonesian voyages left the Gujaratis with only Red Sea market and the Gulf. This
was the reason why the English met with such resistance when they attempted to cut in on the trade between
Surat and Mocha in the 1620s. The spice trade had stopped but then Indian textiles became the major component
for export.

The extension of Dutch and English trade to India in the first decade of the seventeenth century and their
subsequent activities in well-known trading cities such as Masulipatam and Surat owed a great deal urgent
demands of inter-Asian trade. As mentioned above, the Dutch largely replaced and took over the inter-Asian trade
previously carried on by the Portuguese. It is beyond doubt that the Dutch and English methods of trade in the
Indian Ocean incorporated a much greater degree of mercantile and economic spirit than was the case with the
Portuguese.

The Dutch attempt to dislodge the Portuguese from a position of power was by individual attacks on their shipping
and then extended to their possessions on land. They then took hold of the cinnamon trade of Ceylon and
eliminated Portuguese pepper factories in Malabar. They captured Malacca in 1641 and proceeded to capture
Indonesia using the same coercive methods.

While the Dutch were consolidating their commercial operations in the Indies with territorial bases and factories in
Java, the Moluccas and the Indian subcontinent t, the English East India Company had been equally active. They
secured Surat and then carried on trade form there following which they followed the policy of expansion. The
commercial organization of both these north European trading companies was based on a common structural form
throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries wherein there was a head settlement or factory near some
major Indian port with subordinate stations in the interior where many of the export goods were produced. Surat,
Cochin, Pulicat, Negapatam, Masulipatam and Hugli were the principal factories of the Dutch Company. While the
English Company acquired Madras and Bombay.

During the eighteenth century, India’s foreign trade underwent a considerable expansion as a result of the
tripartite participation of the Dutch, English and the French. The first attempt the French made to enter the Indian
Ocean trade was in 1664 when Colbert formed the Compagnie des Indes Orientales. A factory was founded in Surat
and the organization of the commercial enterprise was entrusted to Francois Caron. Although by 1674, the French
declined, they managed to obtain a grant of a small village in the territory of the Kingdom of Bijapur, the village
being that of Pondicherry. The foundation of the second French East India Company by Jean Law (1719), saw an
expansion of French operations in India.

By the early 1740s the weakness of the central government in the Mughal Empire combined with the growth of
provincial autonomy and the military powers of the Maratha Confederacy, had made the European trading
companies in India fully aware of the political opportunities which lay open to further their own economic
interests. It was this awareness that led to Anglo-French confrontations con the coast of Coromandel which
eventually led to the revolution of Plassey itself which led to the establishment of English territorial power in
Bengal.

If we look to the commodity structure of Indo-European trade- precious metals were being exchanged for
manufactures and primary goods- however, it is still uncertain what effects this import of treasure had on the
Indian economy. The traditional answer has been that of hoarding but it affected the price of bullion in India.

The so-called triangular trading connections between Europe, the west coast of Africa and the settlements in
America and the West Indies based on slave plantation provide an important background to the development of
East Indian trade as products manufactured in India were also sold in the New World. But in the sixteenth century,
Portuguese commercial presence in India was firmly based on the export of black pepper from Malabar and
Kanara. For this purpose they established factories in Cochin, Cannanore and Quilon. Pepper was not only an
important trading commodity but also served as ballast cargo to stabilize the ships during their arduous journey
back home. But in the 1670s when the Dutch began to follow a policy of conquest on the Malabar Coast, the
English Company was in perpetual fear of being driven out of the pepper trade. This led to a trade war in which the
aim of both the sides was to make pepper a loss-making commodity which eventually caused the total imports to
decline. In the end, the decline of pepper cannot be seen as a result of the political efforts of the Dutch but the
competition of other goods of which the main one being Indian textiles. The English showed a clear lead in the
trade but the Dutch eventually caught up. The popularity of these textiles was due to their relative cheapness as
compared with non-woolen cloth produced at home. By the third quarter of the century the popularity of Indian
textiles had become sufficiently established as to extend their use to the luxury end of the market. Indian indigo
too, became an important and profitable commodity. The main problem faced in this trade was the competition
faced from the products of the West Indies and Spanish America.

Another important commodity was saltpeter which was a new development in India’s maritime trade in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The silk yarn produced in the mulberry plantations around the town of
Kasimbazar and North Bengal also became famous and led to the establishment of a substantial silk-weaving
industry in the region. From the 1650s, Bengal raw silk rapidly established itself in the market and in the
eighteenth century became the most substantial and valuable import cargo next to textiles.

If one were to examine the impact of European trade in the Indian market, what really stands out is the impersonal
abstract firm which radically contrasted the traditional forms of mercantile organization both in Europe and Asia.
From the point of view of Indian commercial life, the emphasis on quality control and regular delivery with risks
attached to suppliers was a relatively novel experience. European operations differed from the Indian in the scale
of the purchases and the precise legal meanings placed on contractual responsibilities. However, the procedures
that were being followed by the European companies at the time of purchase led to the adoption of strategies
such as withholding delivery until the shipping season was too close which led to the acceptance of any commodity
brought or sending home half-empty ships.

Another system was that of commercial advances or described as the Indian version of the ‘putting out’ method in
Europe that was impacted by the Europeans. In this system, merchants advanced cash sums rather than raw
material to the weavers. This was because of two reasons, one, in order to buy raw materials and two, to support
themselves while producing the cloth. The trading companies realized this importance and therefore approached
the manufacturers particularly the weavers by either employing Indian brokers who purchased on a commission
basis or regular cloth merchants often operating as collective groups.

Therefore, in conclusion, a review of the European trade in India gives the impression that it was only in the first
half of the eighteenth century that its full impact was felt on domestic economy. This, in a way, is true because by
the middle of the eighteenth century, the volume of European trade, both Company and private, had increased to
the extent where the Indian rulers derived a considerable revenue by taxing the merchants and weavers. The
expansion was at its greatest in Bengal, which was one of the most prosperous provinces in the Mughal Empire
before the Maratha invasions of the early 1740s. This also meant that by the eighteenth century, the English East
India Company was gradually emerging as the powerful European company in India. The English trade based at
Bombay and mainly directed towards China made a real difference in the overall picture of the Indian Ocean trade.
Madras, on the east coast had completely eclipsed Masulipatam and the southern ports. While English private
trade to Manila, concealed for the most part under Armenian names, had become an important silver-earner for
India.