This work is a study of the connections between trade and politics in the Coromandel Coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with special focus on Madras. It questions the largely uncontested view that trade and traders in pre-modern India were disconnected from the world of politics and the state, arguing instead that south Indian merchants depended on, and functioned within the structures and the stability provided by the state. Trade and Politics on the Coromandel Coast: Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries addresses the breakdown of the political structures within which the merchants operated, and the impact of the arrival of the Europeans, especially the English. In so doing, it explores the transitional nature of the seventeenth century and the ways in which the European trading companies, Indian states, and merchants interacted with each other. Situated within the larger historical context of the trading world of the Coromandel Coast, this regional history challenges accepted notions about the place of merchants and the state, and through a detailed economic history, sheds new light on the political and transitional nature of the period.

This Book Deals With The Period Of Transition In The Indian Economy From Pre-Colonial To Colonial Times. Since Post-1763 French Trading Activities Are Rarely Discussed By Historians In India, This Book Attempts To Fill Part Of This Gap. It Questions The Traditional View That Trade Virtually Ceased After The Treaty Of Paris In 1763 And Suggests That The Two Rival Powers, France And England, Were Engaged In A Peculiar Game That Required Public Antagonism But Private Cooperation. It Also Examines The Active Collaboration Of The European Banking Houses In Financing The French Trade In India. The Factors Responsible For The Vagaries In The French Policy, Which Resulted First In The Abolition And Then The Re-Creation Of Their Companies, Have Also Been Explained.

The way merchants trade, think about business and represent commerce in art forms define merchant culture. The world between 1500 and 1800 encompassed different merchant cultures that stood alone and in contact with others. Culture, power relations and institutions framed similarities and differences and outlined the global outcome of these exchanges.

Explores the relationship between long-distance trade and the economic and political structure of southern India.

The book focuses on the changes in the trading world of the Tamil merchants in the southern Coromandel region, with the arrival of European trading companies and the concomitant creation of European port enclaves and the rapid expansion of demand for Coromandel cotton textiles. The author uses impressive range of original sources literary, inscriptional and archival to cover a long period of history (beginning with the maritime trade in the Sangam period) to argue that the merchants evolved over the centuries into a distinct class of merchant capitalists with a conscious perception of their identity as an economic and social class.

European traders first appeared in India at the end of the fifteenth century and began exporting goods to Europe as well as to other parts of Asia. In a detailed analysis of the trading operations of European corporate enterprises such as the English and Dutch East India Companies, as well as those of private European traders, this book considers how, over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy expanded and was integrated into the pre-modern world economy as a result of these interactions. The book also describes how this essentially market-determined commercial encounter changed in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the colonial relationship between Britain and the subcontinent was established. By bringing together and examining the existing literature, the author provides a fascinating overview of the impact of European trade on the pre-modern Indian economy which will be of value to students of Indian, European and colonial history.

Focusing mainly on the Mappila Muslim trading family of the Arackal Ali Rajas, this book throws light on the repercussions of European commercial expansion on the traditional socio-political relations in the South Indian kigdom of Cannanore during the early-modern period.

Drawing on an impressive range of archival material, this monograph delves into the careers of two businessmen who worked for Nordic chartered monopoly trading companies to illuminate individual entrepreneurship in the context of seventeenth-century long-distance trade. The study spans the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, examining global entanglements through personal interactions and daily trading activities between Europeans, Asian merchants and African brokers. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the role of individuals and their networks within the great European trading companies of the early modern period. This unique book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers of economic history, business history, early modern global history and entrepreneurship.

This volume is a rethinking of the classical eastern Mediterranean overseas exchange relations with the Indian sub-continent. Characterizing the nature of exchanges in detail against extant sources and theories, the book maintains that the expression, 'Indo-Roman trade' is a misnomer in historiography. It argues that the chieftains and merchants in the sub-continent had neither institutional nor technological means to indulge in contemporary overseas trade, a heavily document based enterprise. It was not necessary either.