Masulipatnam represented the hub of a metropolitan port complex of the seventeenth century Northern Coromandel conglomerate of ports and production centres. At the crux of the Coromandel textile trade, this port in the Bay of Bengal fed a lion’s share of the pre-modern and early modern Indian Ocean trade, which, at its zenith, linked Europe, Africa, West Asia, South Asia, the Indonesian Archipelago and the Far East. As yet relatively under-researched, European private trade in this port complex offers interesting insights into the prevalent socio-political ethos of the region.
Archival material and contemporary travelogues reveal that this cosmopolitan port, then under the reign of the Persian Qutb Shahis of Golconda, was neutral in its trade, open to Europeans (Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, Danes), Asians (Persians, Arabs, Pathans, Chinese, Armenians, Achehnese, Malays, Siamese, Burmese, Javanese, Peguans, etc.) and several indigenous merchants of the subcontinent (Tamils, Chulias, Telugus, Klings, Kannadas, Indian Muslims, etc.), who were either diasporic residents, communities, agents, or itinerant merchants in the port and its environs. Collaborations and conflicts among these entities often transcended normative social and political categories, such as place of origin, lineage, religious affiliations, caste, occupation or ‘nationality’, as well as their access to economic and political opportunities, which was not entirely exclusive. Furthermore, a blurring of boundaries between political, administrative and commercial functions, not merely among the ruling elite but also Europeans and local indigenous mercantile communities, points to relative freedom and flux in the complex socio-political milieu of the region, which would perhaps require a revaluation of the parameters of the pre-modern state in South Asia.
Pre-modern littoral India was dotted with several ports of importance, which gained greater significance with the advent of the English and the Dutch trading companies. It was during the early seventeenth century that Masulipatnam, situated on the Krishna-Godavari delta, emerged as the prime port of the kingdom of Golconda, supported by a conglomerate of subordinate ports, inland towns and production centres. It became well embedded not only as a sub-regional economic unit of the Coromandel Coast, but a very significant port of the entire Indian Ocean trading system of the 17th century. Coromandel cotton textiles were the backbone of the Indian Ocean trade during this time. They had a flourishing demand in the Indonesian archipelago, the Spice Islands, and had also developed a burgeoning westward market to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea areas. Further, the Dutch and the English opened up Europe, as well, as a very lucrative market for Coromandel textiles.
Masulipatnam attracted a host of diverse indigenous and foreign merchants, both itinerant and emigrant. The European contemporary sources offer rich empirical data on this port and its environs, and a deeper analysis allows one to investigate the prevalent socio-cultural, economic and political matrix of the region that the Europeans encountered, and the ethos of the age, giving a better understanding of the pre-modern state and society in southern India. An enquiry into the adaptations of the Europeans in the region is very useful to understand the mechanisms through which the ‘outsiders’ converted a situation of several disadvantages with respect to finances, local knowledge and experience, language, climate and cultural differences, into inconceivable advantages. This, in turn, elucidates the indigenous socio-cultural, economic and political systems and processes of the region, as they operated in said period, which could allow such momentous transitions to occur.
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Masulipatnam represented the hub of a metropolitan port complex of the seventeenth century Northern Coromandel conglomerate of ports and production centres. At the crux of the Coromandel textile trade, this port in the Bay of Bengal fed a lion’s share of the pre-modern and early modern Indian Ocean trade, which, at its zenith, linked Europe, Africa, West Asia, South Asia, the Indonesian Archipelago and the Far East. As yet relatively under-researched, European private trade in this port complex offers interesting insights into the prevalent socio-political ethos of the region.
Archival material and contemporary travelogues reveal that this cosmopolitan port, then under the reign of the Persian Qutb Shahis of Golconda, was neutral in its trade, open to Europeans (Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, Danes), Asians (Persians, Arabs, Pathans, Chinese, Armenians, Achehnese, Malays, Siamese, Burmese, Javanese, Peguans, etc.) and several indigenous merchants of the subcontinent (Tamils, Chulias, Telugus, Klings, Kannadas, Indian Muslims, etc.), who were either diasporic residents, communities, agents, or itinerant merchants in the port and its environs. Collaborations and conflicts among these entities often transcended normative social and political categories, such as place of origin, lineage, religious affiliations, caste, occupation or ‘nationality’, as well as their access to economic and political opportunities, which was not entirely exclusive. Furthermore, a blurring of boundaries between political, administrative and commercial functions, not merely among the ruling elite but also Europeans and local indigenous mercantile communities, points to relative freedom and flux in the complex socio-political milieu of the region, which would perhaps require a revaluation of the parameters of the pre-modern state in South Asia.
Pre-modern littoral India was dotted with several ports of importance, which gained greater significance with the advent of the English and the Dutch trading companies. It was during the early seventeenth century that Masulipatnam, situated on the Krishna-Godavari delta, emerged as the prime port of the kingdom of Golconda, supported by a conglomerate of subordinate ports, inland towns and production centres. It became well embedded not only as a sub-regional economic unit of the Coromandel Coast, but a very significant port of the entire Indian Ocean trading system of the 17th century. Coromandel cotton textiles were the backbone of the Indian Ocean trade during this time. They had a flourishing demand in the Indonesian archipelago, the Spice Islands, and had also developed a burgeoning westward market to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea areas. Further, the Dutch and the English opened up Europe, as well, as a very lucrative market for Coromandel textiles.
Masulipatnam attracted a host of diverse indigenous and foreign merchants, both itinerant and emigrant. The European contemporary sources offer rich empirical data on this port and its environs, and a deeper analysis allows one to investigate the prevalent socio-cultural, economic and political matrix of the region that the Europeans encountered, and the ethos of the age, giving a better understanding of the pre-modern state and society in southern India. An enquiry into the adaptations of the Europeans in the region is very useful to understand the mechanisms through which the ‘outsiders’ converted a situation of several disadvantages with respect to finances, local knowledge and experience, language, climate and cultural differences, into inconceivable advantages. This, in turn, elucidates the indigenous socio-cultural, economic and political systems and processes of the region, as they operated in said period, which could allow such momentous transitions to occur.