Ocean of Trade: South Asian Merchants, Africa and the Indian Ocean, c.1750-1850

334 Pages·2014·2.51 MB·English

by  Pedro Machado

Ocean of Trade
OceanofTradeoffersaninnovativestudyoftrade,productionandcon-
sumptionacrosstheIndianOceanbetweentheyearsc.1750and1850.
FocusingontheVa¯niya¯ merchantsofDiuandDaman,PedroMachado
explores the region’s entangled histories of exchange, including the
African demand for large-scale textile production among weavers in
Gujarat, the distribution of ivory to consumers in Western India, and
the African slave trade from Mozambique that took captives to the
French islands of the Mascarenes, Brazil and the Rio de la Plata, and
the Arabian peninsula and India. In highlighting the critical role of
particular South Asian merchant networks, thebook reveals howlocal
AfricanandIndianconsumerdemandwascentraltothedevelopmentof
commerce across the Indian Ocean, giving rise to a wealth ofregional
andglobalexchangeinaperiodcommonlyperceivedtobeincreasingly
dominatedbyEuropeancompanyandprivatecapital.Thebookoffers
an important contribution to our understanding of the layered and
entangledhistoriesofAfricaandSouthAsiawithinanoceanicandglobal
context.
PedroMachadoisAssistantProfessorintheDepartmentofHistoryat
IndianaUniversity,Bloomington.

Ocean of Trade
South Asian Merchants, Africa and the Indian
Ocean, c. 1750–1850
Pedro Machado
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107070264
©PedroMachado2014
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2014
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Machado,Pedro,1970–
Oceanoftrade:SouthAsianmerchants,AfricaandtheIndianOcean,
c.1750–1850/PedroMachado.
pages cm
ISBN978-1-107-07026-4(hardback)
1. Merchants–SouthAsia–History–18thcentury. 2. Merchants–South
Asia–History–19thcentury. 3. Merchants–IndianOcean–History.
4. IndianOcean–Commerce–History–18thcentury. 5. Indian
Ocean–Commerce–History–19thcentury. 6. SouthAsia–Commerce–
History. 7. Africa–Commerce–History. 8. Internationaltrade–
History. 9. Production(Economictheory)–History. 10. Consumption
(Economics)–History. I. Title.
HF3785.M325 2014
382.0918204–dc23
2014007200
ISBN978-1-107-07026-4Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Listoffigures pagevi
Listofmaps vii
Listoftables viii
Acknowledgements ix
Noteoncurrencies xiii
Abbreviations xiv
Introduction 1
1 Merchantsoftheocean 18
2 Crossings 69
3 Threadsthatbind 120
4 Whitegold 168
5 AfricainIndia 208
Conclusion 268
Bibliography 276
Index 307
v
Figures
2.1 Sailinginstructions page91
3.1 (a)and(b)GujaratiPatternbook 144
vi
Maps
1.1 WesternIndianOcean page21
2.1 Monsoonwinds 88
2.2 GujaratimapofGulfofCambay 92
2.3 GulfofCambay(inEnglishtranscription) 93
3.1 TradeandtextileproductioncentresGujarat 140
4.1 Zambesiprincipaltraderoutes 194
5.1 SoutheastAfricancoast 229
5.2 AtlanticandIndianOcean 243
vii
Tables
4.1 VoyagesbyVa¯niya¯ merchantstoQuelimane,
1781–1828 page188
5.1 NumberofvoyagesmadebyVa¯niya¯ merchants
toselectportsinMozambique,1781–1830 227
5.2 SlaveimportsintoDiu,DamanandGoafrom
Mozambique,1770–1834 250
viii