India's Oceanic Trade in the 17th Century
The contemporary, Tomé Pires has which were much in demand in West Asia.
pointed out, “The arms of Cambay The growth of hajj traffic gave an
stretches 2 arms – one towards Aden and opportunity to Indian traders to trade in
one towards Malacca.” This pointed to the the Hejaz up to Mecca.
centrality of India in the Indian Ocean
Trade, and the role of Gujarat in the A second development was the
trade, both with the East Indies and export of coffee from Yemen. The Turkish
Western Asia. The main development of and Arab merchants, who came to Mocha
the period, however, was the growth of for coffee, exported it to Europe and
India’s trade towards the West Asian distributed it in the far flung Ottoman
ports. Empire. Although the Indians did not buy
much coffee, they came to Mocha for
Although following the selling their textiles. The growth of Indian
accommodation with the Portuguese, shipping at Surat was primarily to cope
permits for West Asian trade were given with this growing export to West Asia.
freely to Indian traders; Portuguese
domination of Hormuz had kept them The Indian traders successfully
away from Basra. To weaken the coped with the competition offered to
Portuguese, the English and the Dutch them by Dutch and English traders in
freely loaded Indian goods to West Asian South East Asia and West Asia. While the
ports. The trade with the Gulf became Indian traders expected a profit of 10-
even more open with the capture of 15%, the Dutch and the English were not
Hormuz by an Anglo-Persian expedition in willing to work on a profit of less than
1622. 40%. Freight charges on the Indian ships
was also lower, sometimes ½ of what was
Indian traders were well charged by the Dutch and the English
established at Aden, from where they (owing to the high over-heads by way of
traded with the Red Sea, and the East factories, maintenance of war ships and
African ports of Massawa, Mogadishu etc. forts etc.). The Indian spent much less on
During the period, trade moved from equipping their ships, and on their
Aden to Mocha on the Yemen coast. The establishment. The Indian also knew
safety of roads brought about by the better the ins and outs of the markets
Safavids in Iran, and by the Ottoman where he bought and sold his goods, and
Turks in Arabia, Egypt, and Iraq were also the local preferences, customs,
factors in the growth of Indian trade, arrangements, etc.
mostly textiles, in the region. Traders
from Masulipatam, the chief port of the During the 17th century, which
kingdom of Golconda, which had good has been described as the “golden period
relations with the Safavids, also started of Indian maritime trade as well as trade
trading with West Asian ports, in addition in textiles,” Indian merchants were found
to their trade with the islands and to be settled all over South East Asia,
mainland of South East Asia. West Asia and the east coast of Africa.
For example, Gujarat merchants, in
Two developments seemed to have particular the banias from Kathiawar
furthered the trade with West Asian ports. were settled in all the Yemeni towns and
Surat emerged as the principal port of had a controlling influence over trade in
Gujarat, which had a rich hinterland the area. At Mocha, the banias had
extending up to the Gangetic plain. It devised the Yemeni dollar, and devised a
drew textiles from Sindh and Punjab, system of deferred payment after Nauroz.
India's Oceanic Trade in the 17th Century
The major item of export for India Indian ports and their hinterlands
was undoubtedly textiles. The textiles fluctuated sharply, and Indian maritime
catered both to the needs of the trade waxed and waned. The Indian
aristocracy, and to the mass of the traditional structure was enriched and
people, for whom the coarse variety of strengthened through European skill and
textiles were produced and exported from enterprise.
Gujarat. India also exported foods, such
as rice and pulses, wheat, oil and ghee. However, some historians are of
There was much demand for these items the opinion that the influx of South
in South East Asian Islands, and also at American silver into India via the Cape of
Hormuz and Aden in West Asia. Bengal Good Hope and the Philippines had a
exported sugar and raw silk, Gujarat dissolving effect on the traditional Indian
exported raw cotton, and Malabar sent its and Asian economies. The expansion of
pepper to the Indian Ocean markets. the money supply increased the pace of
There was also coastal trade in India for the monetization of the economy. Om
these items. The Coromandel ports and Prakash concludes: “...the benefit of the
Gujarat exported indigo and the continuing rise in the level of output,
Coromandel exported tobacco. It is thus income and employment were not
clear that India’s export trade was not in confined to the intermediary groups but
luxuries alone. percolated all the way down to the
weavers and other constituents of the
For its imports, India’s principal producing group.”
item of import was horses, which came
both by sea and over-land. There was a
considerable demand for spices in India,
which were exchanged for textiles at
Malacca or Acheh, or at Bantam. There
were other minor items like tin from
Malaya, ivory from East Africa and
dyewoods from Persia. Other import items
included wines, fruits, almonds, rose
water, medicines etc.
India had an overwhelmingly
favourable balance of trade with West
Asia, which was paid for by bullion. Thus,
Mocha was considered the treasure house
of the Mughals. Silver also came from
Persia. With the rise of the Dutch, spices,
porcelain etc. from East and South East
Asia were paid for sometimes in bullion.
According to Ashin Das Gupta,
while the pattern of Asian trade did not
change and trade remained largely in the
hands of Indian merchants, European
intervention in the Indian Ocean area led
to changes in the deployment of Indian
shipping from time to time. Fortunes of
