RSS
« Guardians of the Gulf | The Accidental Empire »
Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean
 |
Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge Paperback Library) |
It has often been said that if Europe had decided to abruptly abandon its colonial possessions in 1750, it would have left few lasting reminders of its impact, other than a handful of rotting coastal stations and forts. This excellent volume, while it does succinctly chart the historical evolution of the Indian Ocean economic sphere in its first 60 pages, is really more focused of the period after the European expansion into the region, but before those outside powers became so entrenched as to be immovable.
As fascinating as the discussion on sea lanes, trade routes, emporia and trading commodities are, the most interesting discovery here are the many myths that are systematically debunked. In particular that the states fringing the Indian Ocean either failed to adapt or react to the European intrusion or that they indeed lacked the capacity to do so in the first place. To the contrary, Chaudhuri convincingly lays out that while there were some differences, many of the same economic forces were at work in the east as the west, leading to many parallel results, for example the increasing monetization of the economy. European advantages in ship-design and cannonry were swiftly copied (with some local variation) such that any technological advantages that, say, the Portuguese may have possessed early on soon became fairly moot. That Europe eventually triumphed in their advance east seems to have had much less to do with any technological superiority, than with their ability to exploit local politics to their best advantage.
Posted by Tamerlane at October 6, 2006 08:53 PM
Filed Under: Economics
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.aqoul.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/2989
Comments
Thank you for the link to and review of this book. In preparing to study the Indian Ocean through a bloc of books and online research in the spring of next year, this is a vital addition that I had not been aware of. Are there any further books you could suggest, if you have the time?
Posted by: Eddie at October 7, 2006 05:56 AM
About the Indian Ocean region as a whole? Hmmm...not a lot.
About the only thing I have on my own shelves that I can think of is George Hourani's ( older brother of Albert Hourani, of A History of the Arab Peoples fame ) Arab Seafaring In the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Medieval Times, which covers exactly what it sounds like down to ~1000 C.E. ( it also has a short chapter on the rise of Caliphal seapower in the Mediterranean, but that's a fairly short digression ). It's older ( 1951 ) and quite short, but still well worth reading and it was updated in 1995 with a more modern bibliography and notes by John Carswell. Amazon:
Posted by: Tamerlane at October 7, 2006 11:12 AM
Thank you for the link Tamerlane. Duly added to my list.
I'm studying the past to learn the potential for the future, i.e. trade agreements, cultural exchanges, security arrangements etc. Sounds kind of odd for an entire ocean region I admit.
Posted by: Eddie at October 7, 2006 11:37 AM
