Merchants, companies, and trade
Subtitle: Europe and Asia in the early modern era
By: edited by Sushil Chaudhury and Michel Morineau.
Contributors: Chaudhury, Sushil.; Morineau, Michel.
Series: Studies in modern capitalism =; Etudes sur le capitalisme moderne; Maison des sciences de l'homme (Paris, France); Studies in modern capitalism.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
Subjects: Trade routes -- Asia -- History -- Congresses.; Trade  routes -- Europe -- History -- Congresses.; Merchants -- Asia -- History -- Congresses.; Merchants -- Europe -- History -- Congresses.; Asia -- Commerce -- History -- Congresses.; Asia -- Commerce -- Europe -- History -- Congresses.; Europe -- Commerce -- Asia -- History -- Congresses.; Europe -- Commerce -- History -- Congresses.
Genres: Congresses.
Description: [T]his book throws new light, raises pertinent questions and takes up fresh perspectives on the growth and development of international trade between Europe and Asia, especially India, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Through a comparative and comprehensive study of merchant communities, markets and commodities the individual authors argue, contrary to conventional views, that Asian merchants were in no way inferior to Europeans in terms of their commercial operations and business acumen. The book emphasises the continuing and growing importance of India's overland trade, even in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, traces the little-known world of Armenian merchants, the hitherto obscure, but voluminous, Indian trade with the Ottoman Empire, and by unearthing new evidence, demonstrates that the export activity of Asian merchants through the overland route from Bengal was higher, in fact, than the combined total of European exports.
Notes: Essays based on papers presented at the international seminar on "Merchants, Companies, and Trade : the Asian and European Scene in the Indian Context, 16th-18th Century" organized at the Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris, in 1990.