Portuguese Trade and Socio-Economic Changes on the Western Coast of India (1600-1663)

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About the Author Dr. Afzal Ahmad was awarded Ph.D. from M.S. University, Baroda, for his study on Portuguese Trade on the Western Coast of India in the Seventeenth Century (1600-1663), in 1985. While learning Portuguese language during 1976-79 for this work, he worked on several research projects of social sciences under the guidance of Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad, (Late) Prof. Moonis Raza and Dr. Usha Agrawal (Luther) all in J.N. University, New Delhi. He was also a research associate at Sri Ram Centre for Humanities and Research, in 1977.

He had been awarded several research fellowships from UGC, Indian Counsel of Historical Research, in India, between 1979-81 and 1982-94 respectively. He was also awarded a fellowship for the completion of his Ph. D. thesis from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon between 1981-82 and later, for the Pós-Doctoral work he received fellowships from C. Gulbenkian Foundation, Instituto de Lingua e Cultura Pongrtuguesa (ICALP) and Fundação Oriente, Lisbon, during 1985-1991.

Among his earlier publications, besides numerous articles in different research magazines, both Indian and Foreign, Emergence of Cochin in the Pre Industrial Era: Study of Portuguese Cochin, Pondicherry, 1990,; Indo-Portuguese Trade in the Seventeenth Century, 1600-1663, New Delhi, 1991, and Os Portugueses na Ásia, Lisbon, Portugal, can be named as useful for the researchers. At present he is a Professor of History at Universidade Independente and Universidade Lusófona, both in Lisbon. He also gives honorary courses of Hindi Language and Indian Culture, since 1997. At present he is working on World Coins and Monetary System from Ancient times till Modern Period.

Preface Present work was initially submitted as a Ph. D. dissertation to the Department of History, M.S. University of Baroda in 1984, I was awarded the degree in 1985.

During the recent years, there have been quite a few attempts to reconstruct the history of the Portuguese maritime trade in the East in general, and with India in particular. More important of them dealing with the socio-economic relation during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries are by K. M. Panikkar, J. Lúcio Azevedo, V. M. Godinho, M. N. Pearson, A.R. Disney and K.S. Mathew, While contributing to our knowledge of the Portuguese commercial activities in the East, especially in the western coastal regions of India, it has been found that these studies have over- looked the trade in several commodities such as textiles, diamonds, precious stones, saltpetre and rice among numerous others of considerable economic value. It has been held by some scholars that 'the second half of the sixteenth century witnessed the decline of the Portuguese maritime powers and their commercial activities in India', but I find it quite difficult to accept after going through the seventeenth century Portuguese documents.

In this context the seventeenth century that witnessed the interference of various European powers in western India presents itself as a subject of absorbing interest for historians, economists and sociologists. Indian economy was brought into the network of world economy during this period. The Dutch and the English crossed swords with the Portuguese and dealt a fatal blow to the Portuguese hegemony over maritime trade with India.

The present work attempts to make some contribution to the study of international trade on the western coast of India in the seventeenth century (1600-1663), keeping in view several points mentioned above, making use mostly of primary sources in Portuguese in the form of cargo diaries, factory records, reports of the Vice-Roy, Governors, letter between the king of Portugal and the officials of the Portuguese Estado da India, collected both from India and Europe.

This study focuses on the Portuguese trade on the western coast of India in the seventeenth century and the area covered is the region from Diu in the territory of Gujarat in the north, to Cape Camorin in south Spices, textiles and various other profitable commodities were available in abundance in these areas and the Portuguese concentrated their attention mainly on this coast.

The period covered in this study is 1600 to 1663 which is chosen in the light of a number of factors. It may be argued why 1600? This year and soon after, turned out to be reasonably important at least for the Indian ocean and the Arabian sea where the Portuguese possessed their major strong holds and shipping, appeared two strong European commercial companies with firm determinations of sharing the above mentioned goods specifically the pepper and textiles which had far reaching impact on the Por- tuguese politico-commercial relations in this region. Though the English and the Dutch had already appeared in the Asian waters towards the end of the sixteenth century, they interfered actively in the Indian Ocean politics and commerce only after the foundations of their East India Companies (The English in 1600 and the Dutch in 1602). I found it quite interesting that at the end of the sixteenth century, the resistance from the Indian rulers and the merchants had almost weakened if not completely over. As it shall be seen in the chapter on the trade diplomacy, the international rivalries right from the beginning of the seventeenth century continued unabated until 1663 when the Portuguese lost almost all the major strongholds on the south-western coast of India, especially Cochin where they first set their footholds in the early sixteenth century, the major spice producing centre, to the Dutch Nevertheless, they, even in such a political and economical crisis all around, tried to maintain their supremacy of trade but their efforts proved fruitless. These form the subject of discussion in nine chapters of this work. The appendices and select bibliography indicate the source of research.

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