The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century: East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade

Description

In this work Neils Steensgaard combines an analytical economic approach with detailed historic scholarship to provide an imaginitive and important analysis of a central incident in modern world history. The event is the breaking of the Portuguese monopoly on Asian trade in the seventeenth century by English and Dutch mercantile interests. This change the author demonstrates, was not simply the triumph of the new powers over the old. Rather, the Dutch--English victory heralded a structural change in international trade: the triumph of entrepreneurial capitalism over the older economic mode of the "peddler-merchant." Professor Steensgaard's study is divided into two major parts. The first examines the economic and political structure of the seventeenth century institutions in the Near East, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands. The author demonstrates that the rise to preeminence of the English and Dutch East India Companies over the Portuguese "State of India" was the result of the superior economic and bureaucratic organization of the former. The eclipse of Portuguese power in general, the author argues, is best understood as an institutional failure–an inability to adapt to changing patterns and demands of economic life. The second part of Professor Steensgaard's study provides a detailed historical account of an important event in the fall of the Portuguese trading empire–the loss of the city of Hormuz in 1622. Hormuz, located at a strategic point at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, was a central port city on the Asian trade route. It fell to an English and Persian force. The author demonstrates why this event exemplifies the Portuguese institutional weaknesses that are discussed in the first part of the book. Contents Preface Introduction Part I. The Fall of Hormuz, a Comparative Study Chapter I. The Peddling Trade The Pedlars The Economy of the Peddling Trade The Peddling Market Chapter II. The Redistributive Enterprizes "Publicans and Thieves" Persia The Ottoman Empire Estado da India The Redistributive Institutions and the Market The Redistributive Enterprizes Chapter III. The Companies The East India Company and the English Crown The East India Company in the International System The United East India Company and the Dutch Republic Power and Profit in the Policy of the United East India Company The Companies and the Market The Companies as Institutional Innovation Chapter IV. The Fall of Hormuz The Cape Route and the Caravan Routes around 1600 The Triumph of the Companies The Reversal on the Levant Markets The Fall of Hormuz Part II. The Loss of Hormuz. People and Events Chapter V. The Dream of a Great Alliance The Persian Initiative and Anthony Sherley The Christian Princes' Reply The Replies come in, War begins Seven Persian Ambassadors The Course of the War and the Crisis of Confidence 1607-08 Chapter VI. Hormuz is the Question The Carmelite Mission 1608 Robert Sherley Anthony Sherley's Projects The Augustinian Mission 1608 Robert Sherley in Rome and Spain Janghiz Beg and Gouvea in Spain In Persia 1608-13 The Crisis of Confidence 1613-15, Gombroon's Fall Robert Sherley 1611-15 Chapter VII. The Loss of Hormuz Sherley's Second Spanish Embassy 1617-22 Figueroa in Persia British Beginnings The Loss of Hormuz Part III. After Hormuz Chapter VIII. The Losers The Demolishment of a Town The Portuguese Attempt at Revenge The Portuguese without Hormuz Sherley's Last Journey Chapter IX. The Attempt at Redirection of the Silk Trade The Companies and the Persian Silk Trade Silk Purchases in Persia How Much? Chapter X. Instead of Hormuz The Rise of Bandar Abbas The Companies and the "Early Asian Trade" Conclusion Appendix, Currency and Weights Manuscript Sources Printed Sources and Modern Works Index