European University Institute Library

Trade and finance in Portuguese India, a study of the Portuguese country trade, 1770-1840, Celsa Pinto ; foreword by Teotonio R. de Souza

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [296]-311) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Trade and finance in Portuguese India

bibliography

30509260

Celsa Pinto ; foreword by Teotonio R. de Souza

XCHR studies series, 5

a study of the Portuguese country trade, 1770-1840

This work marks a sharp departure from the predominant Eurocentric emphasis in Indo Portuguese studies, on the sixteenth century Portuguese trade in the Carreira da India. Such an approach unjustly dismisses the subsequent centuries as periods of no commercial consequence to the Estado da India and Portugal and relegates to an un important level the significance of the privately operated intra Asian trade. The evidence gathered and their argument of this book challenges such prevailing stereo types. Based on a wide range on archival sources in India, Portugal and England, this study unravels the existence of a thriving native operated country trade, in 'the splendid' and 'the trifling' that emanated from Portuguese India in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It not only took advantage of the vulnerability displayed and the animation efforts undertaken by the Estado da India and the metropolis but also learned to function through 'crevices' under the growing British hegemony--, Provided by publisher

1. Setting the scene -- 2. Merchants : social identities and business strategies -- 3. The state : towards a new pragmatism -- 4. Portugal : animation attempts -- 5. Big trade : high on opium -- 6. Big trade : draining Africa of people, ivory and gold -- 7. Small trade : essential ingredients, textiles, tobacco and timber -- 8. Small trade : networking the 'trifling', victuals and spices -- 9. Some conclusions