Kirti Chaudhuri | European University Institute (original) (raw)
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Few scholars would dispute the fact that Fernand Braudel's his tory of the Mediterranean has ... more Few scholars would dispute the fact that Fernand Braudel's his tory of the Mediterranean has influenced a whole generation of European historians since its publication in 1949 and established a new school of historical research. Some recent scholars on Asia, including myself, have seen a similar possibility for a history of the Indian Ocean. But the attempt to apply Braudel's Mediterra nean model to a different part of the world raises some initial questions. Does the history of the civilizations around and beyond the ocean exhibit any intrinsic and perceptible unity, expressed in terms of space, time, or structures, which allows us to construct a Braudelian framework? If professional historians are not to waste their time and effort, they must address this fundamental question and follow it up by juxtaposing a second leading query: Why are there so few serious works of modern scholarship that seek to compare the historical experience of Islam, Sanskritic India, southeast Asia, and China in the age before European colo nialism? For some historians, the answer to both questions is basically the same and represents a line of argument generally adopted by specialists in any discipline. It is precisely because the Indian Ocean does not have a tangible unity, they will claim, that histori ans of Asia have refrained from synthesized comparative studies
The object of this thesis is two-fold: first to make an economic study of the East India Company&... more The object of this thesis is two-fold: first to make an economic study of the East India Company's many-sided activities in the first four decades of the seventeenth century, and secondly, through such a study to cast light upon the business-technique of a great merchant company of the period. In many ways, the East India Company was a unique organization. From a limited and modest beginning it quickly developed into a trading organization with wide commercial ramifications both in Asia and Europe. The Company's port to port trade in the Indies and the role it assumed as local traders in Asiatic Continent was ultimately responsible for the rise of the multilateral trade-triangles which characterised the English commerce overseas in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Such a development brought with it the twin problems of a chronic shortage of finance capital and the political rivalry with the Dutch in the Indies. At home, the Company's existence depended on the succe...
Few scholars would dispute the fact that Fernand Braudel's his tory of the Mediterranean has ... more Few scholars would dispute the fact that Fernand Braudel's his tory of the Mediterranean has influenced a whole generation of European historians since its publication in 1949 and established a new school of historical research. Some recent scholars on Asia, including myself, have seen a similar possibility for a history of the Indian Ocean. But the attempt to apply Braudel's Mediterra nean model to a different part of the world raises some initial questions. Does the history of the civilizations around and beyond the ocean exhibit any intrinsic and perceptible unity, expressed in terms of space, time, or structures, which allows us to construct a Braudelian framework? If professional historians are not to waste their time and effort, they must address this fundamental question and follow it up by juxtaposing a second leading query: Why are there so few serious works of modern scholarship that seek to compare the historical experience of Islam, Sanskritic India, southeast Asia, and China in the age before European colo nialism? For some historians, the answer to both questions is basically the same and represents a line of argument generally adopted by specialists in any discipline. It is precisely because the Indian Ocean does not have a tangible unity, they will claim, that histori ans of Asia have refrained from synthesized comparative studies
The object of this thesis is two-fold: first to make an economic study of the East India Company&... more The object of this thesis is two-fold: first to make an economic study of the East India Company's many-sided activities in the first four decades of the seventeenth century, and secondly, through such a study to cast light upon the business-technique of a great merchant company of the period. In many ways, the East India Company was a unique organization. From a limited and modest beginning it quickly developed into a trading organization with wide commercial ramifications both in Asia and Europe. The Company's port to port trade in the Indies and the role it assumed as local traders in Asiatic Continent was ultimately responsible for the rise of the multilateral trade-triangles which characterised the English commerce overseas in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Such a development brought with it the twin problems of a chronic shortage of finance capital and the political rivalry with the Dutch in the Indies. At home, the Company's existence depended on the succe...