The “mauvaise saison”: maritime trading with Madagascar during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (original) (raw)

Abstract

Maritime commerce on Madagascar, as with the entire Western Indian Ocean, was dictated by monsoon cycles. It was during the austral winter that navigation was preferred, as it was not menaced by cyclones and winds were favourable. The absence of malaria in this period can be seen as another explanation. But there were also commercial reasons: in 1685, the Dutch wrote that during the “bad season” on Madagascar, very few slaves were taken from the Highlands to the coastline, while during the “good season”, starting in May, the number of slaves doubled. Climate thus had a huge impact on life for the Malagasy communities as well for the European maritime traders. Furthermore, it affected warfare and razzias, which was again intimately linked to the trading cycle of the maritime trade as well as the rice cultivation cycle. Climate even proved to be fatal: the French, for example, restrained from staying at their comptoir in Foulpointe between September and April, because of the mortal “fièvres malignes”. In this communication, we will analyse the impact that local climate and this trading cycle had on European maritime trade with Madagascar during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We will partly look at shipping data that gives us information on seasonal maritime movements. But we will also concentrate on how the Europeans and Malagasy dealt with these restraints on a day-to-day basis as trade continued, sometimes even risking trade during the “mauvaise saison”, incited by necessity to obtain both slaves and food.

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