Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c11.s1.16

c11.s1.16

We have good accounts of Indian commerce since the time the Portuguese opened the sea-route to India *via* the Cape of Good Hope. Before this discovery the Arabs and Persians had a complete monopoly of Indian trade with the countries of the Far East. They were the masters of the sea-routes passing through the Persian Gulf and South Arabia on the one hand, and, on the other, they were in the centre of the land routes which passed through Syria and Mesopotamia to India and China. The Venetian merchants were obliged to seek for Indian goods at Alexandria and other trading centres on the Mediterranean. The knowledge of the sources of the exotic products which the Venetian merchants desired was, however, kept hidden from them.