A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.38

c18.38

Calicut, where Razzak landed on his arrival, was a secure harbour for ships from Africa and Arabia; considerable numbers of Muslims were permanent residents there and had built two mosques. Security and justice were firmly established. ‘Officers of the custom house look after the merchandise, and levy duty of 1/40 on sales, no charge being made on unsold articles.’ There was a flourishing pepper trade with Mecca, and straying vessels were not plundered in this port as elsewhere. More than seventy years later, Duarte Barbosa found that the trade of Calicut was very large, and on that account natives of divers lands—Arabs, Persians, Guzerates, Khorassanians and Daquanis—settled there. The Moors had a governor of their own who ruled and punished them without interference from the king, except that he was obliged to account for certain matters to the king. Shipbuilding particularly flourished; keeled ships of 1,000 to 1,200 *bahares* burden were built, without decks and without any nails, the whole hull being sewn with thread. Here they loaded goods from every place, and every monsoon ten or fifteen ships sailed for the Red Sea, Aden and Mecca, whence the goods went through intermediaries up to Venice. The principal exports were pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, myrobalan, tamarind, canafistula, precious stones of every kind, seed-pearls, musk, ambergris, rhubarb, aloes wood, cotton cloth and porcelain. The chief imports into Calicut, which were loaded at Juda, were copper, quicksilver, vermilion, coral, saffron, coloured velvets, rose-water, knives, coloured camlets, gold and silver. As early as 1510, the Portuguese had a fort and settlement at Cochin where they repaired their ships and built new ones ‘in as great perfection as on the Lisbon strand’. The Italian Varthema (1505) noted that an immense quantity of cotton was produced near Cambay so that every year forty or fifty vessels were laden with cotton and silk to be carried to different countries. Carnelians and diamonds also came to Cambay from mountains at six and nine days’ journey from there. At Cannanore—another fine, large city—the king of Portugal had a strong castle;