Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s2.t2.45

c6.s2.t2.45

It is almost impossible to determine the volume of foreign trade of Hindustan, as no statistics were ever kept of the imports and exports. Compared to the huge and growing figures of to-day, the volume of foreign trade was probably very small. Khambayat (Cambay) in Gujarat and Bangala in Bengal were the two important ports in the North for foreign trade.¹ According to Varthema, these two ports supplied all ‘Persia, Tartary, Turkey, Syria, Barbary, that is Africa, Arabian Felix, Ethiopia, India’, and a multitude of other inhabited islands with silk and cotton stuffs. He speaks of about three hundred ships of different countries visiting Khambayat every year. His estimate of the output of cotton and silk for Bengal comes to fifty ship-loads.² The average tonnage and the loading capacity of a ship is, however, unascertainable, and, except for a general statement, the whole information is very vague. It shows that India had considerable markets round the Persian Gulf and in the countries bordering on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean; but we know nothing about the demands of those countries and their capacity for the consumption of these goods. We can only say that the carrying trade of India, its potential wealth and the opportunities for development, and finally, the Indian market itself, were sufficiently vast to attract the Portuguese king who safely expected to be the richest king of the world in the event of conquering India.³