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A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59.s12: Maritime Trade—Exports and Imports

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59.s12

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English

Contents

Maritime Trade—Exports and Imports

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In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Arabs were the masters of the Indian ocean and they completely controlled the maritime trade between India, Middle East and Europe. Indian goods were carried to Alexandria and Damascus by caravans of camels, and from there reached Mediterranean countries through Italian merchants. Some of the countries round the Persian Gulf depended on India for their food supply. The export trade of India was mainly through the ports of Gujarat, Malabar and Bengal. Aden was the port of call for ships arriving there from Cambay, Thāna, Quilon, Calicut, Fandarina, Shaliyat, Mangalore, Fakanor, Hinawr, and Sindabur. A colony of Indian merchants lived in this city. A minor entrepot of the Indian trade was the neighbouring port of Zhafar (Defar), which exported horses to India in return for Indian rice and cotton. On the Indian side Malabar was the clearing house of the merchandise from the East and the West across the Indian Ocean. Merchants of Fārs and Yemen disembarked at the port of Mangalore, and Chinese ships bound for India entered the ports of Ely, Calicut, and Quilon.

Indian Exports

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Exports from India were pepper, cloves, ginger and cardamoms, tamarinds, sandal-wood and brazil-wood, saffron, indigo, wax, iron, sugar, rice, coconuts, precious stones, benzoin, porcelain, cloth from Cambay, Chaul, and Dabhol, and Bengal muslins.

Imports

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Imports into India consisted of Arabian horses, dates, raisins, salt, sulphur and coarse seed-pearls, coral, quicksilver, vermilion, lead, gold and silver, alum, madder, rose-water, and saffron, as well as opium of superior quality.

Trade with East Africa

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Trade with East Africa was fostered by the chain of Arab settlements on the African coast like those of Zeila, Makdashau, Mombasa and Kilwa. Many ships from ‘the kingdom of Cambay’ (Gujarat), visited Makdashau with cloth and spices and returned with cargoes of gold, ivory and wax. Cambay cloths and beads were exported by Gujarati merchants in large ships to the three ports of Melinde, Mombasa, and Kilwa, whence they were carried by the local Muslim merchants to the ports of the Zambesi delta and Sofala, further south, for sale to the inhabitants of a great Bantu kingdom in the interior. The cargoes of gold and ivory were conveyed via Sofala to the three East African ports mentioned above, whence they were carried back home by the Gujarati merchants.

Trade with South-East and East Asia

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'In the early part of the fourteenth century, regular voyages were made by Chinese ships to the three Malabar ports of Ely, Calicut and Quilon. The Chinese imports into the Indian ports were silks, coloured taffetas and satins, cloves and nutmegs, blue and white porcelain, gold, silver, copper, iron, vermilion, and quicksilver.'⁶

Trade with China and South East Asia

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Trade between India, East Indies and China was in the hands of Arabs and Chinese. Ibn Battuta states, 'At that time trade was carried on on an extensive scale between China and Malabar.

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'The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called *chunks*, middle-sized ones called *zaws* (dhows), and small ones called *kakams*. The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited like mats. They are never lowered, but turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind. A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and arbalists, who throw naphtha. Each large vessel is accompanied by three smaller ones, the "half", the "third", and the "quarter". These vessels are built only in the towns of Zaytun and Sin-Kalan (Canton). The vessel has four docks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupant, who takes along with him slave girls and wives. Often a man will live in his cabin unknown to any of the others on board until they meet on reaching some town. The sailors have their children living on board ship, and they cultivate green stuffs, vegetables and ginger in wooden tanks....Some of the Chinese own large numbers of ships on which their factors are sent to foreign countries. There is no people in the world wealthier than the Chinese.'⁷