The Asian Trade Revolution: The East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade

Niels Steensgaard

Published by University of Chicago Press 1975

The Asian Trade Revolution

The East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade

Niels Steensgaard

https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226771458

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this work Neils Steensgaard combines an analytical economic approach with detailed historic scholarship to provide an imaginitive and important analysis of a central incident in modern world history. The event is the breaking of the Portuguese monopoly on Asian trade in the seventeenth century by English and Dutch mercantile interests. This change the author demonstrates, was not simply the triumph of the new powers over the old. Rather, the Dutch--English victory heralded a structural change in international trade: the triumph of entrepreneurial capitalism over the older economic mode of the "peddler-merchant."

Professor Steensgaard's study is divided into two major parts. The first examines the economic and political structure of the seventeenth century institutions in the Near East, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands. The author demonstrates that the rise to preeminence of the English and Dutch East India Companies over the Portuguese "State of India" was the result of the superior economic and bureaucratic organization of the former. The eclipse of Portuguese power in general, the author argues, is best understood as an institutional failure–an inability to adapt to changing patterns and demands of economic life.

The second part of Professor Steensgaard's study provides a detailed historical account of an important event in the fall of the Portuguese trading empire–the loss of the city of Hormuz in 1622. Hormuz, located at a strategic point at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, was a central port city on the Asian trade route. It fell to an English and Persian force. The author demonstrates why this event exemplifies the Portuguese institutional weaknesses that are discussed in the first part of the book.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	3
Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	4
Maps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	4
Diagram Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	4
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Part I. The Fall of Hormuz, a Comparative Study
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
Chapter I. The Peddling Trade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Chapter II. The Redistributive Enterprizes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Chapter III. The Companies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
Chapter IV. The Fall of Hormuz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Part II. The Loss of Hormuz. People and Events
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Chapter V. The Dream of a Great Alliance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Chapter VI. Hormuz is the Question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Chapter VII. The Loss of Hormuz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Part III. After Hormuz
Chapter VIII. The Losers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345
Chapter IX. The Attempt at Redirection of the Silk Trade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Chapter X. Instead of Hormuz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	398
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	412
Appendix. Currency and Weights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415
Manuscript Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	424
Printed Sources and Modern Works Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	426
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	435

Language: English
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Copyright year: 1975
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 442
Keywords: east india companies; caravan trade; asia; asian; economics; economy; history; historical; world; international; transnational; portugal; england; netherlands; exchange; mercantile; routes; entrepreneurial capitalism; 17th century; political; politics; power; failure; hormuz; institutional weakness; change; commerce; europe; colonialism; persian gulf; dominance; monopoly

eBook

Published: March 15, 2017
ISBN: 9780226771458