------------------------------------------------------------------------
/The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century/.
By R. J. BARENDSE. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. Pp. xvi +588. $85
(cloth); $34.95 (paper).
This book has been a long time in the making. It began as a doctoral
dissertation in the Netherlands; the first overseas research was carried out
in India in 1987-1988; the dissertation was completed in 1992; an earlier
version of the book was published in Dutch in 1998; and the current book was
published in 2002. In the process, Rene Barendse has become a respected
academic colleague of some of the best and brightest in the field; people
such as Andre Gunder Frank and Michael Pearson thank him for references that
he has provided. In terms of scholarship one would think his book to be
first-rate. *1*
Geographically Barendse focuses on the trading centers of the Arabian Sea,
which he designates "'an archipelago of towns' (or rather towns and their
wide surroundings) populated by traders, mariners, and fishermen living
within various /natios/, autonomous communities that linked the various
coastal areas." He sees this maritime region as constituting an "Indian
Ocean World," quite in keeping with the nowadays dominant views of scholars
like K. N. Chaudhuri, Frank, and Pearson.
His time period is 1640-1700, "the age of Dutch predominance in the waters
of the Indian Ocean, and in a broader sense the era of the great monopoly
companies."
Indeed, two of his major themes are the competition among the great European
trading enterprises -- the Portuguese Estado da India, the Dutch VOC, and
the English EIC -- and the eventual emerging superiority in trade of the
Europeans over the indigenous traders. The Europeans emerged predominant in
this trade largely because of the massive support of their increasingly
powerful states. In the process, the Europeans reorganized the Arabian Seas
trade:
In the beginning of the seventeenth century the contribution of the
Arabian seas to world trade mainly centered on bullion, gold, pearls,
diamonds, pepper, and to some extent, silk. By the end of the
seventeenth century, worldwide trade had emerged in various bulk
products from the Arabian seas demanding a massive outlay of land and
labor including sugar, indigo, coffee, saltpeter, tobacco, cotton, and
even rice and grains, as well as bulk-manufactured goods like calicoes.
One can also speak of a growing world market for labor: not only slaves
but also indentured labor and mercenaries.
Barendse's theses are, again, quite consistent with contemporary scholarly
views. His greatest contribution is to support these assertions with massive
scholarship gleaned from archives in England, Portugal, India, and, most of
all, the Netherlands. The detail is often overwhelming. *3*
In addition, there are peculiar omissions. For example, Barendse notes that
Pearson's recent work on the East African coast, /Port Cities and Intruders:
The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era/, alerted him
to the need to give greater emphasis to East Africa, but for the most part,
with the exception of Madagascar, he does not do so. Nor, unfortunately, is
he as clear as Pearson on the need to show systematically the connections
between trade on the coast and trade inland -- in Africa and elsewhere. *4*
Following Barendse's general introduction, chapter 2, titled "Ports and
Hinterlands," presents a 57-page, 252-footnote gazetteer of the ports of the
Arabian Sea beginning more or less in Mozambique and arcing around to
India's Malabar Coast. Three problems arose for me in this tour de force.
First, the accompanying maps are poorly placed and there are not enough of
them. The discussion of the East African Coast follows page 20; the relevant
map appears on p.331 (there is no index to the eight, apparently hand-drawn,
maps in this volume). Second, the relationship of coastal trade to interior
trade is not presented in a clear, systemic analysis (as Pearson does for
East Africa), partly because, third, like a gazetteer, the narrative
discusses specific details for each port rather than analyzing any one of
them fully. The detail of this chapter left me fatigued, but, to Barendse's
credit, with a deep appreciation of the diversity of these ports and their
trading cultures. *5*
Chapter 3, "European /Natios/ in the Arabian Seas," surveys the many
different communities of European traders in the port cities. Noting that
previous scholars have called these communities "trade diasporas," Barendse
adds that they often had legal authority over their own members and in
negotiating with other communities and with the host nation. Because they
were competitive, these European natios often quarreled violently, but
because the host countries often viewed them collectively as more or less
all the same, they frequently cooperated. *6*
One of the fascinating surprises in this chapter is Barendse's discussion of
"Women: Caryatids of Empire." Since wives often survived their husbands'
deaths, and since husbands were often away on extensive business travels,
many women came to assume great power in business, not only European women
but also locally chosen brides who became "transfrontier women," that is,
women who crossed over into fully European identities. Barendse describes
several of the local women who became for the Europeans indispensable guides
and links into indigenous society. *7*
Chapter 4, "Diplomacy and the State," sees European trading companies
"granted sovereign power" by their chartering governments, with the
understanding that "sovereignty could and would be enforced with arms if
necessary." As he then examines the legal and commercial interactions
between the traders and the host governments, Barendse underlines the
frequent corruption and cheating that marked the behavior on both sides.
Each tended to look at the other as somewhat unscrupulous and therefore
deserving of unscrupulous treatment in return. *8*
Chapter 5, "The Merchants' World," illustrates through a series of vignettes
the nature of trade, the importance of trade information, and the desire to
hedge commercial bets through balanced "portfolio investments." The chapter
includes a comparison of maritime and overland commerce (that leads far away
from the Arabian Seas), trading practices in Basra, the Coffee Revolution in
Yemen, and an analysis of the trade, traders, and trade practices of
Gujarat, a highly commercialized region to which Barendse returns
frequently. *9*
The 80-page, 372-footnote chapter 6, "The Tide of Trade," follows the fate
of several vital commodities in some detail throughout the Arabian seas and
beyond: bullion, indigo, textiles (especially in Gujarat), pepper, and
slaves (especially in Madagascar). Chapter 7 considers the Portuguese
trading projects in India; chapter 8 the Dutch East India Company (VOC);
chapter 9 the English East India Company. Surprisingly, the Portuguese get
the longest, most detailed coverage; the Dutch get the briefest. Barendse
analyzes and compares the workings of each. The Portuguese lost out because
they did not operate cohesively; private traders undercut the potential
wealth of the state and "any collective enterprise was immediately ruined by
private greed." In addition, Portugal was distracted from the Arabian seas
by warfare with Spain and by its holdings in the Americas. From 1640 to
1700, Barendse sees the VOC emerging as the most powerful of the European
trading ventures because of the strong support of the state, the success of
the Netherlands as banker and shipbuilder in Europe, and the greater unity
of its efforts?despite corruption on the part of many of its
representatives. By 1700, the English were only beginning to reach the
height of their powers. *10*
Chapter 10, "Private Deals," discusses the extension of European trading
across the Atlantic, linking the Arabian seas, Europe, Africa, and the
Americas into a single web of trade, often through smuggling and piracy in
contravention of mercantilist legislation designed to limit these links.
*11*
"Afterthoughts" conclude the book: "In my view, the modern world-system
emerging in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was based on Europe and
European enterprise" slanting "the terms of trade of the world-system to the
advantage of Europe rather than of Asia for a long time." A "global process
of product substitution" took place in which Indian, Arab, and Persian
products such as indigo, silk, sugar, pearls, cotton, and later on even
coffee were replaced by products from other regions, mostly the Americas.
The nations of the Arabian seas could not resist this trend. They lacked the
technology, they could not overcome the armed power of the Europeans, and
their own merchants had allied themselves with the European merchants and
could not now break free. *12*
Conceptually, Barendse is in line with current thinking about international
trade networks, but not ahead of it. His biggest contribution is the
original detail he brings to his study, based on many years of doctoral and
post-doctoral archival research. For me, this detail often proved
overwhelming and distracting, combining extraordinary scholarship with
occasional pedantry, without providing clear guideposts as to what was
forest and what was trees. All readers, however, will roundly applaud
Barendse's apparently tireless efforts in filling out our picture of the
Indian Ocean trade of the seventeenth century. *13*
HOWARD SPODEK
/Temple University/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
History Cooperative database
##########################################################################
# Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] #
# PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts #
# More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ #
# Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others #
##########################################################################
