Jan Company in Coromandel 1605–1690: A Study in the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies

244 Pages·1962·9.866 MB·English

by  Tapan Raychaudhuri (auth.)

JA.N COMPA.NY IN COROMA.NDEL
160$-1690
VERHANDELINGEN
VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR
TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE
DEEL 38
JAN COMPANY IN COROMANDEL
1606-1690
..4 Study in the Interrelatfon• o/ Europeon Commeree
and Tradltlonal Eeonomles
BY
TAPAN RAYCHAUDHURI
Reader in Economic Hi&tory, Delhi School of Economic•
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
1962
To the memory of our guru
Sir Jadunath Sarkar
whose life and work will ever remain a source
of inspiration to historical researchers in lndia
A 17th Century Dutch map of Peninsular India
Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com
ISBN 978-94-017-6372-1 ISBN 978-94-017-6380-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-6380-6
CONTENTS
Page
Preface VII
Abbreviations XII
Chapter I. The Background 1
Chapter II. The First Phase, 1605-1629 . 15
Chapter III. A Period of Expansion, 1630-1658 39
Chapter IV. From Prosperity to Decay, 1659-1690 59
Chapter V. Trade with other regions 75
Chapter VI. Rivals in trade . . . . 91
Chapter VII. The Export Trade: Problems and trends. 130
Chapter VIII. The Items of Export 157
Chapter IX. The Import Trade . 182
Chapter X. Administration and Social Life 199
Chapter XI. A Resurne . . . . . . . 209
Appendix A. Directors & Governors of the Dutch factories
in Coromandel . . . . . . 217
Appendix B. Profit & loss account of the Dutch factories
under the Coromandel government 1626-1690 219
Appendix C. A note on some varieties of Coromandel cloth 221
Appendix D. Currency & weights . 223
Select Bibliography . 225
Maps
PBEFACE
Almost any historical study of the Asian economies has to tackle one
basic question, - their relatively unchanging character or 'stagnation'.
Explanations of this phenomenon have been attempted on various Ievels,
- oftener abstract and theoretical than concrete and empirical. Theo
retical approaches to the problern have generally suffered from one
serious Iimitation, namely, a failure to identify the precise extents of
stagnation which evidently varied from region to region and period to
period. Moreover, they have been concerned in the main with the
subsistence sector of the economy where production was primarily for
use or, at most, for limited exchange operations meant to secure the
wherewithal for the payment of revenue in cash, there was no accumu
lation of capital nor any localization of specialised productive activity.
The one possible force of change that might be generated in this sector
could consist in tensions threatening to break up the existing production
relations. Recent research indicates that such tension was not absent in
the Indian economy.l But even in the dassie case of Europe, the con
flicts within the structure of feudal production relations were not by
themselves sufficient to alter the Organisation and technique of pro
duction. Positive forces at work in the commercialized sector of the
economy provided the basis for the penetration of capital into produc
tion and the vast changes which followed. In the Asian economies of
the pre-industrial era, a monetized non-subsistence sector, - (which
had close links with the subsistence sector in Asia as much as in Europe),
- marked by accumulation of capital and specialization of economic
functions, was not absent. Its quantitative significance might not have
been very considerable, but a study of the problern of stagnation cannot
afford to ignore the failure or otherwise of this relatively more developed
sector to generate processes of change.
The 17th century, - a period when Asia was exposed to the power
ful impact of the European merchant capital,-offers a very convenient
field for the study of the responses of the commercialized sector in the
1 See lrfan Habib. Agrarian System of Mughal India (unpublished D. Phil.
thesis. University of Oxfordl.
VIII
traditional Asian economies to a positive external stimulus. The capacity
for and proneness to innovation may be gauged, and the factors built
into the structure of the economy which inhibited them identified,
through an analysis of the reactions of a particular region to the opera
tions of organized merchant capital. Comparison of the responses which
appear to have varied from region to region may afford a deeper insight
into the problem.
The present volume is a case-study built around this basic query.
The region selected is the coast of Coromandel, because its products
were among the chief pivots of the seventeenth century Euro-Asian
trade, and because the region had attained a high degree of commer
cialization. Besides, the trade in Coromandel ware covered an extensive
area from the Red Sea to Japan and thus offers an intimate glimpse
of the workings of the Asian economies. The specific concern of this
volume is with the trade relations of the Dutch East lndia Company
with the coast. They provide a unifying theme which yields itself easily
to detailed analysis of the interactions of European merchant capital
and a traditional Asian economy. Besides, during the greater part of
the 17th century, the Dutch played a dominant role in this vital sector
of India's commerce which remains to be appreciated fully. Their
activities dovetailed with those of other European nations operating in
the same area, - sometimes in co-operation, oftener in rivalry, - and
thus afford a vantage point for a study of the total complex of com
merce in the region. The expanding efforts of the Indian traders appear
as a significant element in this complex.
The picture which emerges is of interest to the student of European
mercantilism: it includes the workings of a monopolistic merchant com
pany in an alien and highly individual setting, the concrete problems
it had to encounter and the modifications in policy and technique con
sequenced by them. To the student of Asian economies it is significant
as revealing different levels of economic development within the broad
framework of relative stagnation. Furthermore, the picture is one of
growth-oriented impact, to use a very modern term, in the specific sense
of expansion of production and productivity. This result appears to
have been causally related to the competitive and expanding demand
created by the expansion of the export market through the activities
of the European companies and the absence of monopsonistic controls.
The results of the query, pursued along the lines indicated above,
are, however, far less statisfactory than one might desire. One gets at
best hints towards an answer rather than the answer itself. Systemarie
IX
quantitative data for production, import and export are not available.
The sources refer casually to the techniques and organisation of produc
tion, rather than describe them at length. Conceivably, a person better
equipped than the present author might construct from such elusive
data a sharply outlined analytical account of the processes at work.2
I have preferred the more pedestrian approach, - the method of
detailed narration comprising the significant data, - as being the more
realistic in the circumstances. The conclusions which emerge have been
brought together in the last chapter. Anyone using this volume may
find it advantageous to read that chapter first. The volume includes a
narrative account of the annals of the Company on the coast (Chapters
II - IV). This account contains details that are not of obvious economic
significance; but, for a full understanding of the centrat story, I con
sidered its inclusion necessary. Besides providing a chronological frame
work, it illustrates the institutional background, the quick reactions of
the economy to the political changes and the concrete situations within
which the Company had to function. A description of the Company's
administrative organisation and the social life of the Dutch on the coast
has also been included, the former as an aid to the understanding of
much that was happening, the latter, to give a glimpse of the complex
human reality interwoven with primarily economic efforts.
The present work is mainly based on the voluminous records of the
Dutch East India Company preserved at the Algemeen Rijksarchief,
The Hague. The full importance of this archival material for the study
of Asian economic history is beginning to be appreciated only in recent
years. Dr. Glamann's major work on the Dutch-Asiatic trade and the
two excellent volumes on the Dutch in Ceylon,3- all published within
the last five years, - indicate the variety and volume of data contained
in these records. For the student of Indian economic history in the 17th
and 18th century, these records are at least as important as the English
factory records. The information supplied is often much fuller and more
detailed. The Dutch records arealso better organised than their English
counterparts and much more complete. It is hoped that this volume will
convey some idea of the richness of this little-exploited source material
for Indian history. The Bibliography at the end describes the Dutch
Company records at some length.
2 One may refer in this connection to Mr. John Irwin's very able papers,
"Indian Textile Trade in the Seventeenth Century", Journal of Indian Textile
History, No.s 1-4.
a See Bibliography.