Description
This book explores the mercantile activities of Tamil Hindu and Muslim merchants in the Southeast Asian ports of Melaka, Manila, Banten, Mergui, Tennaserim, Ayutthaya, Pasai, Pedir, Aceh, Kedah, Perak, and Penang after the advent of the Europeans. It establishes significantly how capital, markets, and maritime trade were being transformed and extended much more widely across Malaya, Java, Sumatra, and Thailand. Based on extensive original European sources, the volume reveals the import and export of commodities and the trading networks developed between royal courts and Tamil merchants occupying the posts of harbour-master, prime minister and chancellor of the treasury, supreme commander of the navy, police chief and taxation official, and royal merchant. It describes the multi-faceted nature of trading and the wide scope of commodity chains, and the many tensions while competing with European trading rivals. It contributes to current scholarly debates on colonialism and the nature of intra-Asian maritime trade. About the Author S. Jeyaseela Stephen was the directeur (2013-2023) of Institut pour études Indo-Européennes. He was Professor of Maritime History (2001-13) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He has authored numerous books including The Coromandel Coast and its Hinterland: Economy, Society and Political System (ad 1500-1600) (1997); Expanding Portuguese Empire and the Tamil Economy (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries) (2009); History of the Climate Change on the Coromandel Coast: Ninth-Nineteenth Centuries (2023); Slaves from the Tamil Coast and European Trade Around the World, 1547-1792 (2025); Law and Justice in Colonial Madras, Pondicherry and Tranquebar, 1642-1857 (2026). His books have been translated into Chinese, Danish, German, and Tamil. He is the recipient of the best book prize of 1999 from the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Thiru Vi Ka Award of 2023 from the Government of Tamil Nadu.
