IDENTIFYING THE CHIEF TRADING EMPORIUMS IN INDIAN OCEAN MARITIME TRADE c.1000-c.1500
Keywords:
Indian Ocean, Sea Trade, Ports, Trading EmporiumAbstract
Sea-ports constituted an important part in Indian sea trade. Ports were instrumental in attracting sea traffic. Ports occupied cosmopolitan space owning to the confluence and presence of foreign and indigenous merchants. The state had to tread a cautious path because atrocities and misgovernment might result in exodus of merchants to a new place. No modern work has managed to study the chief characteristics of main ports (Trading emporiums), between c. 1000-c. 1500, which could be identified throughout India irrespective of time and space gap. Even the contemporary accounts of Ibn Battuta, Duarte Barbosa and Tome Pires distinctly recorded the emergence of trading emporiums. Security, Justice, availability of raw materials and mercantile autonomy resulted in enhanced socio-economic activities which necessitated gradual transformation of a simple port into a ‘Trading Emporium’. Prominent politico-economic regions of India like Sind, Gujarat, Konkan, Malabar, the Coromandel, Orissa and Bengal have been taken into account with help of both primary and secondary sources to identify main ports (Chief Trading Emporiums). The research paper also aims to study the basic principles which help these ports to attract such a large volume of sea traffic.
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