CHAPTER2

The Historical Setting: The West Coast and the Establishment

of the Portuguese Enterprise

Physical geography of the west coast

The Indian sub-continent has two major coastlines classified essentially

according to their location as the West and the East Coast~ The Deccan plateau,

formed essentially of lavaic soil separates the two coast~ The plateau which forms a

large part of the peninsula is separated from the northern plains by the Vindhyas; it

tapers as it stretches further South, and is also bounded laterally by the two mountain

ranges or ghats, namely the Eastern and Western. In the writing of many authors, the

South is . homogenised into a distinct cultural and geographical entity vis-a-vis the

North aided no doubt by a geographical distinctness offered by the Vindhyan divide

and the terrain in comparison to the flat alluvial Gangetic plains of the North. My

attempt here is not to pointedly contest this understanding, but to look into the

physiognomy of the region that concerns our study, namely the western coastline and

thereby in some way represent the Southern diversity.

In most studies of the West Coast, the region that is taken into consideration

begins with the Konkan coastline south of the river Tapti and moving southwards.,.~

Perhaps, this is due to the geographical unity that this strip represents, but the coastal

area is a contiguous stretch extending to the shores of Gujarat. In fact through much

of the medieval period, the north Konkan region was under the political sway of the

sultanate of Gujarat considering that the region was more accessible to the southern

Gujarat plains than to the rulers of the Deccan. 1 Spate divides the Gujarat region into

three zones, the Kutch, Kathiawad, and the Gujarat zones, all three having generally

low alluvial coastlines, unhindered by any mountainous region except the salt marshes

and mud-flats of the Rann of Kutch.2 The width of the rest of the western coastal

1 P.M. Joshi, Historical Geography of Medieval Deccan in H.K. Sherwani and P.M. Joshi (eds.), History of Medieval Deccan, (1295-/724), Vol. /. Govt. of Andra Pradesh, 1973, p. 18.

2 O.H.K. Spate and A.T.A. Learrnonth, India and Pakistan, Gt. Britain, 1967 (3'd Edition), p. 44, 23.

•28

strip, from Tapti to Kanyakumari (a distance of some 880 miles/1,610 km), from the

sea to the ghats extends from anywhere between 30 and 80 kilometres, progressively

getting broader as one moves south. Similarly, the mountains get higher as one

progresses southward rising from about 3000-4000 feet (915-1,220m) in the northern

reaches to 8, 760 feet (2,670m) in the Nilgiris.3 The ghats, block the annual Monsoon

rains from easy access into the hinterland of the Deccan plateau thereby causing

excessive rainfall in the coastal regions from the months of June to September. The

average annual rainfall in these regions can be as high as 250 centimetres.

Besides the coastal region of Gujarat, the west coast of India has been divided

into three zones, culturally and politically distinct from each other, namely the

Konkan contiguous with Maharashtra, Kanara contiguous with Kamataka, and the

Malabar in Kerala.,l"he Konkan e:icteitds for about 350 miles from Daman in the North

to the region of Goa.; Joshi further divides the region to the North and South with

Bombay being the meeting point.4 The north Konkan region is wider than its southern

counterpart by about ten miles, and consists of the flat alluvial beds of the lower

courses of essentially three rivers namely the Surya, the Vaitama and the Ulhas. South

Konkan on the other hand has a narrower shoreline, with the ghats forming a rather

immediate sea wall. The rivers are shorter and are merely seasonal. The soil therefore

is not fertile. However, the mountain slopes here boasted of thick jungles with dense

tropical vegetation especially teak, used by the Portuguese for shipbuilding.

l'o the south of Goa lies the Kanara region extending to the port of Mangalore,

which traditionally formed the boundary with the Malabari principalities. The

northern half of the Kanara region, contiguous with south Konkan is essentially

highland with small alluvial, riverine lowlands. In the southern half of the region,

from Bhatkal to Mangalore, the hills recede to more open flat land. The region is

fertile traditionally growing rice, spices, palms and the forests producing excellent

timber in the form of teak. The Malabar south of the Kanara has the widest coastal

breadth in the entire western coastline.

3 Ibid. p. 24. 4 Joshi, Historical Geography of Medieval Deccan, pp. 17-18.

29

Access from the coast to the Deccan hinterland in the medieval period always

presented a difficulty. While in the Malabar region, the Palghat gap provided a natural

bridge to the eastern coastline, and thus greater accessibility to the hinterland the same

was not the case in the Konkan. A few passes like the Bhor and the Thal ghat there

provided scope for communication, but the thick jungles and high mountain passes

meant the independence of the local chieftains from the more powerful rulers of the

Deccan.

Political configurations

The geographical restrictions placed on the west coast by the Arabian Sea as

well as the mountain range has given the region a political formation quite distinct

from the hinterland, yet not altogether set apart from it.

Northern Konkan due to its geographical proximity and accessibility from

Gujarat were always under the Gujarat sultanate. In the period prior to the arrival of

the Portuguese, the political conditions in the rest of the Konkan Konkan and its ports .

had not always been smooth due to changing political equations. The Bahamani and

the later Sultanate rulers had always tried to maintain some kind of holdbut with

varying success. In 1472 Mahmad Gawan, the Bahamani minister had managed to

bring the region from Chaul in the North to Goa in the South under their control. 5 In

the event of the break up of the Bahamanis, the Nizam Shahis acquired the port of

Chaul and its outlying areas while Dabhol and Goa went to Bijapur. As Centres of

economic exchange however, the ports of the Konkan were always overshadowed by

the ports ofGujarat and the Malabar mainly because ofthe lack of proper connectivity

with the inland states.6

The Kanara region till the 14th century had remained independent, until it was

brought into the ambit of the Vijayanagara rulers. Despite the political hold that the

Imperial rulers had on this region, local chieftains had de facto control. Imperial

governors lived at the Vijayanagara capital and expected to get only some form of

5 Joshi, Historical Geography of Medieval Deccan, p. 19. 6 Meera Kosambi, The Konkan Port and European dominance: An Urban Perspective, in A.R.

Kulkarni, et al eds. Medieval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume in Honour ofP.M Joshi, p. 109.

30

tribute. Thus the tributary chieftains at Gersoppa, Barkur/Bacanor, Mangalore,

Kumbala and Ullala among others retained effective control. Honavar, or Onor of the

Portuguese sources, in the principality of Gersoppa and Bhatkal in the principality of ·

Barkur were the principal ports of the region. The island of Anjedive, where Vasco da

Gama had first landed, before going to the Malabar also belonged to Gersoppa. 7 With

the eventual disintegration of the Vijayanagar Empire in the late 16th century, these

principalities became operatively independent, as did the other nayaka rulers in other

parts of the Empire. 8 The connection with Imperial government however had been the

fillip for internal and international trade in the region. According to K.V. Ramesh, the

importance of trade to the region is amply illustrated by the frequent references to

trade guilds in the sources. "The interest of the traders bringing their commodities

from outside for sale in Southern Kanara were well-protected by agreements entered

into by local traders. Thus the Barakuru [Barkur] inscription (A.D. 1430) ofthe reign

of Devaraya II, recording an agreement between the trading communities of Murukeri

and Chaulikeri of Barakuru, contains a clause reserving a particular place for the

foreign merchants to store the loads of sugar they bring from beyond the ghats. "9 In

the 17th century, the Keladi chiefs, better known as the Nayaks ofikkeri, who in 1499

had been bestowed the title ofNayaka by the Vijayanagara expanded westwards and .

obtained tribute from these chieftains. 10

Gujarat had come under the sway of the Sultanate of Delhi in 1298 when the

governors of Alauddin Khalji, Ulugh Khan and Nasrat Khan had attacked the '

Gujarathi ruler Karan. Sultanate rule with varying intensity of allegiance to Delhi

continued till 1407 when an independent Sultanate came to be established under Zafar

Khan. The history of independent Gujarat includes the extension of territories

admittedly for the increase of revenues to its North, East and coastal borders, keeping

them in conflict with not only the Raj puts but also the Bahamani ruler~ of the Deccan.

7 B.S. Shastry, Goa-Kanara Relations, 1498-1763, New Delhi, 2000. pp. 12-20. 8 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Political Economy of Commerce, Southern India 1500-1650, Cambridge,

1990, pp 32-33. 9 K.V. Ramesh, A History of South Kanara, Dharwar, 1970. p. 261. 10 B.S. Shastry, Goa-Kanara Relations, p.lll.

31

The Mughals put an end to the independence of Gujarat in 1573.11 Gujarat, as a zone

of coastal trade had gained prominent position in the western littorals by the early 15th

century. This was facilitated by the large hinterland it could cater to and be catered

by. Moreover, its inclusion into the territories of the Sultanate saw to it that

commercial links with the northern Gangetic plains had been strengthened.

At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, the Malabar was one of the two

regions in South India, which was not under the political influence of the

Vijayanagara rulers. Not much is known about the early history of the Malabar. While

sources like the Keralopatti and Kerala Mahatmyam exist, these are later

compilations. However, it is certain that by the 14th century the last of the Perumals

that tried to maintain some kind of supremacy over the entire region had lost power

and instead .became a collection of independent states with a few ruling dynasties

claiming superiority. 12 The region came to be subordinated between three main rulers

namely the Kolathiri rulers of Cannanore (Kolathunad), the Samudri ruler (Zamorin,

in Portuguese sources) ofCalicut (Kozhikode), and the Tiruvadi raja ofVenad. There

were several other chiefs but all of them owed some sort of allegiance to either of the

three mentioned above. Consequently territorial boundaries as well as political

alliances constantly fluctuated. 13 At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese the

Zamorin was regarded as among the most powerful in the Malabar, the reason being . .

the close relationship that the raja had cultivated with the Arab traders who thus

brought him economic prosperity. According to Innes, if it were not for the arrival of

the Portuguese, who by supporting the ruler of Cochin thwarted the Calicut advance,

the Arabs, would have succeeded in making the Samudri raja the most powerful ruler

in the Malabar. 14 This shows the tremendous amount of influence trade had on the

economy of the Malabar. The dependence on commerce by the rulers in this region

was essentially related to the land holding system, whereby in effect the rulers could

not have any taxable income from the lands of the kingdom. The two types of land

11 S.B. Rajyagor, History ofGujarat, N. Delhi, S. Chand and Co. Ltd, N. Delhi, 1952. pp. 141-175. Also seeS. C. Misra, The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat, London, 1963.

12 C.A. Innes, I.C.S. Madras District Gazetters, Malabar, Madras Reprint, 1951.p.41. 13 Subrahmanyam, The Political Economy of Commerce, 1990, p. 31. 14 Innes, Madras District Gazetteers, p. 42.

32

tenure, which existed, namely the janmam/ownership and the kanam/perpetual lease

ensured that the owners of these rights did not owe anything to the state and therefore

trade became the single most important source of revenue for the state. 15 Their

opposition to the Portuguese system of monopoly, which greatly affected their

economy was well-known leading Linschoten to remark, "[The Malabares] are the

greatest enemies that the Portingales have, and by sea doe them great mischiefe, they

are very strong and very courageous ... " 16

Coastal trade

According to Spate and Learmonth, the Indian coastline, barring the ·Gulf of

Cambay and the Rann of Kutch has very few indents. The West Coast has a number

of inlets dotting the coastline especially between Damao and Goa, but only Bombay

and Goa offer good-enough natural harbours. Thus despite the lorig :;oastal stretch, the

sharp and steep undulation of the ghats ·has deprived the region of accessible ports.

Consequently, one does not hear of ports superseding one another along this part of

the Konkan, and they serve their purposes for long stretches of time. In the Gujarat

region Cambay or Khambayat was abandoned due to silting in favour of Div, later

superseded by Surat.

The west coast has historically been the more active of the two coastlines;

"partly for reasons inherent in its own nature-a coast of numerous havens, creek or

roadstead, a narrow immediate hinterland with a few well-defined routes into the

interior and partly by virtue of its location facing the intercontinental nodes of south

west Asia." i 7

Western travellers of the age of Renaissance have left us vibrant accounts of

the few but bustling and busy ports of the west coast of India. Ludovico di V arthema

who travelled in Asia from 1502-1508, narrates to us the ports he visited on the west

Coast of India. These included Diuobandierrumi or 'Diu, port of the Turks', Combe ia

or Cambay, G6gha!Gogo or Goa, Cevul or Chaul, Dabuli or Dabhol, Bathacala or

15 S.F. Dale, The Miippi{as of Malabar 1498-1922: Islamic Society on the South Asian Frontier, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980. pp 16-19.

16 The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies/From the Old English Translation of 1598. Vol. l. Ed. A. C. Burnell, London, 1845, p. 277.

17 Spate and Learmonth, India and Pakistan, p. 642.

33

Sadasivagarh, Anzediva or Anjediva, Onor or Honawar, Mangalor or Mangalore,

Canonor or Cannanore and Cali cut. In all these ports V arthema was amazed at the

volume of trade that was taking place. With regard to Diu he remarked, "There is an

immense trade in this city. Four hundred Turkish merchants reside here constantly." 18

Cambay on the other hand was supplying " ... all Persia, Tartary, Turkey, Syria,

Barbary, i.e. Africa, Arabia, Felix, Ethiopia, India, and a multitude of inhabited

islands with silk and cotton stuffs. So that this Sultan [Sultan Mehmud Begarha] lives

. with vast riches." 19

Considering the isolation from the hinterland, the coastal regions developed

maritime trading relations beyond their own zones. Sub-regional specialisation in

terms of agricultural produce as well as manufactures led to inter-dependence even

within the western coastal ambit. The Mdlabar, which was deficit in rice, came to

import from the Kanara region, which produced spices as well. Cotton from the

Gujarat region was famous and it became an important commodity of exchange. The

Konkan ports exported the products of the Deccan hinterland like the Deccani black

beads, cotton etc. According to Lotika Vardarajan, the ports of the western coast were

not only . seaward looking but also traded with the hinterland beyond the ghats?0

Consequently, the attempts of the rulers in the hinterland were often directed to bring

these ports within their ambit. Goa for instance was a port that was contested for by

the Bahamanis and the Vijayanagar rulers because of the horses that came through

this port from Arabia. With increased use of cavalry in the Deccan, the horse became

an important commodity as its use determined success in times of war. According to

Albuquerque, the famous commander of the Portuguese fleets who conquered Goa,

"Through this harbour of Goa was always the principal passage to the kingdom of

Narsinga (Vijaynagar) and of Daquem (Deccan); and for this reason it contained

much merchandise, and large caravans of merchants came from the interior country in

quest of it, and brought other commodities in exchange. And from this commerce

18 The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508, translated from the Original Italian Edition of 1510 by John Winter Jones, London, 1863. p. 38.

19 Ibid. p.46. 20 Lotika Varadarajan, Konkan Ports and Medieval Trade, Indica, Vol. 22, No., I, March 1985, pp. 13-

15,9.

34

which they had one with another the inhabitants of Goa grew so prosperous that it was

said that Goa i~ those days alone had a revenue of two hundred thousandpardaos."21

In the transactions at the ports there was no marked change in ·'the commodity

structure, though there could have been an increase in volume and kind right up to the

period of the rise of Bombay as an important port. Incense, textiles and semi-precious

stones, horses, areca nuts, betel leaves, food provisions, lacquered furniture were the

main commodities exchanged during the mecl._iev-~1 period through the Konkan ports. 22

Meera Kosambi adds to this understanding by saying that the direction of

these ports differed when one considers "the indigenous phase" and the "European

phase." In the former period, the ports of the Konkan "were dependent on direct

connections with their inland and coastal land-based powers whose support and

patronage were usually crucial-for their sustenance. The European ports, on the other

hand were peripheral to the Maharashtra region in both the geographical and

commercial sense, serving primarily as naval bases of maritime powers."23

In the case of Gujarat too, from the accounts of foreign travellers the

assortment of commodities available in its ports is revealed. At Diu, Barbosa

commenting on the thriving trade and the inter-connections between the regions

wrote,

The articles of merchandise brought hither by the Malabares are as follows: cocoanuts (great store), areca,jagra, emery, was, iron, Baticala sugar, pepper, gingee, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmegs, sandal-wood, brasil-wood, long peppers, and, besides these, many silks and other wares, which come from China and Malaca. From Chaul and Dabul they bring thither great store of woven cottons and linens and take them away again to Arabia and Persia. The traders who bring there goods take in return much silk cloth and country cotton, many horses, wheat, gingelly (and the oil go from it), cotton, opium, both that brought from Aden and that which they make in Cambaya, which is not so fme as the former. They also take many of the common silk camlets made in Cambaya, which are good and cheap. From India they also they bring many large carpets, taffety, cloth of scarlet-in-grain and other colours, spices and other things, and all these goods are carried by the folk of this country to Meca, Adem, Ormuz and other parts of Arabia and Persia, to such a degree that this town now has the greatest trade of any found in these regions; and yields such a sum of money that it is an astonishing thing, by reason of the bulky and precious goods that are here laden and unladen. Thus from Meca and Adem alone they bring hither coral,

21 The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India, Translated from the Portuguese Edition of 1774, with notes and an Introduction by Walter De Gray Birch, London: The Hakluyt Society, p. 95

22 Lotika Varadarajan, Konkan Ports and Medieval Trade, pp. 13-16. 23 Meera Kosambi, The Konkan Port and European dominance p. 108.

35

copper, quicksilver, vermilion, lead, alum, madder, rose water, saffron, gold, silver, (coined and bullion) in such abundance that it cannot be reckoned."24

According to Hajji Ad-Dabir, who wrote in the 16th century, "the port of Div

was never without merchants... More than one hundred ships sailed from it

throughout the year. The shore had more than one thousand importers and

exporters. "25

The Tdbaqat-i-Akbari mentions that upon the attack of Humayun of..the fort of

Champaner, the Mughals obtained not only gold but also, "the goods and fabrics of

Riim and Firang and Khata"26 Thus the ports of Gujarat fostered trade and supplied

goods to many other parts of the Indian Ocean trading world.

In his book Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean World, K.N. Chaudhuri

highlights the unity of the Indian Ocean world. This unity essentially implied the

dependence that the regions had on each . other due to the different geographical

production zones they belonged to and the subsequent differences in production in the

various zones. This unity was forged with the discovery of ~e rhythm of the

Monsoons, which enabled the crossing across the ocean fronts. Trade seems to have

been the main reason for these voyages, though adventurers, missionaries as well as

pirates also participated in the travel across the seas. The links across the Indian

Ocean stretched from the Mediterranean to the Far East, the South China Seas helped

by the fact of the growth of powerful zones of material consumption at the two ends,

namely the rise of Islam in West Asia and the powerful T'angs in the East. While

such commercial connections grew, South Asia's importance as the entrepot between

these two zones of consumption increased, as merchants not only had to make their

halts here due to the long hazardous journey, but also had to wait for the right winds

u The Book of Duarte Barbosa. An account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants. Tr. & Ed. Mane! Longworth Dames, 2 vols.London, 1918-1921. Vol. l. p. 129.

25 Abdullah Mul;lammad AI-Makki AI-Asafi AI-Uiughkhiini l;liijji Ad-Dabir, Zafar Ul Wiilih Bi Muzaffar Wa Alihi (An Arabic History ofGujarat), 2 Vols. Tr. M.F. Lokhandwala, (Henceforth, Hajji Ad-Dabir) Baroda, 1970, Vol. l. p. 105.

26 Khwajah Nizam ud-din Ahmad, Tabaqat-i-Akbari (tr. B.De, revised by B. Prashad.), Delhi, 1992, 3 vols. Vol. II. p. 56.

36

to take them across. 27 In fact according to Arasratnam, the South west coast of India

was given the Arabic name Ma'abar meaning 'bridge' or 'crossing' precisely because

of this function that it performed.28 South Asia's position also grew because of the

wider diffusion of its products in the commodity exchange. Kenneth McPherson in

fact discusses them in terms of two interlocking mercantile information networks in

the Indian Ocean, established from the beginning of the present era, with the Indian

coasts providing the link. In due course one cannot talk of two discrete trading worlds

as they interlink making way for more complex trading networks and trading

relations. 29

It is in this context, that we look into the region of our study, namely coastal

western India. The Indian west coast prior to the arrival of the Portuguese was

inextricably linked through trade across the Arabian Sea to the East African coasts as

well as the trading world of the Arabs. In fact the Malabar is know for its long-

standing trade relations with the West Asian and East Asian worlds. King Solomon, c.

1000 B.C. was supposed to have obtained his gold, ivory and apes from Malabar.30

The age-old exchange between the Arab trading world and the Indian west coast

included apart from items of luxury, spices and other novelties, the exchange of war-

animals including horses and elephants at an earlier period. India also exported

teakwood, grains and cotton. From the east coast of Africa on the other hand, slaves

were an important export, the Habashis we hear so often in India history, besides

exotic flora and fauna. 31 Not only were the trading relations with West Asia. Marco

Polo remarks that during his visit to the West Coast in the last decade of the thirteenth

century, the Chinese had their chief trade with the Malabar32

Trade in the Indian Ocean has been typically described as free, without any

attempts at monopoly by any trading group. However, recent research has shown that

27 K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the indian Ocean. An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 9-33.

28 S. Arasratnam, Maritime India in the 17'h century, Delhi, 1994, p. 1. 29 Kenneth McPherson, The Indian Ocean, A History of People and the Sea, Delhi, 1998, p. 122. 30 Innes, Madras District Gazetteers p. 27. 31 Simon Digby, The Maritime Trade oflndia in T.Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib (eds.) The

Cambridge Economic History of india, Vol. /.New Delhi, Orient Longman, 1982, pp. 125-159. 32 Innes, Madras District Gazetteers p. 37.

37

while there was no policy of conscious monopolisation, there was fierce competition

among the traders, which could also lead to armed conflict amongst merchant groups

and other acts of piracy. The western Indian Ocean essentially exported cotton,

cornelian and agate from Gujarat, spices, especially pepper from the Malabar, and rice

from the Vijayanagara ports on the Kanara. Trade could be coastal as well as intra-

regional across the Oceans.33 Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese there were two

main ports on the west coast that served as entrepots ("ports which served as

redistribution points for goods of the region and inter-regionally") in the International

trade that was taking place in the ambit of the Indian Ocean. Cam bay not only directly

exported goods from its own hinterland, which included cotton textiles, food grains

and indigo to the areas within its shipping radius, namely west Asia, the Malabar and

south-east Asia, but it was also a trans-shipment point for goods h·om these regions.

Thus Malabari pepper, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon, as well as Southeast Asian

cloves, nutmeg, mace, dyes and gums were sent onto West Asia from Cambay.

Calicut, and the Malabar on the whole as it lacked a large hinterland was more

dependent on the transhipment trade that was taking place through its shores, between

the Gujarat region, west Asia and southeast Asia. 34

These merchants were from all over the Indian Ocean world. According to the

Mirat-i-Ahmadi, "during the reigns of the Sultanate of Gujarat all sorts of men-noble

Sayyids, great Sufis, respected Ullamas and adventurers, traders of different countries,

Arabia, Persia, Syria, Rum, Sindh and Hindustan-came from time to time and settled

here, attracted by the beneficence, justice, equity and piety of its rulers." 35

Merchants trading on the west coast

The merchant categories that operated on the west cost of India can be

categorised on ethnic grounds as well as the nature of the tasks that they performed.

And India's shoreline boasted of several merchant groups that came to trade. Besides

33 M.N. Pearson, India and the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century, in Ashin Das Gupta and M.N. Pearson (Eds.) India and the Indian Ocean, I 500-/800, Calcutta, Oxford University Press, 1987. pp. 76-77.

34 S. Arasratnam, Maritime India in the 17'h century, 1994, pp. 37-38. 35 Ali Muhammad Khan, Mirat-i-Ahmadi. Ed. Nawab Ali (1927-1928), tr. M.F. Lokhandwala, Baroda,

1928, Supplement, p. 107.

38

foreign merchant communities chiefly Arabs, Turks and Persians, there were also

Khurasanis, Pathans, Jews and Armeni~s. Until the 15th century, there were ships

from China that reached up to the Malabar. The Indian merchant community

consisted predominantly of the Mapillas form the Malabar, Gujarathi Muslims as well

as the Baniyas who could be from both the Hindu and Jain communities. In fact there

were around the 16th century "in all 84 Jain and Hindu vaisya clans (ku/as) in Gujarat

and they saturated the commercial world. "36 Barbosa, the insightful_ traveller of the

early sixteenth ~entury in fact said of them that, " The Baneanes [of Gujarat] are great

merchants and traders. They dwell among the Moors with whom they carry on all

their trade. "37 Linschoten, whose observations are of a later period, still recognises

their predominance not only in Gujarat region, but the entire west coast and the range

of activitieS:i:hey indulged in.

The Gusarates and Banianes are of the country of Cambaia: many of them dwel in Goa, Diu, Chaul, Cochin and other places of India, because of their trade and traffick in marchandise, which they use much with all kindes of wares, specially all kinde of precious stones wherein they have great skill. They are most subtill and expert in casting of accounts, and writing, so that they do not only surpasse and goe beyond all Jewes and other nations thereabouts, but also the Portingales?8

In as far as mercantile operations were concerned, the traders could undertake

various kinds of responsibilities and these functions were not necessarily

compartrnentalised. The merchants who dealt in overseas trade could be the ship-

owners themselves or the nachoda (sea-captain) and other small time commodity

merchants who hired space on the ships. The majority of them were of this category,

though there were great ship-owners like Abdul Ghaffur of Surat in the 17th century

owned as many as twenty ships. Members of the ruling classes also made their

investments in trade, though they may not have actually traded themselves. There

were others who performed a range of activities in the trading world: wholesalers,

middlemen and brokers, financiers, shrojfs, and dealers in exchange and the minting

36 S. Arasratnam, Maritime India in the./ 7'h century, pp. 194. 37 The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their

Inhabitants, written by Duarte Barbosa and completed about the year 1518 A.D. (Ed) M.L. Dames, London, 1918.p. 110

38 The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten, pp. 252-253.

39

of coins, operating at the ports dealing with the commodities that came from the

hinterland as well as overseas. 39 Linschoten noticed the trade of such kind of

merchants even in the region of Goa. He wrote, "The Canaras and Decaniins are of

the country of Decam. Commonly called Ballagate, lying behind Goa; many dwell in

Goa ... they are traders ... buying from the Portuguese in bulk and selling it in retail.

They bring articles from the firme land into Goa ... "40 There is an interesting account

by Cesar Fredericke of the function ofthe brokers in Gujarat in the 16th Century.

There is in the city of Cambaietta an order, but no man is bound to keepe it, but that will ... There are in this city certain Brokers which are gentiles and of great authority, and have every one of them fifteene or twenty servants, and the Marchants that use that countrey have their Brokers, with which they be served: and they that have not bene there are informed by their friends of the order, and of what broker they shall be served. Now every fifteene days (New moon and full moon -when the tides are high and the boats can come in) that the fleet of small shippes entreth into the port, the Brokers come to the water side, and there merchants as soon as they are come on land, do give the cargason of all their goods to that Broker that they will have to do their businesse for them, with the marks of all the fardles and packs they have: and the marchant having taken on land all his furniture for his house, because it is needful that the marchants that trade to the Indies carry provision of household with them, because that in every place where they come they must have a new house, the Broker that hath received his cargason, commandeth his servants to carry the marchants furniture for his house home, and load it on some cart, and carry it into the city, where the Brokers have divers empty houses meet for the lodging of merchants, furnished onely with bedsteds, tables, chaires, and empty jarres for water: then the Broker sayth to the Marchant, Goe and repose your selfe, and take your rest in the city. The Broker tarrieth at the waterside with the cargason, and causeth all his goods to be discharged out of the ship, and payeth the custome, and causeth it to be brought into the house where the marchant lieth, the Marchant not knowing any thing thereof, neither custom nor charges. These goods being brought to this passe into the house of the Marchant,· the Broker demandeth of the Marchant if he have any desire to sell his goods or marchandise, at the prises that such wares are worth at that present time. And if he hath a desire to sell his goods presently, then at that instant the broker selleth them away. After this the Broker sayth to the Marchant, you have so much of every sort of the marchandise neat and cleare of every charge, and so much ready money. And if the marchant will employ his money in other commodities, then the Broker telleth him that such and such commodities will cost so much, put aboard without any manner of charges. The marchant understanding the effect, maketh his account; and if he thinke to buy or sell at the prices currant, he giveth order to make his marchandise away: and if hath commodity for 20000 dukets, all shall be bartred or solde away in fifteen dayes without any care or trouble: and when as the Marchant thinketh that he cannot sell his goods at the prise currant, he may tarry as long as he will, but they cannot be solde by any man but by that broker that hath taken them onland and payed the

39 Arasratnam, Maritime India in the 17'h century, pp. 179-183. 40 The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten, p. 256.

40

custome: and perchance tarrying sometimes for sale of their commodity, they make good profit, and sometimes losse: but those marchandise that come not ordinarily every fifteene dayes, in tarrying for the sale of them, there is great profit.'.41

The west coast of India prior to the arrival of the Portuguese thus boasted of a

vibrant trading economy with commercial practices and customs universalised and

understood among the mercantile community. Its trading contacts which were not

merely intra-coastal but across the Ocean expanses had had a long-standing tradition.

All this in effect made the trading ports of the west coast extremely cosmopolitan and

open to varying kinds of influences.

The state and commerce

In the study of trade and com.nierce in the Indian context, the role that the

State played vis-a-vis trade is an issue that has been taken up by several historians.

The historiography of this relationship has gone through various shifts. According to

one interpretation the medieval Indian. State was generally unconcerned with

mercantile activities. While different categories of traders and merchants did exist the

State followed a policy of "indifferent neutrality" towards them. Indian states were

considered ov~rwhelmingly dependent on agricultural revenues as the source of the

receipts for the state.42 Historiography has however shifted to one, which gives a more

central role to the merchants in state affairs, and the involvement of merchants in

influencing rulers.43 Coastal states, for instance have shown the importance that trade

was to their economies and the influence of the merchants especially in the Malabar.

Between these two extreme poles of interpretations, M.N. Pearson has pointed out on

the type of polity, which determines the nature of the relationship between the rulers

and merchants. While he agrees on the thesis of an isolated functioning by merchants

in large empires like that of the Mughal Empire matters were totally different in port

towns and port cities, which were juridically part of large empires but had some

degree of autonomy. The prime example for the latter would be Diu, which was part

41 The Voyage and travel of M Caesar Fredericke, Merchant of Venice into the East Indies, and Beyond the Indies, London, pp. 206-208.

42 M.N. Pearson, Merchants and States in James D. Tracy (ed) The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 56.

43 Arasratnam, Maritime India in the 17'h century, pp. 173-178.

41

of the Gujarat sultanate but whose governor functioned more or less independently. In

port towns, as the ruler's main source of income was from trade, he actively

encouraged trade providing the necessary infrastructure for the pursuance of such

kind of trade as was known. In port cities on the other hand merchants were

encouraged but not in quite the same was as in the port towns.44 While Pearson's

analysis for the port towns may be considered true, evidence for Gujarat shows the

intimate level of understanding that the. rulers had with regard to the trade off its

shores.

References by contemporary chroniclers prove that the rulers of Gujarat were

keen that the trade that passed through the ports of Gujarat were carried out

unhindered. While it is true that the control of the high seas is not visualised by them,

very often the Sultan of Gujarat would carry out expeditions to see to it that the coasts

would be free from the activities of pirates. From the sources also it is clear that the

Sultans, if powerful considered it their duty to protect those who lived off the sea, It

was reported to Sultan Mahrnud Begarha (r. 1459-1511) sometime around 1482 "that

a body of Malabaris had collected a large number of boats arid were harassing people

travelling by sea." On hearing this report, the Sultan who was on his way to

Champaner left everything else to arrange ships in order to attack the Malabaris who

fled soon enough. 45

Sultan Bahadur (r. 1526-1537) the Mirat-1-Sikandari informs us embarked on

a boat in 1529 with an army and travelled from Cambay to Diu and bought all the

piece goods and articles that had arrived in foreign vessels on behalf of the

government. Among the articles he bought were one thousand maunds of rose water.

He showed great kindness to the Turks from whom such articles had been obtained,

encouraged their trade by assigning Divas a place of residence for them.46

The Mirat also infers to the fact that baniyas were consulted by the Sultan

circa 1451 when Sultan Mehmud Khilji of Malwa was on his way to an invasion of ·

44 M.N. Pearson, Merchants and States in James D. Tracy (ed) The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, Cambridge, Cambridge university Press, 1991, pp. 61-73.

4s Nizamud-din Ahmad, Tabaqat-i-Akbari Vol. III, p. 262. 46 Mirat-1-Sikandari, the Mirror of Sikandar, (tr. Fazlullah Lutfullah Faridi, Gurgaon, 1990 Reprint. p.

164. (Henceforth Mirat-1-Sikandari)

42

Gujarat: The advice given by the baniya to the Sultan Muhammad Shad was to "flee

and dispose of his harem and treasures in ships, saying that the enemy like a dog

getting into an empty house would find himself at a wrong scent and go away."47

The importance of trade whether over land or across the sea seems to have

been grasped well by many other contemporary rulers of India. The prosperity of the

rulers of Gujarat was attributed to its vibrant trade by contemporary observers. Sultan

Sikander, the son ofBahlol Lodi was said to have remarked that while the kingdom of

Delhi depended on jowar and wheat for its revenues, the kingdom of Gujarat having

84 (sic) ports under its sway drew its revenues from pearls and corals. 48 We have no

evidence that pearl fishing took place here; therefore they were obviously being

obtained through trade.

The Mirat also records that Humayim uf,on tl!e invasion of Gujarat in 1534

was greatly impressed by the Sultan's wealth and things in his possession leading him

to remark that such "was evidently the property of a ruler possessing great maritime

power."49 Thus contemporary rulers also acknowledged the advantage of Gujarat

having a vibrant trade off its shores. Trade was intrinsic to the economy of Gujarat, as

it is everywhere else due to the need to acquire articles that were not locally available

or produced. Sultan Mahmud Begarha was determined to take the fortress of Girnar

and Junagarh " ... and ordered his Kurbegi (keeper of the royal armoury) to take with

him one thousand seven hundred swords of Egypt and Yemen and Maghrebi and

Khurasani and Alleymand ... and he ordered his master of the house (Akhtabegi) to

take with him two thousand Arabian and Turkish horses ... " 50

Around 1486/87, a group of merchants sent a petition toM. Begarha stating

that they were bringing along with them four hundred Iraki and Turki soldiers from

Khurasan and Irak with the intention of selling them in Gujarat. However at Mount

Abu, the Raja of Sirohi had seized all their property. They had come to the Sultan to

seek redress and the Sultan's response is interesting. He saw to it that the merchants

471bid., p. 25. 48 Ibid., p. 190. 49 Ibid. 50 Ibid., p. 54.

43

were compensated for their loss in gold from the Imperial treasury, as he would be

able to recover the loss from the Raja of Sirohi. This incident proves how intere.sted

the rulers ofGujarat were in fostering trade. 51

Ferishta also informs us of the fact that the rulers of Gujarat often kept a fleet

and did not shy from using it in order to fight battles at sea. For instance in 1428,

Ahmad Shah I of Gujarat deputed his son Zafar Khan to retake the island of Mahim,

which had been conquered by the Bahamani rulers upon the death of the Gujarathi,, ·

governor. And "For this purpose, orders were sent to Diu, Gogo [Gogha] and

Cambay, to collect shipping and a fleet was formed consisting of seventeen sail."52

There was also an army that went by land via Thana. The Tabaqat-i-Akbari mentions

that the Sultan ordered the Kotwal of Dib (Diu) to get ships belonging to different

ports and that seven hundred ~hips were fitted out for this purpose. 53

The assassination of Mahmud Gawan the Diwan of the Bahamani kingdom

had led to a rebellion by his protege Bahadur Gilani at the port of Dabhol. Taking

advantage of the confusion that reigned at Bidar, Gilani extended his sway by

acquiring several ships and committed acts of piracy on the Gujarat Coast so much so

"that fear of his depredations had paralysed the trade of the ports of Gujarat." "They

say that for several days ships neither came nor went from or to the ports of Gujarat,

and that the sea-borne trade of Gujarat was so crippled that the people were reduced

to eat coriander seed with their pan in place of their betel nut or supari." The Sultan

of Gujarat was enraged at the situation and sent a force by land, which included

elephants as well as "three hundred

boats with well armed men furnished with both cannons and muskets against Dabhol

by sea. " 54 It is cle~ to us that the essential hypothesis that Asian rulers did not have

an interest in sea-trade, nor did they have fleets is amply proved to be wrong.

Contemporary Indian sources do not inform in very great detail about the

coming of the Portuguese. A reading of the sources show that events on land were

Sl Ibid., p. 72-73. 52 History of the Rise ofthe Mahomedan Power in India, Translated form the Original Persian of

Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, by John Briggs, Delhi, 1990 reprint. Vol. IV, p. 17. (henceforth Ferishta) 53 Tabaqat-i-Akbari,Vol. III. p. 214. 54 Mirat-1-Sikandari, p. 73-74.

44

definitely of far greater importance though . the Sultans were not unaware of the

conditions that existed on their shores. The Portuguese have recorded the victories

and defeats that they encountered in much more detail. However, the loss of control

that the Gujarathi rulers had over their shores was definitely moaned by the writer of

the Mirat-1-Sikandari. According to him, "During the government of the Malik

[Malik Ayaz}, the Firangi was unable to· enter the Gujarathi ports. Now, however by

degrees, things have come to such a pass that without the permit from the Firangi, a vessel dare not leave any of the ports of Gujarat, except Surat. .. "55

The first mention according to Briggs, translator ofFerishta, of the ·Portuguese

in the history ofGujarat is 1507. They had "of late years usurped the dominion ofthe

Ocean [and] endeavoured to occupy for themselves some port on the Guzerat coast,

on which they wished to settle ... "56 soon matters went to a head and eventually led to

the war in 1507, which ~ventually led to the defeat of the Portuguese and the death of

the governor's son. Hajji Ad Dabir tells us that the Sultan of Gujarat, Sultan Mahmud

upon hearing of 'Firangi activities' left Champaner "with the intention of jihad."57

Thus there was certain seriousness in intent of dislodging the Portuguese. The Sultan

thus sailed to Daman and thert to Mahim. At Daman, he ordered Malik Ayaz "to sail

from Div to attack the enemy"58 At the same time Amir Husain al Misri, sent by the

king of Egypt "arrived with two big ships and three boats" in order to expel the

Firangis. This was the first joint expedition against the Portuguese. 59 Ferishta

mentions that these ships sent by the rulers of Egypt were larger that what the

Gujarathi rulers were accustomed to seeing.60 But before we look at the Indigenous

response, it would be more· appropriate to have a brief survey of the Portuguese

Empire in Asia, which would be discussed in Section II.

55 Mirat-1-Sikandari, p. 84. 56 Ferishta, Vol. IV. p. 45. 57 Ibid., p. 34. 58 Ibid., p. 45. 59 Ha.iji Ad Dabir, Vol. I. p. 34. 6° Ferishta, Vol. IV p. 45.

45

Religion in the Indian ocean world

According to Chaudhuri the movement of people naturally involves "the

exchange of ideas, economic systems, social usage, political institutions and artistic

traditions." 61 Pertinent to our study is-the movement of culture and religion across the

Oceans along with the economic activities taking place. The transfer of Hinduism to

Southeast Asia and the establishment of Hinduised kingdoms for instance is well

known. There_ were thus "missionaries, priests, monks and craftsmen who sailed from

the Indian coasts to provide expertise and religious orthodoxy" to South East Asia

through migrations which had begun from the early centuries of the first millennium

of the present era. The same was true of Buddhism, which was transported to the

region from around the same period. Both religions were adopted adnused used by the

different local ruling groups of the region to enhance their authority and power

leading to the establishment of powerful kingdoms from essentially tribal polities. The

adoption of these religions, essentially among the elites was not superficial, but the

evidence especially in Java points to a sophisticated understanding of Hindu theology

and mystical practice. 62

McPherson also discusses the Indian Ocean not only as a medium for the

transfer of commodities, but also the exchange of religious beliefs. Not only was there

an integration of the two trading worlds, but the existence of several "cultural and

religious" worlds of the Indian Ocean whose boundaries slowly disappear. Buddhist

monks and laity also visited sacred sites and universities in Northern India and Sri

Lanka. Fa- Hsien is a well-known example of a Chinese traveller who between 413-

14 A.D. sailed from Southern China to Sri Lanka on a religious pilgrimage.-63

The rise of Islam in the seventh century and its spread further contributed to

the entire complex of religious exchange across the Oceans. Muslim communities of

neophytes as well as Arab traders were established from the eighth-century onwards,

61 K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation, p. 37 62 Colin Mackerras, Eastern Asia, An Introductory History, Cheshire, 1993, p.59. See also G. Coedes,

The Indian States of Southeast Asia, (Tr) Susan Brown Cowing, Honolulu, 1968. The author believes that Hinduism and Buddhism spread to Southeast Asia in the f"trst centuries of the present era rather than in the previous, as many are wont to think.

63 McPherson, The Indian Ocean, A History of People and the Sea, pp. 74-75.

46

from the East Coast of Africa right acros·s Asia. In the south East Asian islands Islam

took much longer time than Hinduism or Buddhism to establish itself among the

political elites. While traders had established themselves, it was only in the 13th

century that a Muslim kingdom could be established in Sumatra.64

The evidence on the Indian Ocean world point to an environment that was

religiously speaking, open to incorporation and change. The transfer of ideas,

simultaneous with the transfer of-commodities had an age-old tradition. The coming

of the Portuguese brought in several changes; at the same time they worked within an

already well-recognised framework of commodity exchange and transfer of religious

ideals.

II.

An overview of the Portuguese enterprise

Several historians have written about the arrival of the Portuguese. Their

arrival was significant not because of the fact that they travelled over large expanses

of water: voyages or migrations across the seas have been a recurring event within the

annals of human history, as Scammell informs us.65 The contribution of the

Portuguese was unique in several ways - though perhaps more for the Atlantic

trading world than for the Indian Ocean.66 But even within the Indian Ocean ambit

they did dominate the trading networks for at least a century and very often their

contributions are not as well appreciated as the later trading companies because of the

historical tool of hindsight, which facilitates a comparison.

C.R. Boxer termed the Portuguese Empire as a "Sea-borne empire", or a

thalassocracy as it was primarily dependent on trade across the Oceans. To ensure

their goals of monopoly on the trade of certain products of Asia the Portuguese

brought in elements of violence. They accomplished it through the establishment of a

64 Colin Mackerras, Eastern Asia, An Introductory History, p.65 65 G. V. Scammell, The First Imperial Age, European Overseas Expansion, c. 1400-1715. London,

1989. p.1. For an overall view of Portuguese expansion see C.R. Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, 1415-1825, London, 1969; see also a more recent work by A.J.R. Russel-Wood, A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia and America, 1415-1808, N.Y. 1993.

66 Felipe Femandez-Armesto, The Indian Ocean in World History in Anthony Disney and Emily Booth (Eds.), Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia, New Delhi, 200, pp. 11-30.

47

"chain of forts and factories" all across the littorals of the Indian Ocean, and armed

patrolling between these posts.67 On the west coast of India, they had their bases at

Cochin (1502), Cananore (1505), Goa (1510), Calicut (1513), Kollam (1519), Chaul

(1521), Bassein and Diu (1534) and between 1568-69, acquisitions on the Kanara

coast at Onor (Honawar), Barcelore and Mangalore.68

The understanding of the history of the Portuguese enterprise has seen several

historiographical shifts. The earliest English works in modem times concentrated on

the nature of the enterprise, which was seen overwhelmingly as royal monopoly in

order to control and direct trade in certain products from Asia to Europe. Following

this understanding, the decline of the enterprise was· seen in terms of the inability of

the state to protect its monopoly and due to its incapacity to compete with the traders

of the North European companies in the early 17th century. Such writings also

necessarily focussed on the deeds of the coloniser in their negotiations with the Asian

societies. 69

Research has also been directed toward the impulses to the enterprise that

arose out of several socio-economic compulsions in Portugal and in Europe, which

determined the fluctuating nature of involvement through the centuries. The

Portuguese policy was not necessarily a natural outcome of a single, avowedly

determined Portuguese plan. Their strategies emerged ·out of conflicts between

various political and social interests among the elites in Portugal, manifested in India

as well, besides being the natural corollary of their experience in North Africa.

The evolution of Portuguese society after the reconqista and the rise of Afonso

Henriques as Portugal's truly first king in the twelfth century (r. 1128-1185) had led

to the rise of a new social order. Afonso Henrique's attempts at centralisation of a

67 Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire ( 1969), pp. 51. 68 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700, A Political and Economic

History, London and New York, 1993, p. 72; A. R. Disney, Twilight of the Pepper Empire: Portuguese Trade in Southwest India in the Early 171h Century, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 1978, p. 3. For a complete list ofthe fortresses established in Asia by the Portuguese see Jose Manuel Garcia, Breve roteiro das fortifica~

politically disunited country, had in due course led to the rise of a landed aristocracy,

few in number, but powerful because they could compete with the rulers in wealth

and power. Most of Portuguese history during the period that ensued, even after the

rise of a new dynasty, the House of A vis in the fourteenth century, was a clash

between this landed class and their interests (characterised by independence from

centralised authority, crusading zeal etc.) and the king who was usually supported by

the middle bourgeoisie, which had developed due to the trade that the Portuguese had

come to engage in, the artisans and the poorer landed gentry (seeking honours,

privileges ·and honours from the king). 70 The zeal for overseas. expansion itself was

not without opposition in the Lisbon circles prior to the arrival of Vasco da Gama.

The nobility, unlike the Crown who was supported by mercantile elements continued

to have a "mentality that was resolutdy Iberian in its horizons, with North Africa

entering into the ken because it was seen as the frontier of Iberian expansion."71

In India the manifestation of this clash of interests in the early years have been

generally attributed to the differences between the policies followed by Almeida and

Albuquerque. D. Francisco de Almeida, the first Viceroy of India (1505-1509)

represented the interests of the upper nobility, who sought a certain independence

from the monarch and whose prime concerns included the enhancement of personal

wealth through methods best known to them. This in actual terms meant the forceful

appropriation on the high seas through piratical activities, rather than as honest

employees developing the mercantile interests of the Crown. 72 In the evolution of

Portuguese strategy Almeida, according to Danvers had "contemplated only the

establishment of factories in India and the maintenance of commercial relations ... " 73

The rationale for this action was the recognition by Almeida of the inability of the

metropolis to provide sufficient personnel to man territories in the Indies. Thus he

70 A.H. de Oliveira Marques, History of Portugal, Vol. I. From Lusiatania to Empire, N. Y, 1972. pp. 2-134. For a history of Portugal also see by the same author, History of Portugal, Synthesis of Portuguese Culture Series, Imprensa Nacional, Casada Moeda, 1991; Tom Gallagher, Portugal: A Twentieth Century Interpretation, Manchester, 1983.

71 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, Cambridge, 1987, p. 50 72 Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700, 1993, p.61. 73 F. C. Danvers, The Portuguese in India, Being a History of the Rise and Decline of their Eastern

Empire. Vol. I. London, 1894. p. xxviii

49

proposed the establishment of factories rather than forts that could be protected by the

maintenance of fleets. He wrote to D. Manuel "Let it be known for certain that as long

as you may be powerful at sea you will hold India as yours, and if you do not possess

this power, little will avail you a fortress on shore."74 Almeida propounded a system

of governance whose fundamental idea was the importance of sea power in the

control of trade. Thus sea power was advocated as opposed to_the development of the

Portuguese presence as a landed power.75 Affonso de Albuquerqu~'_s· vision was

distinctly different. He realised that an "armada sent out from Lisbon could not hope

to maintain those interests, nor to control the trade routes of the Indian Ocean from a

base three thousand miles away."76 In a letter to the king he urged him that the need of

the hour was the establishment of fortresses besides mere factories in order to secure a

hold in India; thus he had a more landed vision of Empire and it was during his

governorship (1509-1515) that the Portuguese acquired and established fortresses

including wha~ came to be the future capital, Goa. In Albuquerque's estimation the

challenge would have required the presence of at least 3000 Portuguese men at any

given point of time. 77

To such an understanding of the differing voices m the evolution of the

Empire Thomaz and Sanjay Subrahmanyam's 78 contribution is in highlighting how

through the course of the centuries there emerged two contrasting voices in India; that

of the Cochin coterie, essentially formed of the middle nobility and officially

recognised private traders79 who came to oppose Albuquerque's vision of empire.

74 Ibid., p.xxx 15 K. G. Jayne, Vasco da Gama and His Successors, p. 72. 76 Ibid., p. 102. . 77 Danvers, The Portuguese in India, Vol. I. p. xxxii. 78 Luis Filipe F. R. Thomaz, Factions, interests and messianism: The politics of Portuguese expansion

in the east, 1500-1521, in The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 28,1 (1991), pp. 97-109. Also see Subrahmanyam, The career and legend of Vasco da Gama ... 1981.

79 It is well known that these private traders amassed great wealth, power and influence for themselves bes'ides being involved in a range of trades and mercantile zones. A classic example would be Louren9o Correia Ribeiro. He "was a native ofCintra ... he sailed from Lisbon in Apr. 1586, and died at Macau on the 14"' Feb., 1598 ... He was not a poor man when he left Portugal; and "in war and in trade" he subsequently acquired more capital in Mo9ambique and in India. He was active for a short time in the slave trade of the Zambesi River valley. He made his will at Goa on the 10"' Apr 1597, on the eve of sailing for Macau, no doubt attracted by the flourishing state of the trade with China and Japan, which all contemporaries agreed was the most profitable form of commerce for anyone with sufficient capital. He reached Macau safely and started investing in the Canton trade, but died before

50

They were interested in trading and for them the issue was how trade was to be

controlled and organised so that they could indulge in it at a personal level. And

secondly, those who followed Albuquerque's vision of empire, which was centralised

and militaristic, offering little or no scope for private trading.80 Eventually, it was the

Albuquerque faction that succeeded in laying the groundwork for an empire based on

control and dominion of the high seas through the establishment of a network of forts.

Through the course of the Portuguese presence however, there were intervening

periods of opposition to such a centralised vision of Empire, especially manifested in

the vicereg~lships ofLopo Soares and M. Afonso de Sousa.81

M.N. Pearson characterised the nature of the Portuguese organisation as the

cartaz-armada-cafila system. 82 Through the system of the issue of cartazes or passes,

the Portuguese ensured monopoly, even as indigenous traders had now to carry passes

in order to conduct trade. 83 The passes also allowed for trade only in certain

commodities not claimed by the Portuguese. The armada and cafi/a84 system

guaranteed this monopoly, the former by seeing to it that native and Portuguese

trading and shipping was not at the mercy of pirates; the latter ensured Portuguese

control over commodities even as native shipping had to now travel in caravans or in

groups, protected by the armadas at particular times determined by the Portuguese.

Thus the Portuguese system as it evolved served the double purposes of controlling

and directing trade.

he could personally receive all the results of his investment ... [According to his will] he left the bulk of his estate to his widowed mother at Cintra; but he left substantial legacies to his two brothers, and 500 cruzados to provide doweries (sic) for ten poor orphan girls in the same town. He likewise made provision for the distribution of wheat to the poor on Christmas Eve, and for various charitable bequests. He freed a Malabar slave, but bequeathed others to his two brothers in Asia. Last not least, he made explicit arrangements for his funeral service and the saying of masses for his soul..." from C. R. Boxer, Casados and Cabotagem in the Estado da india, 16th -17th centuries, in Luis de Albuquerque and lm'lcio Guerreiro (ed), II Seminario lnternacional de Historia Indo-Portuguesa, Aetas, Lisboa, 1985, pp. 121-122.

80 Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700, 1993. p. 68. 81 Ibid. pp. 71, 89. 82 M. N. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat, The Response to the Portuguese in the Iff'

century. New Delhi, 1976, p. 40. 83 According to K.S. Mathew, the first cartaz was issued in 1502. cf. K.S. Mathew, Trade in the Indian

Ocean and the Portuguese System ofCartazes, in Newitt (ed.), Exeter Studies in History, 1986, p. 73. 84 Cafi/a from Arab. Kiifila; a body or convoy of travellers, a Caravan. Also used for a sea convoy.

Hobson Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, Wordsworth Editions 1996.

51

Pearson has also distinguished the nature of Portuguese trade according to the

nature of involvement. Their involvement was primarily of four strands: i) trade that

occurred on behalf of the Crown, by Crown officials, which essentially encompassed

the route between western India and Portugal. On most occasions such trade was

conducted on Crown ships or ships leased by the Crown from private individuals ii)

the intra-Asian trading network in which the Crown initially made claims to certain

r'ltit~s and which in course of time gradually underwent a "privatisation" iii) the

participation at a private level, be it by officials or non-officials and finally, iv) the

involvement at the level of issuance of cartazes which permitted a controlled local

participation in trade. 85 To these four kinds of involvement we perhaps can add

Boxer's fifth category of traders, namely the priests. In the seventeenth century, with

declining State resources, the priests especially the Jesuits participate in trade.86

Pearson's characterisation further highlights the fact that the Portuguese

enterprise could not solely be a royal mercantilist enterprise in which only the State

participated in trading for itself. The private presence, whether through corrupt

officials who profited off the system or Portuguese working outside of the system

(legitimately or even within the system), was an integral component of the Portuguese

presence. Pearson's analysis undoubtedly is true from the evidence available to us.

However, his explanations are more in the nature of an assessment of the kinds of

involvement that the Portuguese undertook for themselves and do not shed light on

the growth of the private commercial enterprise. It is true that one cannot gauge the

extent of this trade, but in recent times several historians have tried to understand the

nature of this private involvement.

According to A.R. Disney, right from the time that the Portuguese had braced

themselves to undertake trade there had been a certain amount of private participation

at the level of a financial involvement. In fact in the initial years after the return of

Vasco da Gama in 1499, a syndicate had been formed, which included the Crown and

certain private interests established in order to organise and exploit the trade route. It

85 Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat, pp. 33-39. 86 Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, p. 77.

52

wasonly from 1506 that the Crown had sought to accumulate all profits for itself by

proclaiming monopolies on the route and certain products, which included besides

pepper, cloves, nutmeg and mace (later extended to cinnamon, elephants and pearls).

However, despite the more discriminatory policy followed by the Crown, private

interests did not totally disappear even in Lisbon. Very often the ships were hired

from private contractors or cessionaries who loaned the funds to outfit and provision

them. The king repaid them out of the proceeds from the sale of spices, in Lisbon or

Antwerp once they landed in Europe. At other times the cargoes were sold to the

private investors at pre-determined prices. 87

According to Boyajian, in India too the Portuguese officials recognised very

early that private trade could not but exist, whether it was that conducted by native

traders or thtf~-Portuguese themselves. The emergence of the system of passes and the

a/fiindegas or customs houses gives credence to the hypothesis that private trade was

in fact a recognised aspect of Portuguese presence. 88 Thus rather than seeing the

Estado as an enterprise that was essentially geared towards facilitating a monopoly in

certain commodities for Lisbon, what emerged was a "two fold enterprise."89 The

Casa da indic1°, and the Portuguese Empire in Asia also known as the Estado da

india from the mid-15th cenn.iry/1 came to be as it were the two wings of the

87 A.R. Disney, Twilight of the Pepper Empire, pp. 71-72. 88 James C. Boyajian, Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, 1580-1640. Baltimore and London, 1993,p.4. 89 Ibid., p. 3. 90 The officials associated with the Casada India in the 17111 century, according to Afzal Ahmad

included the Provedor (purveyor) or Feitor, directly responsible to the king and under whom were six clerks, one Juiz do Peso (Judge of weights,) two guards, one porter, seven messengers, thirty workers to carry loads, one chaplain, four evaluators of goods and their prices, two goldsmiths for the evaluation of precious stones and metals, two pharmacists for the evaluation of drugs, one sailor with scribe. The Casada India, however was placed under a new body called the Conselho da Fazenda (Council of Finance) from 1591, which also came to look after the f'mances of the India trade. Afzal Ahmad, Portuguese Trade and Socio-Economic Changes on the Western Coast of India, /600-1663, Delhi, 2000, pp. 1-2.

91 The Estado da india was headed by a governor or viceroy (the post depended on the degree of nobility of the nominee) with a Council of State, which was formalised only in the second half of the 16111 century. Other than the governor/viceroy who was President, the other members included the archbishop, some prominentjidalgos of Goa, the head of the High Court and the Inspector of Finance (Vedor da Fazenda). Ibid. pp. 10-11.

53

Enterprise.92 The Casa in Lisbon through the Carreira voyages undertook the trade

between Europe and India and managed the overseas trading of the Crown. Its staff

managed the outfitting and lading of ships as well as the financing and later sale of the

products that reached its shoi:'es.93 The voyage to India regularised soon after the

discovery of the route (Vasco's voyage back and forth took two years) took about six

months in either direction, i.e. either to India or the return trip to Lisbon. Thus in a

year only one voyage could be undertaken, which itself was fraught with difficulties

and risks.94 A priest wrote that the voyage was "without any doubt the greatest and

most arduous of any that are known in the world""95

For the Asian enterprise, it was the factors of the Estado, (its

institutionalisation began as early as 1505 and by 1515 was in full administrative

functioning) who liased for the Crown with the regional powers and local traders. The

factors were directly responsible to the governor or viceroy as the Crown's chief

representative in India, whose base had shifted from Cochin to Goa by 1530. For its

sustenance, the Estado also came to be involved in what came to be called the

"Redistributive Enterprise" i.e. the collection of customs, revenues and tribute.96

Thus, it is obvious that the Portuguese allowed private trade to take place.

The Portuguese reputation of bringing armed conflict into the Indian Ocean

stems from the strategy adopted by them in the early years, which in the words of

Sanjay Subrahmanyarn, was " ... for the Crown ... to trade where possible, to make war ·

92 George Winius, The Portuguese Asian "Decadencia," Revisited, in Alfred Hower and Richard A. Preto-Rodas (eds.) Empire in Transition: The Portuguese World in the Time ofCamoes, Gainesville, Florida, 1985. p. 110.

93 Boyajian, Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, p. 3. 94 According to Bentley Duncan, between the years 1498-1600 out of the 198,000 who left Portugal for

India via the cape route, 180,000 arrived safely, a loss of 18,000 lives. In Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Luis Filipe F.R. Thomaz, Evolution of Empire: The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth century in James D. Tracy ( ed ), The Political Economy of Merchat Empires, 1991. p. 319

95 C.R. Boxer, The Carreira da India in C.R. Boxer, From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750, Variorum, 1984, 1990 Reprint, p. 33. For a brief survey on life aboard a ship, see Joseph Velinkar, Carreira ships arriving in India (1555-1571) in Artur Teodoro de Matos and L.F.F.R. Thomaz (eds) A Carreira da india e As Rotas dos Estreitos, Angra do Heroismo, 1998 Paper presented at the VIII Seminario Intemacional de Hist6ria Indo-Portuguesa, 1996. Pp. 611-619.

96 Niels Steensgaard, Carracks, Caravans and Companies: the Structural Crisis in the European_Asian Trade in the early seventeenth Century, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, No.17, Copenhagen, 1972.

54

where necessary." 97 Though trade in these years essentially meant the development

of the Lisbon-Malabar route or trade between these two regions, soon other regions in

the Indian Ocean littoral had to be involved. Since Portugal lacked the commodities

for exchange with Malabari pepper and spices East African gold became the exchange

medium, which was in turn exchanged for Gujarathi cloth brought to Cochin and

Cannanore. Thus, in a sense, the interdependence of the Indian Ocean network

continued. Profitability however for the Crown was in the re!Urii. cargo to Europe

consisting essentially of pepper.

According to Boxer, between 1500 and 1635 an average of five and a half

ships or galleons98 reached India from Portugal each year, while three and a half made

the return voyage. The global amount· of cargo thus transported by the Portuguese

around the Cape was about 40, 000 to 50,000 quintals in the first third of the 16th

century, which subsequently increased to 70,000 quintals.99 And in this cargo, the

proportion of pepper averaged 20,000 to 30,000 per year, while other spices averaged

5,000 to 10,000. By the end ofthe 16th century, the annual average of pepper exports

had gone down to 10,000 quintals. 100 This export of pepper from Goa did not decline

much in the early decades of the seventeenth century. The decadal average between

1601-1630 being 7,195 quintals, 9,189 quintals and 9,181 quintals. In the fourth

decade, this export was reduced to 5,254.7 quintals inclusive of the three years of

effective Dutch blockade during the years 1637-1640. 101

97 San jay Subrahmanyam, Portuguese Empire in Asia, p. 60. . 98 The term mio, which essentially meant "great ship," was generally applied to all carracks from the

15-18th centuries. However, there were various kinds of ships employed by the Portuguese through the course of the 16th -17th centuries; it was the galeiio that plied in the 16-17th centuries, the fragata in the 17-l8th and the charrua in the last quarter of the 17th century. The capacity of the ship increased from 500 tons in the early 16th century to about 2000 tons in the early 17th century The Portuguese soon realised the superiority of Indian teak over European pine and oak for shipbuilding, and thus ships were built at Goa, Basse in and Cochin. However, a consensus could never be formed on whether it was cheaper to build them in India or Europe and therefore ships continued to be built in both regions. From C.R. Boxer, From Lisbon to. Goa, 1500-1750, in The Carreira da India, · Variorum, 1990, Reprint, pp. 34.-38. Also see C.R. Boxer, Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, pp. 205-211.

99 I quintal = 51.405 k. g. 100 Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, p. 159. 101 Afzal Ahmad, Portuguese Trade and Socio-&onomic Changes pp. 83-85. Average for the decade

1641-1650 was 1,411.5 Q, and 1651-1656 was 2,405 Q. Between the years 1657-1663, the wars with the Dutch and other local rulers prevented from sending any substantial amounts. Ibid. pp. 86-87.

55

It was Cochin and Cannanore (here was found the best quality of pepper in the

Malabar), which were the prime suppliers of pepper to the Portuguese through out the

16th century. However, due to Dutch encroachments the Portuguese in the 17th century

shifted the base of their acquisitions to the Kanara with Honawar being the chief

supplier. The pepper of Kanara on the whole was also said to be better than that of the

Malabar. 102

The "redistributive" nature of the_ Estado or its dependence on the forceful

collection of taxes rather than "the ability to transmit goods and sell them

competitively,"103 was a feature that emerged in the mid-15th century. In other words,

the Empire in Asia was developing into a large collector of revenues through customs,

rather than profiting through trade.

The Orfamento or the fmancial statement of the Estado is an interesting

document, which highlights the details of receipts and expenditures for each fortres~.

According to the Orfamento of 1571, the receipts ofthe Estado (in reis) amounted to

245, 864$025, while the expenses accrued to 228,881$348, thus the profit margin for

that year was calculated to a tune of 16, 982$677. The break up in percentages of the

sources of the receipts of the Treasury of the Orient was the following: 58% was

collected from the custom houses or the alftindegas, 25 % from the foros or the quit-

rents, 12% from rent or tribute and 4% from horses. Out ofall the settlements Goa

contributed the greatest to the income of the Estado as 29.1% of the total receipts

came from there. Hormuz followed this with 20. 7%, Diu 17 .4%, Bassein 12.8%,

Daman 7.3%, Malaca 7.1%, Chaul 3% and the rest of the other fortresses 3.4%. On

the other hand, it was Goa, which consumed 59.9% of the total revenues spent,

followed by Hormuz with a distant 6.7 %104

102 A. R. Disney, Twilight of the Pepper Empire, pp. 5-15; Afzal Ahmad, Portuguese Trade and Socio-Economic Changes pp.l3-14.

103 Winius, The Portuguese Asian "Decadencia," Revisited. p. 108. 104 Artur Teodoro de Matos, 0 Orr;amento do Estado da india, 1571, CNCDP/Cenro de Estudos,

DamHlo de G6is, n.d. pp. 11-19. The editor with regard to the figures given has made corrections. See also an article by the same author, The Financial Situation of the State of India during the Philippine Interlude (1581-1635) in T.R. de Souza (ed) Indo-Portuguese History: Old Issues, New Questions, New Delhi, 1985. Also see by the same author, 0 Estado da india Nos Anos de 1581-1588, Estructura Administrativa e Economica, Alguns elementos para of seu estudo, Ponta Delgada, 1982.

56

However, the enforcement of "force, as we have already seen necessitated and

perpetuated the existence of an administrative structure, which in the long run

provided scope for private trade and corruption, in the very nature of its functioning.

Within a few years of the existence of the Estado, in order to sustain the officials of

the administrative apparatus, the Crown had "parcelled out the growing tributary

income of its empire in Asia (including royal customs revenues and monopolies of

trade) among a handful of jidalgos and titled nobility ..... 105 The large private

involvement undermined the Crown trade in terms of not only siphoning Crown

capital, but also, in the misuse of other resources human or otherwise. Soon enough,

the captains of the forts also appropriated some of the Crown's receipts as their own.

While corruption was rampant (in fact it has been suggested by Pearson that

corruption was one of the main causes of Portuguese decline) and it was one of the

means of private involvement, the creation of the carreira routes within Asia also

broadened the scope for private involvement. With the capture of Malaca, the intra-

Asian trade routes had become a more prominent feature of the Portuguese trading

system. According to Subrahmanyam, it was from the 1520's that the carreira system

began to represent both the private and Crown interests in the Asian waters, which

became further entrenched in the period between 1525-40. 106 From the 1550's the

Portuguese awarded to their servants or sold outright to individuals the exclusive right

to organise trade over lucrative routes formerly under direct royal monopoly, the so-

called concessions voyages. Thus on routes earlier monopolised by the Crown, the

carreira voyages, this provision enabled individuals to contract port-to-port trade.

Eventually, by 1580 only three Intra-Asian routes were plied by Crown ships, the Goa

to Mozambique, Goa to Colombo and the Goa to Moluccas routes. It was also through

provisions like the quinta/ada and the liberdades, whereby certain proportion of the

cargo hold was awarded to an official in lieu of services that the Crown began to

initially allow private participation. The eastern and western seaboards of the Indian

Ocean came to characterise two broad categories of involvement. While the military

105 Boyajian. Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, p. 7. 106 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1993, p. 74.

57

and the upper nobility dominated the western arm, the eastern arm had a more

mercantile and middle and lesser nobility. face.

By the second decade of the 17th century, even the concession voyages had

reached its twilight years, as it was more lucrative to trade outside the system. With

respect to trade on the Cape route the contract system of organising trade came to be

followed in the 1560,..5 and 1570's.

In a historiography, which increasingly points to private participation in what

has predominantly been considered as State mercantilism, James Boyajian also points

to the large participation of New Christians, as merchant-financiers like the Affaitati

of Antwerp, the Gualteroti, the Fugger and Welser of Augsburg, merchant-contractors

or even ordinary traders through the course of the 16th and 17th centuries. 107

While the Portuguese success in the Indian Ocean has in the main been

attributed to their military and naval sup~riority, it cannot be denied that their success

should also be attributed to the co-operation they received from natives, as merchants,

brokers, interpreters administrators as well as ambassadors to the reis vizinhos

(literally, neighbouring chiefs). The native participation and involvement in the

Portuguese enterprise was large and diverse. The conquest of Goa for instance has

been attributed to the help that Albuquerque received from Timoja. In another

interesting case two Hindu merchants, the brothers Pondia and Goinda had given all

the pepper needed by the ships, which had set sail in 1607 worth 150,000 xerafins,

besides also loaning to the Camara of Goa, a sum of 50,000 xs for an armada of the

viceroy D. Martim Affonso de Castro. 108

107 Boyajian, Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Habsburgs, pp. 9-14, 22. 108 Charles J. Borges, S.J. Native Goan participation in the Estado da India and the inter-Asiatic Trade

in A Carreira da India e As Rotas dos Estreitos, In Matos and Thomaz (ed) A Carreira da India, p. 669. Also see, B.A. 51-VII-34, ff. 47,48. For the assistance of Vittogi Naique Sardessay ofPonda, He wrote to the king saying he had moved from the hinterland to the Portuguese territory in Goa in order to aid the Portuguese during the war with Sambhaji. He had done this incurring great personal losses. He sought a compensation from the king for his services; G.V. Scammell, Indigenous Assistance and the Survival of the Estado da India. C. 1600-1700, Studia, vol. 49 and also by the same author, The Establishment of Portuguese power In Asia, Modern Asian Studies, I 4, I (/ 980) pp. 1-11. Here the argument of the author is that European victory came from the exploitation of native differences and the seeking of native assistance.

58

Decline of the enterprise

Most historians would not disagree on these two aspects, the private and the

official, of the Portuguese presence. However, what historians have failed to come to

any agreement is over the impact of the Portuguese presence as well as the period

from which they see decline. Impact has generally been seen as the effect that the

Portuguese system had on the indigenous trading system. Some historians like K.M.

Pannikkar would say that the Portuguese domination was complete, leading to the

period ofEuropean dominance. 109 R. S. Whiteway, wrote in1899 that " ... the effect on

the history of the world of the Portuguese action has been imperishable ... " The

impact was necessarily seen by him in terms of the blow it "struck at the Muhamedan

power." 110

Others like M.N. Pearson would say that while tKe Portuguese controlled the

Oceans for a while, it was not long before indigenous merchants recouped and plied

in the Ocean trade as before. According to Pearson, the basic nature of trade did not

change, as there was no change in the basic commodity structure. Ill

K.N. Chaudhuri recognises three distinct phases of Portuguese presence based

on the effectiveness of their control. From the time of their arrival to about 1515,

which was the time they used to assert themselves in the networks of trade in the

Indian Ocean. The years up to 1560 when their dominance was recognised by all and

sundry after which begins the period of decline. The decline is seen by Chaudhuri in

terms of their inability to control trade as well as the ineffectiveness of their

monopoly claims due to their inability to capture Aden being seen as the main cause.

112

Moving away from an interpretation of the Portuguese presence as a purely

royal mercantilist concern, Sanjay Subrahmanyam argues for a decline of the

Portuguese in Asia only in the 17th century only in the face of actual territorial defeats.

109 K. M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance; London, 1954 Reprint, pp. 12-19. 110 R. S. Whiteway, The Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550, Westminster, Archibald

Constable and Company, 1899. p. 2. 111 M.N. Pearson, The Portuguese in India, The New Cambridge History of India I. I, New Delhi, pp

61-80. 112 K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation, p. 66.

59

What other historians have proposed as decline, Sanjay Subrahmanyam interprets as . phases and re-orientations of the Enterprise. In a situation of continual contestation by

various factions and interests, such re-orientations were easy enough. Thus he agrees

with V.M. Godinho on the structural break that occurs in the mid-16th century. But he

differs from him in that he sees them essentially as a widening of possibilities rather

than decline. According·to Godinho the mid-16th century.break was marked by three

features - first the recovery of the Levant route and the pepper and spice trade of

Venice; secondly the stagnation in the Portuguese Asian economy and thirdly, the

period when monarchic capitalism (and its allies-the midd