Book Description

This work is a study of the connections between trade and politics in the Coromandel Coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with special focus on Madras. It questions the largely uncontested view that trade and traders in pre-modern India were disconnected from the world of politics and the state, arguing instead that south Indian merchants depended on, and functioned within the structures and the stability provided by the state. Trade and Politics on the Coromandel Coast: Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries addresses the breakdown of the political structures within which the merchants operated, and the impact of the arrival of the Europeans, especially the English. In so doing, it explores the transitional nature of the seventeenth century and the ways in which the European trading companies, Indian states, and merchants interacted with each other. Situated within the larger historical context of the trading world of the Coromandel Coast, this regional history challenges accepted notions about the place of merchants and the state, and through a detailed economic history, sheds new light on the political and transitional nature of the period.