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  • Bullion for Goods: European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500–1800
  • Nagendra Rao
Om Prakash . Bullion for Goods: European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500–1800. New Delhi, India: Manohar Publishers, 2004. 426 pp. ISBN 81-7304-538-0, $48.95 (paper).

In this significant book, edited by a well-known scholar of Indian economic history, Om Prakash attempts to provide thorough analysis of the interaction between the European and Indian merchants, two important groups that participated in the trading activities in the region during the period 1500–1800. This was an important period in the premodern Indian history because of the phenomenal expansion of global contact and exchange that led to the emergence of the nineteenth-century colonies. This book—a collection of earlier published articles on the economic history of India written by Om Prakash over a period of forty years—demonstrates the author's continuing interest in a single subject. The collection deals with diverse economic changes or fluctuations during and after the age of discovery, up until the emergence of the European colonial powers. Although this book contains a few repetitions and reinstatements, all of the articles deserve inclusion because each contains significant information, details, and arguments that will be valuable to future generations of historians of the economic history of south Asia during the premodern times. [End Page 600]

The so-called discoveries of the fifteenth century and the interactions between Indian and European merchants through competition, cooperation, and collaboration were among the most significant events in the economic history of the Indian Ocean. This is because they contributed to the inflow and outflow of the bullion in a region that continued to dominate the world economic scene. This, in turn, shows the importance of the Asian economy for the world economic growth—a fact indicated by the establishment of large number of European settlements in the economic zones such as India and the various ports founded and patronized by the European trading communities and their companies. This work highlights the impact the indigenous merchants and their trading practices had on the Europeans and vice versa, which led to the closer interaction and exchange of ideas and trade items between the two. This suggests the emergence of a crude form of globalization.

Apart from the introduction, the book consists of interesting and useful articles on topics that include Asia and premodern world economy; Europeans, India and the Indian Ocean in the early modern period; the Dutch East India Company in the trade of the Indian Ocean; and precious metal flows in Asia and world economic integration in the seventeenth century. These different articles deal with the issues such as interaction between the Indian and the European traders and companies, the strategies of the European companies to obtain profits in the Asian trade, the nature of the economy, and the role of the bullion in the Indian economy. This book covers Indian territories such as Bengal and other parts of Asia such as Japan and Southeast Asia. This method allows the author to study the economic history from both regional perspective and general perspective within the context of the development of trading activities in Asia.

Significantly, however, the author does not agree with a few formulations presented by Immanuel Wallerstein, who believed that the development of the European world economy was different from that of Asia. In the Asian case, imported bullion was not used for the productive purposes, which mainly was responsible for the lack of the capitalistic systems in India. Western scholars, in fact, believed that Asian economy, in its basic characteristics, was different from the European economy—although there was economic intercourse between the European and Indian trading communities. This argument is effectively countered by Om Prakash, who provides sufficient evidence, both primary sources as well as secondary evidence, while dealing with the aspects related to the Indian trading communities and their commercial practices. The author has argued that the precious metals in India, as in the European countries, were used for economic purposes. In fact, precious metal flow into India has been [End Page 601] considered one reason for the vigorous economic expansion in...

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