The Commercial History of Early Modern India

Books

The Dutch Factories in India, 1617-1623, New Delhi, 1984.

The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1985. Reprinted by Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1988.

With M. Muchie and H.L. Wesseling, North-South Perspectives. Debates on Colonialism and North-South Relations, Royal Institute for the Tropics, Amsterdam, 1989.

Precious Metals and Commerce : The Dutch East India Company in the Indian Ocean Trade, Variorum, Collected Studies Series, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, U.K., 1994.

Asia and the Pre - modern World Economy, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, 1995.

European Commercial Expansion in Early Modern Asia, Vol.X in the Expanding World series, Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, U.K., 1997.

European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India vol. II. 5 in the New Cambridge History of India series, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Paperback edition appeared in 2000.

Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800, edited jointly with Denys Lombard, Delhi, 1999.

Circumambulations of South Asian History, Essays in Honour of D.H.A. Kolff, edited jointly with Jos J.L. Gommans, E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2003.

Euro-Asian Encounter in the Early Modern Period, Sephis-University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 2003.

Bullion For Goods, European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500-1800, Delhi, 2004.


Papers

"The European Trading Companies and the Merchants of Bengal, 1650-1720", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1 (1963-64).

With J. Krishnamurty, "Mughal Silver Currency : A Critique", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 7 (1970).

"The Dutch East India Company in Bengal : Trade Privileges and Problems 1633-1712", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 9 (1972).

"The Sobha Singh Revolt : Dutch Policy and Response", Bengal Past and Present, 94 (1975).

"Bengal Textiles in Seventeenth Century International Trade" in Warren M. Gunderson (ed.), Studies on Bengal, Asian Studies Centre, Michigan State University, South Asia Series, Occasional paper no. 26, Spring 1975.

"Bullion for Goods : International Trade and the Economy of Early Eighteenth Century Bengal", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 13 (1976).

With Tapan Raychaudhuri, "Agrarian Agitations in India under the British Rule", in Les Mouvements Paysan dans le Monde Contemporain, International Commission of Social Movements and Social Structures, Naples, 1976.

"Asian Trade and European Impact : A Study of the Trade from Bengal, 1630-1720", in Blair B. Kling and M.N. Pearson (eds.), The Age of Partnership, Europeans in Asia Before Dominion, The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1979.

"European Trade and South Asian Economies : Some Regional Contrasts, 1600-1800", in L. Blusse and F.S. Gaastra (eds.), Companies and Trade (Comparative Studies in Overseas History, vol.III), Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague for Leiden University Press, 1981.

"Some Aspects of Trade in Mughal India", Presidential address to the Medieval Section of the Indian History Congress, 1981, published in the Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Bodh-Gaya Session, 1981.

"Dutch Source Material on Indian Maritime History in the Early Modern Period - An Evaluation". The Indian Historical Review, 8 (1981-1982).

"The Dutch East India Company Documents as Source Material on Indian History in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century", Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, Vol. VII, No.2 1983.

Review article on "The Cambridge Economic History of India", vol.I, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 21 (1984).

"Trade and Urbanization in Gujarat in the Early Seventeenth Century : A Dutch Account", in V.K. Chavda (ed.), Studies in Trade and Urbanization in Western India, M.S. University of Baroda, Baroda, 1985.

"Dutch Source Material on the History of Surat in the Seventeenth Century", in V.K. Chavda (ed.), Studies in Trade and Urbanization in Western India, M.S. University of Baroda, Baroda, 1985.

"Precious Metal Flows in Asia and the World Economic Integration in the Seventeenth Century", in W. Fischer, R.Marvin McInnis and Jurgen Scheneider (eds.), The Emergence of a World Economy, 1500-1914, Vol.I, 1500-1800, Wiesbaden, 1986.

"European Trading Companies and the Economy of Bengal in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century", in J. van Goor (ed.), Trading Companies in Asia 1600-1800, Utrecht, 1986.

"The Dutch East India Company in the Trade of the Indian Ocean", in A. Das Gupta and M.N. Pearson (eds.), India and the Indian Ocean, Oxford University Press, Calcutta, 1987.

"Foreign Merchants and Indian Mints in the Seventeenth and the Early Eighteenth Century", in J.F. Richards (ed.), The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987.

"Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 24(1987). Also published in Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, Vol. XII, No.1, 1988. Reprinted in Sanjay Subrahmanyam (ed.), Merchants, Market and the State in Early Modern India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1990.

"On coinage in Mughal India", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 25 (1988).

"European Expansion and Asian Economic Development Since 1850: India, Indonesia and Japan", Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, Vol XII, No 2, 1988.

"Long Distance Maritime Trade in Asia : Decline and Revival", in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Studies in Maritime History, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, 1990.

The Transfer of Science and Technology between Asia and Europe", Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, Vol XIV, No 2, 1990.

"Portugiesen und Niederlander im Asiatischen Seehandel 1500-1700", in Dietmar Rothermund (ed.), Periplus, Jahrbuch fur Ausereuropaische Geschichte, Munster, 1, 1991.

"From an Equal to an Unequal Relationship : Economic Contacts between Europe and Asia between the Sixteenth and the Twentieth Centuries",in Jurgen Elvert and Michael Salewski (eds.), Staatenbildung in Ubersee, Stuttgart, 1991.

"Asian and European Merchants in Asian Maritime Trade : Some Issues of Methodology and Evidence", Review of Culture, Macao, Special number on The Asian Seas 1500- 1800, Local Societies, European Expansion and the Portuguese, 13/14, (1991).

"Restrictive Trade Regimes : The Dutch East India Company in Asian Spice Trade in the Seventeenth Century", in D. Rothermund and R. Ptak (eds.), Entrepreneurs, Emporia and Commodities in Asian Maritime Trade 1500-1800, Stuttgart, 1991. Reprinted in M.N. Pearson (ed.), Spices in the Indian Ocean Trade, in the Expanding World series, Variorum 1998.

"Precious Metal Flows, Coinage and Prices in India in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century", in Eddy van Cauwenberghe (ed.), Money, Coins and Commerce : Essays in the Monetary History of Asia and Europe (from Antiquity to Modern Times), Leuven University Press, Leuven, 1991.

"Sarrafs, Financial Intermediation and Credit Network in Mughal India", in Eddy van Cauwenberghe (ed.), Money, Coins and Commerce : Essays in the Monetary History of Asia and Europe (from Antiquity to Modern Times), Leuven University Press, Leuven, 1991.

"Trade in a Culturally Hostile Environment, Europeans in the Japan Trade 1550-1700", in Jens Christian V. Johansen, Erling Ladewig Petersen and Henrik Stevnsborg (ed.), Clashes of Culture, Essays in Honour of Niels Steensgaard, Odense, 1992.

"The Asian Maritime Trading Network of the Portuguese and the Dutch : A Comparative Analysis" in Artur Teodoro De Matos and Luis F.R. Thomaz, As Relacoes Entre A India Portugesa, A Asia Do Sueste E O Extremo Oriente, Macau/Lisbon 1993.

"On Estimating the Employment Implications of European Trade for the Eighteenth Century Bengal Textile Industry - A Reply", Modern Asian Studies, 27 (1993).

"International Trade and Economic Change: the Case of India in a Historical Perspective" in Historical imension of Development, Change and Conflict in the South, in the series Poverty and Development Analysis and Policy, The Hague, 1994.

"The Dutch factory at Vengurla in the Seventeenth Century", in A.R. Kulkarni, M.A. Nayeem and T.R. de Souza (ed.), Medieval Deccan History, Bombay, 1996.

"Europeans, India, and the Indian Ocean in the Early Modern Period", South Asia, vol. XIX, 1996, Special Issue on Asia and Europe: Commerce, Colonialism and Cultures, edited by M.N. Pearson and I.B. Watson.

"The European Factories in India : A Blessing or a Curse ?", in J. Everaert and J. Parmentier (ed.), International Conference on Shipping, Factories and Colonization, Brussels, 1996.

"Was the Portuguese Asian Enterprise Redistibutive?" in Artur Teodoro de Matos and Luis Filipe F.R. Thomaz (ed.), A Carreira Da India E As Rotas Dos Estreitos, Angra do Heroismo, Azores, Portugal, 1998.

"European Corporate Enterprises and the Politics of Trade in India, 1600-1800" in Radrangshu Mukherjee and Lakshmi Subramanian (ed.) Trade Politics and Society in Eighteenth Century India, Delhi, 1998.

"Culture Makes all the Difference-A Review Article on David S. Landes, "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations", Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, Vol.22 No.4, 1998.

"Precious Metal Flows into India in the Early Modern Period", in Clara Eugenia Nunez (ed.), Monetary History in Global Perspective, 1500-1808, Madrid, 1998.

"Trade and Politics in Eighteenth Century Bengal", in Leonard Blusse and F.S. Gaastra (ed.) On the Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History, Van Leur in Retrospect, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, U.K., 1998. Reprinted in Seema Alavi (ed.), The Eighteenth Century in India, Debates in Indian History and Society, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002.

"The Trading World of India and Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Period", Archipel, (Paris), No. 56, 1998.

"Archival Source Material in the Netherlands on the History of Gujarat in the Early Modern Period", in Ernestine Carreira (ed.), "Source europeenes sur le Gujarat", Moyen- Orient et Ocean Indien, No. 10, 1998.

"Financing the European Trade with Asia in the Early Modern Period: Dutch Initiatives and Innovations", Journal of European Economic History, (Rome), Vol.27 (2), 1998.

"Introduction" in Om Prakash and Denys Lombard (ed.), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800, Delhi,1999.

"From Hostility to Collaboration, European Corporate Enterprise and Private Trade in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800" in Om Prakash and Denys Lombard (ed.), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800, Delhi, 1999.

"The Portuguese and the Dutch in Asian Maritime Trade: A Comparative Analysis", in Sushil Chaudhury and Michel Morineau (ed.), Merchants, Companies and Trade, Europe and Asia in the Early Modern Era, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999.

"David Landes and the Rise of the West", European Review, 1999.

"The Portuguese Indian Economy in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century" in Teotonio R. de Souza and Jose Manuel Garcia (ed.) Vasco da Gama E A India, Lisbon, 1999.

"Spice Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Early Modern Period", in Markus A. Denzel (ed.), Spices: Production, Trade and Consumption, Scripta Mercaturae Verlag, St. Katharinen, Germany, 1999.

"The Portuguese in the Far East, 1540-1640" in A.R. Disney (ed.), Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000.

"India in the Indian Ocean Trading Network on the Eve of the Europeans' Arrival in the Asian Seas" in Hermann Kulke et.al (ed.), Explorations in the History of South Asia, Delhi, 2001.

"Global Precious Metal Flows and India, 1500-1750" in John Mcguire, Patrick Bertola and Peter Reeves (ed.) Evolution of the World Economy, Precious Metals and India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2001.

"Portuguese-Dutch Economic Interaction in Asia in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century", in Avelino de Freitas de Meneses (ed.), Portos, Escalas E Ilheus No Relacionamento Entre O Ocidente E O Oriente, Azores, Portugal, 2001.

"European Private Traders in the Eastern Indian Ocean Trading Network in the Early Modern Period" in Jan Parmentier and Sander Spanoghe (ed.), Orbis in Orbem, Liber Amicorum John Everart, Gent, Belgium, 2001.

"The Economic Dimension of the Portuguese Enterprise in Asia", in Joaquim Romero Magalhaes and Jorge Manuel Flores (ed.), Vasco da Gama : Homens, Viagens E Culturas, Lisbon, 2001.

"Coastal Burma and the Trading World of the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1680" in Jos Gommans and Jacques Leider (ed.), The Maritime Frontier of Burma, Exploring Political, Cultural and Commercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, 1200- 1800, Leiden, 2002.

"The English East India Company and India" in Huw Bowen, Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby (ed.), The Worlds of the East India Company, The Boydell Press, Suffolk, U.K. 2002. Paperback edition appeared in 2004.

"Asia and the Rise of the World Economy in the Early Modern Period" in Rainer Gommel and Markus A. Denzel (ed.), Weltwirtschaft and Wirtschafts-ordnung, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuutgart, 2002.

"Conflict and Cooperation Among European Traders in the Indian Ocean in the Late Eighteenth Century", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39(2002).

"The System of Credit in Mughal India" in Amiya Kumar Bagchi (ed.), Money and Credit in Indian History, New Delhi, 2002.

"Introduction" in Jos J.L. Gommans and Om Prakash (ed.), Circumambulations of South Asian History, Essays in Honour of D.H.A. Kolff, E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2003.

"Precious Metal Flows into India in the Early Modern Period" in Dennis O. Flynn, Arturo Giraldez and Richard Von Glahn (ed.), Global Connections and Monetary History 1470-1800, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, U.K. 2003.

Entries on Bombay, Calcutta, India: Colonial Period and Spices and Spice Trade in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, 5 volumes, New York, 2003.

"Comercial Communication and Monetary Integration in Early Modern India" in Markus A. Denzel (ed.), From Commercial Communication to Commercial Integration, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuutgart, 2004.

"The Indian Maritime Merchant, 1500-1800", The Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol.47, part 3, 2004.

"The Mughal Empire and the Dutch East India Company in the Seventeenth Century" in Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Peter Rietbergen (ed.), Hof en Handel, Aziatische Vorsten en de VOC, 1620-1720, Leiden, 2004.

"Seventeenth - Century India as Seen by the Dutch" in Irfan Habib (ed.), India - Studies in the History of an Idea, Delhi, 2005.

"Magalhaes Godinho et l'historiographie des Portugais dans le commerce de l'Ocean Indien" in Arquivos do Centro Cultural Calouste Gulbenkian, Volume L, le Portugal et le Monde, lectures de l'oeuvre de Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho, Lisbon/Paris, 2005.

"Alternative Trading Strategies: The Dutch and the English East India Companies in Asia, 1600-1650" in Jan Parmentier (ed.), Noord-Zuid in Oost-Indisch Perspectief", The Hague, 2005.

"Long Distance Trade, Coinage and Wages in India, 1500-1960" in Jan Lucassen and Arent Pol (ed.), Wages and Currency : Global and Historical Comparisons, forthcoming.

"Asian Merchants and the Portuguese Trade in Asia" in Leonard Blusse (ed.) Rivalry and Conflict, European Traders and Asian Trading Networks, 16th and 17th Century, forthcoming.

Entry on "The Dutch East India Company" in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, forthcoming. , Academic Background

1. B.A. (Hons.) Economics, University of Delhi, 1959, FIRST CLASS, FIRST RANK IN THE UNIVERSITY.

2. M.A. (Economics), Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1961, FIRST CLASS, FIRST RANK IN THE UNIVERSITY.

3. Ph.D. (Economic History), Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1967.


Present Position

Editorial Fellow, Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, New Delhi.


Positions Held

Professor of Economic History, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1983 - 2005

Director, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 2001-02.

Head, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1989- 92.

Honorary Director, Agricultural Economics Research Centre, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1985-86.

Reader in Economic History, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1972-82.

Research Associate, Centre for Advanced Study in Economic History and Economic Development, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1965-72.

Lecturer in Economics, St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, 1964-1965.


Visiting Positions and Fellowships Held

The Government of the Netherlands Research Fellow, 1961-63.

The British Council Bursar, 1963.

Visiting Fellow, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., 1970-72.

Visiting Fellow, Centre for the History of European Expansion, Leiden University, The Netherlands, 1976-77.

Fellow-in-Residence, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, The Netherlands, 1982-83.

Visiting Professor, Department of Economics and Centre for South Asian Studies,

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A., January-May 1985.

Visiting Fellow, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, July 1989-January 1990.

Visiting Professor, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, January-June 1990, May-July 1991, July-August 1992, May-June 1994, May-June 1997, April-June 1999, June-July 2000, June-July 2002, June 2003, June 2004 and October-November 2004.

Fellow-in-Residence, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, The Netherlands, 1992-1993.

Visiting Fellow, South Asia Research Unit, Curtin University of Technology, Perth,

Western Australia, December 1993.

Visiting Senior Fellow, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The

Netherlands, May-June 1995 and April-July 1996.

Visiting Scholar, Kern Institute, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, April- December 1998.

Guest of the Rector, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, The Netherlands, January-March 1999.

British Academy Visiting Professor, London, June-July 2002.

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Asia-Europe Intitute, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2003.

SEPHIS Visiting Professor on lecture tour of Universities in Malaysia and Indonesia, December 2003 - January 2004.

Visiting Senior Fellow, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands, May-July 2005.


Professional Honours

Awarded the Royal Decoration "Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion" by Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands in April, 2005.

Elected Member of the Executive Committee, International Economic History Association, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 2002 for the years 2002 - 2006.

Elected permanent Foreign Fellow, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 2000.

Elected President, Indian Economic and Social History Association, New Delhi, in 1998.

Elected Vice-President, Society for Maritime History, New Delhi, in 1995.

Delivered the second annual lecture of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, on 12 May 1995. The theme of the lecture was "Asia and the Pre-modern World Economy".

Elected permanent Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Haarlem, The Netherlands, in 1992.

Elected permanent Associate Foreign Member of the Institute for the History of European Expansion, Leiden University, The Netherlands, in 1990.

Elected President of the Medieval Section of the Indian History Congress for the year 1981.


Membership of International Committees

Member, International Steering Committee, Cambridge - Delhi - Leiden -Yogyakarta Project on the Comparative History of India and Indonesia, 1983-1988.

Member, International Steering Committee, Cambridge - Delhi- Leiden - Yogyakarta - Kyoto - Peking Project on the Transfer of Science and Technology Between Asia and Europe, 1988 - 1994.

Member, International Advisory Board, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, 1995 - 2004.

Member, International Review Committee to evaluate the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands, March - April 1999.

Member, Global Economic History Network coordinated by Professor Patrick O' Brien, Centennial Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics, University of London, 2003 - to date.


International Conferences organized : Presented a paper and/or chaired a session

The first Cambridge - Delhi - Leiden - Yogyakarta Conference on the Comparative History of India and Indonesia: India and Indonesia from the 1920s to the 1950s, The Origins of Planning, organized together with Professor Dharma Kumar, New Delhi, January 1985.

International Monetary History Conference, New Delhi, April 1989.

The Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History, organized together with Dr. F.S. Gaastra, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar, the Netherlands, June 1993.

The Bay of Bengal in Asian Maritime and Cultural Network, 1500-1800, New Delhi, December 1994.


Seminars Presented

Over the last thirty five years or so, I have presented about one hundred research seminars at various Universities in Australia, Europe, India, Japan, and the United States.


Editorial Experience

I was an Associate Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review, a major social science journal from Delhi, between 1965 and 1996.
I have also acted as referee for a number of Indian and international journals.