Twilight of the pepper empire : Portuguese trade in Southwest India in the early seventeenth century

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Bibliographic Information

Twilight of the pepper empire : Portuguese trade in Southwest India in the early seventeenth century

A.R. Disney

Manohar, 2010

2nd ed

Available at  / 4 libraries

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Note

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Harvard University

"First published by Harvard University Press in 1978"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-211) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This study of the Portuguese commercial empire in India during the Hapsburg years is the most serious attempt yet made to analyse the Old Portuguese pepper trade from the planting of orchards in the foothills of Malabar and Kanara to the unloading of spice-laden carracks in Lisbon. Equally significant, it is the first book to explain how and why the Portuguese were not able to modernize their trade system when faced with crisis conditions. The distress that confronted the Portuguese following the arrival of the Dutch and English, seen here as partly military but fundamentally economic and organizational, reached its decisive stage in the 1620s and the early 1630s. The Portuguese attempted to combat the crisis by creating their own India Company. The story of that company and the reasons of its failure are thoroughly investigated as Disney looks at its antecedents, composition, activities, and weaknesses. The author has unearthed much new statistical material from widely scattered manuscript sources and in doing so sheds new light on related problems and issues, such as institutional relations between Spain and Portugal, the careers of individual merchants, and the nature and difficulties of viceregal government in Portuguese India.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • The Portuguese in Kanara & Malabar
  • Goa and Portuguese Trade
  • The Structure of the Pepper Trade
  • Crisis in the Early Seventeenth Century
  • A Company Conceived
  • The Company Born
  • The Goa-Lisbon Trade Under Company Administration
  • Company Shipping
  • Failure and Compromise
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography
  • Index.

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