Ashin Das Gupta pioneered the field of Indian Ocean studies of the period from 1500 to 1800. This omnibus brings together two of his classic works exploring the complex reasons behind the decline of Indian merchants in the eighteenth century. In his introduction to this edition, P.J. Marshall provides a detailed overview of the two works and presents Ashin Das Gupta and his seminal contributions to readers. Irfan Habib’s memorial essay contextualizes Professor Das Gupta’s work within the shifts in the history of Asian and European trade and highlights his contribution to the economic history of the subcontinent from the vantage point of the maritime historian. Malabar in Asian Trade 1740-1800 traces three main trends in eighteenth-century Malabar: the growth of the southern state of Travancore into a strong economic power under Martanda Varma; the decline of the Dutch who lost all hope of commercial supremacy; and the collapse of the independent merchant class of the coast. This is a pioneering work that made historians think afresh about the history of Indian trade. Indian merchants and the decline of Surat is a product of in-depth research using English, Dutch, and French sources as well as Persian chronicles and Gujarati texts to chart the decline of the port city of Surat and place it in the wider context of the fall of the Mughal and Persian empires. Elegantly written, combining narrative skill with insightful analysis, this volume will be very useful for historians and students working on maritime trade in Indian history, as well as for scholars of politics, sociology, and economics, and the interested general reader.
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