India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the PresentCross-cultural exchange has characterized the economic life of India since antiquity. Its long coastline has afforded convenient access to Asia and Africa, and trading partnerships formed in the exchange of commodities ranging from textiles to military technology and opium to indigo. In a journey across 2,000 years, this enthralling book written by a leading South Asian historian, describes the ties of trade, migration, and investment between India and the rest of the world, showing how changing patterns of globalization reverberated on economic policy, politics, and political ideology within India. Along the way, the book asks three major questions. Is this a particularly Indian story? When did the big turning points happen? And is it possible to distinguish the modern from the pre-modern pattern of exchange? These questions invite a new approach to the study of Indian history by placing the region squarely at the center of the narrative. This is global history written on India's terms and, as such, the book invites South Asian, Indian, and global historians to rethink both their history and their methodologies. |
Contents
Ports and Hinterlands to 1200 | 20 |
Receding Land Frontiers 12001700 | 50 |
The Indian Ocean Trade 15001800 | 73 |
Trade Migration and Investment 18001850 | 155 |
Trade Migration and Investment 18501920 | 163 |
Colonialism and Development 18601920 | 181 |
Depression and Decolonization 19201950 | 210 |
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agricultural Arikamedu artisans Asian banks Bay of Bengal Bengal Bombay Britain British Calcutta Cambay capital caravans Central Asia China cities coast coastal colonial commercial Common Era company’s conflict contract Coromandel costs cotton Deccan Deccan plateau Delhi developed difficult Dutch early East India Company Economic and Social Economic History eighteenth century empire English East India enterprise Europe European exchange export factor field finance firms foreign global growth Gujarat horses imperial important increased Indian Economic Indian Ocean indigo Indus industry influenced investment journal jute knowledge labor land located London Madras major manufacturing maritime trade market integration Masulipatnam merchants migration mills modern Mughal Mughal Empire nineteenth century officers official opium overland peasants planters political Porto Novo ports Portuguese production profits railways region river routes Saptagram settlements ships significant Social History Review South India sultanate supply Surat textiles Tirthankar towns traffic transactions western workers zamindars