The VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports... Show moreThe VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports exposed several illegal practices of the officials and the growth of Dutch nabobs who lived elite lifestyles under the Mughal administration in Bengal. Consequently, a few officials were charged with corruption and put to trial at the Company’s court. But instances of corrupt behaviour were not reduced in the subsequent years. What was the purpose of sending the committee then and what was the conduct that the VOC directors expected of their officials, both in the Dutch Republic and its factories in Mughal Bengal? This dissertation answers such questions by studying the committee’s operations in Bengal, located at the interface of two very different political settings: the Dutch Republic and the Mughal Empire. It concludes that the socio-political developments in the Dutch Republic and the regional politics in Mughal Bengal affected the situation in the VOC and its policies against corruption of its officials. Show less
Studying the connections between the coasts and hinterlands is crucial to understanding histories of the early modern Indian Ocean empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and Manchus. The Mughal... Show moreStudying the connections between the coasts and hinterlands is crucial to understanding histories of the early modern Indian Ocean empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and Manchus. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns (1682-1707) were part of the Mughal project of integrating the coasts with the heartland of the empire. This dissertation studies the impact that Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns had on the economy of Coromandel, a major textile producing and exporting region of the erstwhile Indian Ocean where the VOC (Dutch East India Company) had extensive commercial stakes. Instead of causing a decline, Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns transformed Coromandel’s economy by reorienting economic centres. The impact of wars was different across Coromandel. In northern Coromandel, Masulipatnam lost its position of a regional entrepot in the Bay of Bengal, while better food security in southern Coromandel – thanks to good rice harvests in the Kaveri delta – helped the region remain immune to the destabilizing effects of wars and attracted textile weavers from the north. The biggest effect of Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns was the relative rise of the port cities of southern Coromandel. Show less
This dissertation deals with the development of seventeenth-century overseas business through the perspective of individuals. The way individuals acted in the overseas business, especially in... Show moreThis dissertation deals with the development of seventeenth-century overseas business through the perspective of individuals. The way individuals acted in the overseas business, especially in connection to the Nordic trading companies, allows for an in-depth study of how they projected, established, coordinated and developed business through entrepreneurial mechanisms. The dissertation closely follows the careers of two businessmen and simultaneously studies their careers through a conceptual framework of overseas entrepreneurship in two oceanic spaces. Show less
The French early modern empire is usually perceived as centralized and controlled by the monarchy. In her dissertation Elisabeth Heijmans probes below the surface of French overseas companies... Show moreThe French early modern empire is usually perceived as centralized and controlled by the monarchy. In her dissertation Elisabeth Heijmans probes below the surface of French overseas companies to reveal strategies and connections of individual actors. Through this study of French company directors it becomes apparent that these companies had other motivations and goals than economic profitability or institutional efficiency alone. Taking the points of view of the directors of the companies operating in Pondichéry (Coromandel Coast in India) and those active in Ouidah (Bight of Benin, West African Coast), Heijmans examines the inter-dependence between institutions and individual agency in the early modern French empire. This research showcases that the French early modern empire relied on cooperation with other European empires, on the participation of private merchants and on the integration in local political and trading context of overseas agents. This situation was made possible by leaving some space for individual agency inside the institutional organization of these companies. Through this focus, Heijmans contributes to a better understanding not only of the expectations of members of French companies but also to the goals of these companies, oriented towards offering a platform for individual agency to stimulate the expanding early empire. Show less
I explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the... Show moreI explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the internal and external dynamics of legal textual circulation, its respective impacts on the intellectual trajectories of the Muslim communities over time and place, and the evident textual traditions developed in the Islamic world. I focus mainly on such Shāfiʿīte manuals like Minhāj of al-Nawawī (1233–1277), Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj of Ibn Hajar (d. 1566) and Fatḥ al-Muʿīn of al-Malaybārī (d. 1583?). I ask how these interconnected texts help us a) understand the dis-continuity within the Shāfiʿī school, b) answer why certain textual genealogies became more significant in the traditional legalist synthesis of texts and practices of both everyday religious lives of laypersons and legal engagements of fuqahā, and c) analyze the school’s spread across the Indian Ocean and eastern Mediterranean worlds. I also ask how a particular school emerged into a standard form of legal practices in South and Southeast Asian and East African coasts. In the context of scholarly-mercantile connections at such nodal points as Damascus, Cairo, Mecca, Ḥaḍramawt, Zanzibar, Malabar and Java, I read this textual corpus. Show less
This dissertation examines the political economy of the Ganga River during the early modern period. Thematically, the seven chapters of the dissertation may be categorized in three broad divisions.... Show moreThis dissertation examines the political economy of the Ganga River during the early modern period. Thematically, the seven chapters of the dissertation may be categorized in three broad divisions. Taking a longue dur_e perspective, the first two chapters situate the Ganga and its plain in the wider cultural and geographical framework of the Indian subcontinent. While Chapter 1 is concerned with the central role of the Ganga in Indian culture and civilization since the first millennium BC, Chapter 2 discusses early migration and the settlement pattern along the Ganga by paying close attention to the environmental predispositions of the region. The second broad division relates to the Ganga as connecting and feeding the political economy of northern India during the early modern period. The Ganga linked the region with the maritime economy, facilitated navigation, transportation of merchandise and also facilitated political control. Thus, Chapters 3 to 6 examine the political economic processes along the Ganga in eastern India, the integration of the regional commercial economy with the maritime global economy, bullion flows and production processes of such merchandise as saltpeter, opium and textiles. As Bihar offered these commodities, its economy pulled the maritime traders who approached the region through the Ganga highway. The inflows of specie boosted the economy and the agricultural and craft-productions kept pace with the increasing demands in overseas markets. Benefitting from the expanding economy of Bihar, the zamindars (warlords-cum-gentry) asserted their control over the Ganga and chocked the flow of resources to the Mughal imperial coffers and thus paving the way for Mughal decline in the eighteenth century. The third and last thematic division in Chapter 7 focuses on the decline of the Mughal Empire, zamindar-led regional centralization, and the political transition to EIC rule. Show less
