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Preface
Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Dutch, the English and their Trade in the New Spice
Route
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
P REFACE
CHAPTER 1
C IRCULATION
OF SPICES IN
16 Chris and Carolyn Caldicott, The Spice Routes: Recipes and Lore,
Singapore, 2001, p.11.
silk and fine textiles; and East African rare woods, feathers,
animal skins and gold.
There were a few political entities that promoted trade
in spices on account of their location and the societal
factors. We shall have a cursory glance at them.
The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic state founded
by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the empire
created by Alexander the Great. Seleucus received
Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to
include much of Alexanders near eastern territories after
the latters death in Babylonia in 323 BCE. At the height of
its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant,
Mesopotamia, Kuwait, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan,
and northwest parts of India. The Empire controlled the
trade networks to India before the establishment of Roman
Egypt in 30 BCE.
The Ptolemaic dynasty, sometimes also known as the
Lagids or Lagides after the name of Ptolemy Is father,
Lagus, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled
Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Ptolemy I, Soter, one of
the bodyguards of Alexander the Great, founded the
dynasty in 305 BCE. The kingdom ended with the death of
Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Ptolemy
declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful
Hellenistic dynasty that ruled an area stretching from
southern Syria to Cyrene and southwards to Nubia.
Alexandria became the capital city and a centre of Greek
culture and trade. To gain recognition from the native
Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors
to the Pharaohs.
All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name
Ptolemy while the female ones were usually called
Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member
of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII (51 BCE-30
BCE), known for her role in the Roman political battles
2. Arsinoe
The Ptolemaic dynasty, taking advantage of the
strategic position of Alexandria for developing commercial
relations with India, first made use of the harbour of
Arsinoe, the present day Gulf of Suez, on the Red Sea. It
was one of the principal harbours of Egypt. The Romans
repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile
to the harbour centre of Arsinoe. It was eventually
overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos.
The navigation to the northern ports, such as ArsinoeClysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos
due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez. During the
reign of Trajan, the citys fortunes declined with the
development of a new canal between the Nile and the Red
Sea which terminated at Clysma, a few kilometres to the
west of Arsinoe.
3. Berenike (Berenice Troglodytica)
Port of Berenike in Egypt was established in 275 BCE on
the Red Sea Coast in the far south of the Egyptian Eastern
Desert. Before the founding of this port, cargoes from
Muziris to Egypt had to be transported through overland
routes covering a considerable distance. Spices brought
from the East to Berenike were carried to Coptos on the
Nile by caravans and from there to Alexandria. It turned
out to be the principal point of communication between
India and Europe. The site of Berenike was discovered by
Belzoni, the great Italian explorer and archaeologist in
1818. Excavations were launched at Berenike in 1994 by a
team of archaeologists from the University of Delaware led
by Steven E. Sidebotham. At this last outpost of the Roman
Empire, a large number of significant finds has been made
providing evidence of the cargo from the Malabar coast
and the presence of people from South India. Among the
unexpected discoveries at Berenike were a range of
recovered from the Red Sea ports of Bernike and Qusier alQadim give personal names of the Indian traders involved
in trade with Egypt under the Romans.
The classical text of Sangam literature in Tamil too
refers to the arrival of foreign ships to Muziris disturbing
the white foams of the river Periyar in search of pepper for
gold. We have the following interesting information in one
of the poems.
The well- built crafts of the Yavanas came, beating the
white foams of Chulli [Pseudostomos, or Periyar] to the
prosperous and beautiful Muchiri and then return laden
with black pepper paying for it in gold.42
12. Nelcynda
This was another important centre of trade in Malabar
during the Roman period. Known as Nelcynda, it was
situated in the kingdom of the Pandyas.
Periplus has this about Nelcynda:
51 Lionel Casson, Romes Trade with the East: The Sea Voyages to
Africa and India, Transactions of the American Philological
Society, 110, (1978), pp.21-36.
CHAPTER 2
S PICE
The list of imports to India from the ports of the Red Sea
or from Aden included the following categories: 1) Textiles
and clothing 2) Vessels and ornaments of silver, brass,
glass and other materials 3) Household goods such as
carpets, mats, tables, frying pans etc. 4) Chemicals,
medicaments, soap, paper and books 5) Coral and 6) Food
stuffs.70
However, in the course of the later eleventh and twelfth
centuries, the Fatimid Caliphate declined rapidly. In 1171,
the country was invaded by Salh ad-Dn, the founder of
the Ayyubid dynasty who reincorporated the state into the
Abbasid Caliphate.
Mamluks of Egypt and the spice route
Mamluk Sultanate existed in Egypt between 1250 and
1517 CE holding sway over Egypt, the Levant, Tihama and
Hejaz. Cairo was the headquarters of the Sultanate.
Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks brought
new infrastructure to the centre of the city and also
72
S.D. Goiten, New Light on the Beginning of the Karim Merchants
in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol.1,
Leiden, 1958, p.181. He draws on the Cairo Geniza documents to
discuss the activities of this group of merchants.
74
Walter J. Fischel, ber die Gruppe der Karimi-Kaufleute in
Analecta Orientalia, no.14, Studia Arabica, Rome, 1937, p.74.
75
Gaston Wiet, Les Marchands DEpices sous les Sultans Mamlouks
in Cahiers DHistoire Egyptienne, serie VII, fasc.I, Cairo, 1955,
p.128.
76
Walter J. Fischel, The Spice Trade in Mamluk Egypt, l.cit, p.165.
77
E. Ashtor, The Karimi Merchants in the Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1956, pp.4546.
78
Eliyashu Ashtor, The Venetian Supremacy in Levantine Trade:
79
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.94.
80
Girolamao Priuli, I Diarii di Girolamo Priuli, 1494-1512, vol.II,
Bologna, 1933, pp.156, 174, 187.
81
Girolamo Priuli, ibid, pp.306-07.
century.82
They
had
established
themselves
in
Constantinople and other important places where they
traded in spices and other oriental commodities. When
Constantinople was conquered by the Turks, the Venetian
merchants intensified their activities in Alexandria and
Cairo, even outdoing the competing Genoese. They
considered the spice trade as one of the major branches of
the international trade and became the sole suppliers of
these and other Indian commodities to the Central and
Eastern Europe.83 Though the Florentine, Genoese and
Catalan merchants had colonies in Alexandria, Damascus
and other centres of Levantine trade, and had some part in
the spice trade, they were not parties to be reckoned with
in comparison to the Venetian traders and their major role
in the trade in oriental commodities.
Indian merchants and spice trade before 1498
82
Ernst Sambaher, Merchants Make History, London, 1963, p.104.
83
Eliyashu Ashtor, The Venetian Supremacy in Levantine Trade:
Monopoly or Pre-Colonialism? in Journal of European Economic
History, vol.III, No.1, Rome, 1974, p.17.
85
Tom Pires, Suma Oriental of Tom Pires, New Delhi, 1990, (AES
reprint), p.45.
87
Tom Pires, ibid, p.84.
88
Mouros or moors according to the Portuguese writers signified
the Muslims of Arabic origin born in India out of their relations with
the people of India. Ref. Jaime Corteso e David Lopes, Dominio
Ultramarino in Histria de Portugal Edio Monumental, vol.iv,
Barcelos, 1932, p.19.
90
Ludovico di Varthema, The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in
Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India and
Ethiopia A.D. 1503-08, London, 1863.
91
For a short discussion on the commercial relations of the Malabar
coast with China, ref. W.W. Rockhill, Notes on the relations and
trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the coast of the
Indian Ocean during the fourteenth century in
Tong Pao,
vol.XV, Leiden, 1914, p.419.
92
W.W. Rockhill, ibid, p.425.
93
Conde Ficalho, Viagens de Pedro da Covilham, Lisboa, 1898, p.89.
94
Montalbodo, Paesi Nouvamente Retrovati & Novo Mondo da
Alberico Vesputio Florentino Intulato, reprint with facsimile,
Princeton, 1916, p.162.
95
Garcia da Orta, Coloquios dos Simples e Drogas da India, Lisboa,
96
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.71.
98
Ref. S.D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, Princeton,
1972, p.64.
99
Haraprasad Ray, Historical Contacts between Quilon and China
in Pius Malekandathil & T. Jamal Mohammed, eds., The
Portuguese, Indian Ocean and European Bridgeheads: Festschrift
in Honour of Prof. K.S. Mathew, Tellicherry, 2001, p.387.
100
Ibid.
101
Presence of Arabs settled in Quilon is mentioned in the work of
Zhao Rugua, namely Zhu fan zhi first published in 1225. The best
existing English translation is under the title, Chau Ju-kua: On the
Chinese and Arab trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,
edited by Friedrich Hirth (1845-1927) and William Woodville
Rockhill (1854-1914), St. Petersburg, 1911. There is a chapter on
Malabar in which 17 lines
are devoted to Quilon.
102
A.P. Ibrahim Kunju, Studies in Medieval Kerala History, TVM, 1975,
pp.8-9.
103
Travancore Manual, p.244.
104
H.A.R. Gibb, Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-54,
London, 1924,
pp.234, 238.
105
W.W. Rockhill, op.cit, pp.430-43.
106
Haraprasad Ray, An Enquiry into the presence of the Chinese in
South and South-East Asia after the Voyages of Zheng He in early
Fifteenth Century in K.S. Mathew, ed., Mariners, Merchants and
Oceans, Dehi, 1995, p.97.
107
Xia ag, j.3, p.103, Quoted by Haraprasad Ray, p.109 of an
unpublished report submitted to UGC in 1996 on South India
during Fifteenth Century: Studies in Sino-Indian Relations, p.109.
The King of Calicut used to come to Edappally for the confirmation
of his coronation and is said to have stepped on a piece of stone
with Chinese inscription. Probably that stone, mentioned also by
the Portuguese, could have been the stone referred here.
108
Yingyai, p.41.
111
W.W. Rockhill in his Notes on the Relations and Trade of China in
Tong-Pao,
vol.xv, (Leiden 1914) p.425, alludes to Chinese
trade with this coast in CE 1296 and mentions Panam and
Fandaraina among the ports alluded to in the Yuan Shih.
Fandaraina or Pantalayani seems to be mentioned also in another
Chinese authority of the same period. (ibid, p.435, note 1).
113
Ibid, p.188.
sailors: they are known by the name of Techinibtchegan (son of the Chinese) and pirates do not
dare to attack the vessels of Calicut. In this harbour
one may find everything that can be desired.116
He wrote further:
Calicut is perfectly secured harbour, which that of
Ormuz, brings together merchants from every city and
from every country. In it are to be found abundance of
precious articles brought hither from maritime
countries, especially from Abyssinia, Zirbad and
Zansibar. From time to time ships arrive here from the
shore of the house of God and other parts of the
Hedjaz, and abide at will, for a greater or longer space,
in this harbour.117
Athanasius Nikitin from Russia writes:
115
R.H. Major, ed., The Narrative of the Journey of Abd-er-Razzak,
Ambassador from Shah Rokh in India in the Fifteenth Century...
London, 1857, p.14.
116
R.H. Major, ed., The Narrative of the Journey of Abd-er-Razzak...
in India in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1857, p.19.
118
R.H. Major, ed., The Travels of Athanasius Nikitin in India in the
Fifteenth Century, p.20.
119
R.H. Major, ed., op.cit, pp.3-4.
120
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.94; Ludovico di Varthema, Travels of
Ludovico di Varthema, London, 1863, p.151; Prospero Peragallo,
Centenario do Descobrimento da America: Memorias da
Commisso Portuguesa, Lisboa, 1892, p.31.
121
Alvaro Velho, Diario da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, Porto, 1845,
vol.I, p.59.
On the fixed day, first they take out silks and other
Chinese goods from the ships and discuss the price one by
one. When the price is fixed an agreement in duplicate
stating the amount of the price is made out for each part
to keep. Then the chief (Shahbantra), the chetty and the
ambassador (Zheng He) join their hands, and the broker
says, On such a month and such day all of us clasp our
hands (showing that the price is settled), and there will be
no going back. After that, the Indian traders bring
precious stones, pearls, corals and other commodities to
negotiate with price which continues for one, two or three
months. The goods are examined minutely, and when the
sale is finalised, the quantity, for instance, of pearls to be
exchanged with hemp-silk or other articles is fixed
according to the price settled earlier with the clasping of
hands. The Chinese goods were possibly unloaded, and
kept with factors, unless the Chinese left one or two ships
behind.
The Chinese were forced to withdraw from Calicut
between the thirties and forties of the fifteenth century,
according to the reports of Joseph the Indian, a Christian
priest from Malabar who travelled extensively, dated 1505.
This was because of the outrages committed by the
Zamorin against them after which the Chinese gathered a
large armada, attacked and pillaged the city and left for
ever.123 The cause of the outrage by the local King is
ascribed to the instigation by the Arab traders envious of
122
Yingyali, p.45.
124
Haraprasad Ray, l.cit, p.99.
125
Haraprasad Ray, l.cit, pp.86-87.
126
A.H. Lybyer, The Ottoman Turks and the Routes of Oriental
Trade in The English Historical Review, no.CXX, October 1915,
p.579.
One through the Persian Gulf and the other through the
Red Sea regions. Pepper, ginger and various items of
spices were shipped to Ormuz from the Malabar coast and
things needed for exchange in that area were left there.
Then the rest of the commodities were shipped to
Bassorah on the bank of the Euphrates whence a part was
transported by caravans to Armenia, Trebizonda and
Tartaria and the other to the cities of Aleppo, Damascus
and finally to Beirut on the Mediterranean. The Venetians,
Genoans and Catalans, who were the masters of the spice
trade, purchased these items from the merchants in Beirut
and carried them to other parts of Europe for resale. 127 In
certain cases, the merchants from Germany, Hungary,
Flanders, France and other places beyond the Alps went to
Venice to purchase the spices.128
Another route through the Red Sea had occupied a
more important place in the period before the arrival of the
127
Girolamo Priuli, I Diarii, in Rinaldo Fullin, ed., Diarii e Diaristi
Veneziani, Venezia, 1881, p.238; Joo de Barros, Decada I, parte II,
Lisboa, 1777, pp.175-79.
128
Girolamo Priuli, op.cit, vol.II, p.156.
130
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte II, p.178.
131
Diario da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, op.cit, p.101.
132
Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, op.cit, p.69.
133
Barros, Decada I, parte II, p.179; E. Denison Ross, The Portuguese
in India and Arabia 1507 and 1517. Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1921, part I, p.548;
Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, tomo I, pp.137, 320.
134
W.J. Fischel, The Spice Trade... l.cit, pp.162-63.
135
Diario da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, p.101.
136
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Historia de Descobrimento e
Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, livro II, Coimbra, 1924,
pp.381-82.
137
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.77.
138
Barbosa, op.cit, pp.76-77.
139
Ludovico di Varthema, op.cit, p.153, Montalbodo, op.cit. p.94.
140
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.77.
142
F.C. Danvers, The Portuguese in India, vol.1, London, 1966, p.346;
Nycolo Gonalves, Livro que trata das cousas da India e do Japo,
ed. by Adelino de Almeida Calado, Coimbra, 1957, p.47.
144
Ludovico di Varthema, op.cit, p.125.
145
F.C. Lane, The Merchant Marine of the Venetian Republic in
Venice and History, Baltimore, 1966, p.148; Ashtor, Venetian
Supremacy...op.cit, pp.18-21.
146
Ruggiero Romano-Alberto Teneti-Ugo Tucci, Venise et la Route du
Cap: 1499-1517 in Mediterraneo e Oceano Indiano - Atti del Sesto
Colloquio Internazionale di Storia Maritima, tenuto aa Venezia dal
20 al 29 Settembre 1962, Firenze, 1970, p.111.
147
Ashtor, op.cit, pp.22-23.
148
Girolamo Priuli, I Diarii.. vol.I Citta de Castello, s.d. p.59.
150
Priuli, op.cit, pp.109-10.
151
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.83; Varthema, op.cit, p.124.
152
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.81.
153
Rockhill, op.cit, p.454.
154
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.162.
155
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.62; B. Greiff, Tagebuch des Lucas Rem,
Augsburg, 1861, p.122.
156
Tom Pires, op.cit, p.78: Archangelo Garavallense (Transl.),
Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in India et inde in
Occidentens et demum ad Aquilenam, Mileo, 1508, p.38.
157
158
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.162; Cronica do Descobrimento e Conquista
da India pelos Portugueses-Codice anonymo, Museu Brititanico,
Egerton 20901, Coimbra, 1974, p.9.
159
W.B. Greenle, The Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral, London, 1938,
p.41; Copia de uma Carta de El-Rei de Portugal ao Rei d Castella
acerca da Viagem e successo da India Reproduced by Prospero
Peragallo, op.cit, p.13.
160
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.90, Tom Pires, op.cit, p.83, Montalbodo,
op.cit, p.155.
161
Rockhill, op.cit, p.448.
162
Tom Pires, op.cit, vol.1, p.78.
163
Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.76.
Africa and Syria to deal with oriental spices. 164 The Karimi
merchants had their funduq or fanadig in Cairo where they
used to store the spices and other oriental commodities. 165
They had a number of such funduqs along their routes like
in Aden, Zabid, Taaz, Jeddah, Qus, Aidhab, Fostat,
Alexandria and so on, and they also established mosques
within the walls of the funduq.166 Similarly, the foreign
164
E. Ashtor, The Venetian Supremacy..., l.cit, pp.6,8-9; Fondachi or
fonduks - where the foreign merchants lived and stored the spices
and other commodities. Ref. Ernst Sambaher, op.cit, p.105.
165
W.J. Fischel, The Spice Trade in Mamluk Egypt, l.cit, p.163.
166
Ibid.
168
E. Ashtor, Venetian Supremacy..., op.cit, p.33.
170
Ashtor, The Venetian Supremacy.... op.cit, pp.50-51.
171
Ernst Samhaber, op.cit, p.105.
173
Duarte Barbosa, op.cit, vol.II, p.77.
174
Mahuan, Yng Yai Sheng in W.W. Rockhill, op.cit, p.457;
Varthema, op.cit,
pp.168-69.
175
The same practice is reported to be in vogue till date in Allepey
and other
centres in Kerala.
177
Tom Pires, op.cit, vol.I, pp.82-84.
CHAPTER 3
O PENING
178
Levy Maria Jordo, ed., Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae Regum
in Ecclesiis Africae, Asiae atque Oceaniae, tomo I, Lisboa, l868,
pp.31-34.
180
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte i, pp.372-77.
181
Joo de Barros, op.cit, p.184.
that the sea route to the Indies was open, becoming the
first European to have done so.
By land
Dom Joo II (1481-95), the King of Portugal decided to
discover a land route to the East via Jerusalem and so sent
Frei Antonio de Lisboa and Pero de Montaroyo to
Jerusalem. But the results were not satisfactory since they
did not know Arabic and did not dare to proceed further.
Knowing the importance of Arabic language for this
endeavour, the King ordered Pero Covilh, an Arabic
speaking person and his companion Afonso de Paiva, to
take up this mission. They started from Santarm on 7 May
1487 in the presence of D. Manuel, the Duke of Beja. 182
They went to Naples from where they proceeded to the
island of Rhodes and then to Alexandria. After a brief stay
cut short by illness, they made their way to Cairo and Tor
in the company of some Muslims going to Aden. Afonso de
Paiva took his route to Ethiopia while Pero Covilh set out
to India with the agreement of meeting again at Cairo.
Covilho set sail in a small vessel to Aden and from there
visited Cannanore, Calicut and Goa. He returned to Mina
de Soffala situated in Ethiopia around Egypt. Again he
went to Aden and finally to Cairo where he got the
information that Paiva had died of some illness. There he
came in contact with two Jews from Spain along with whom
there were two other Jews from Portugal - Rabi Habr
182
Joo de Barros, p.194.
184
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte i; pp.267-68.
185
For a detailed study of Vasco da Gama, ref. A.C. Teixeira de
Arago, Vasco da Gama e a Vidigueira: Estudo histrico, Lisboa,
1898; K.G. Jayne, Vasco da Gama and His Successors 1460-1580,
London, 1910; Henry E.J. Stanley, The Three Voyages of Vasco da
Gama and His Viceroyalty, London, 1869; Armando Corteso, The
Mystery of Vasco da Gama, Coimbra, 1973; Sanjay
Subrahmanyam, The Career and legend of Vasco da Gama,
Cambridge, 1997. Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte i, p.270.
189
When we arrived at Calicut the King was fifteen leagues away (:
in Ponnani). The captain major sent two men to him with a
message informing him that an ambassador has arrived from the
King of Portugal with letters and that if he desired it he would take
them to where the King then was. He sent a word to the captain
bidding him welcome, saying that he was about to proceed to
Qualecut. As a matter of fact, he started at once with a large
retinue, E.G. Ravenstein, ed., A Journal of the First Voyage of
Vasco da Gama 1497-99, New Delhi, AES, 1995, p.50.
191
Passing thereby is another town on the coast called Tircore and
passing this there is another which they call Pandarani beyond
which there is yet another with a small river which they call
Capucate. This is a place of great trade and many ships, where on
the strand are found many soft sapphires Duarte Barbosa, The
Book of Duarte Barbosa, Vol.II, London, 1921 pp.85-86.
192
Tom Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tom Pires, AES Reprints, New
Delhi, 1990 vol.1, pp.74, 78.
195
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte I, p.370.
197
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte I, pp.378ff.
200
Cronica do Descobrimento e conquista da India pelos
Portugueses, Coimbra, 1974, p.21.
201
Montalbodo, op.cit, p.96; Constancio Roque da Costa, Historia das
Relaes diplomaticas de Portugal no Oriente, Lisboa, 1895, p.22,
Leonardo da Ca Masser, Relazione... in Archivio Storico Italiano,
Appendice, tomo II, Firenze, 1845, pp.15-16.
202
Thom Lopes,Navegao as Indias Orientaes in Coleco de
Noticias para a Historia e Geografia das Naes ultramarinas que
vivem nos Dominios Portugueses ou lhes so visinhos, tomo II,
no.1&2, Lisboa, 1812, p.190. Eu vim a este porto com boa
mercadoria, para vender, comprar e pagar os vossos generos;
estes so os generos desta terra, eu vo-los envio do presente,
comoe tambm as el Rei also Barros, Da Asia, Decada I, parte II,
p.53.
204
Cartas de Albuquerque, Tomo I, Lisboa, 1884, p.250.
206
Cartas I, p.250.
207
Cartas l, p.137.
208
Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, tomo ii, Coimbra, 1923 p.330,
Cartas I, p.152.
209
Cartas I, p.152.
211
Julio Firmino Judice Biker, Colleco de Tratados e Concertos de
Pazes que o Estado da India Portuguez fez com os Reis e Senhores
com quem teve Relaes nas partes da Asia e Africa Oriental
desde o Principio da conquista at ao fim do Seculo XVIII, Lisboa,
1881, pp.21-23.
212
Biker, Tratados, pp.28-33.
213
Gaspar Correa, Lendas, tomo ii, p.334.
But for the fact that the sagacious new ruler of Calicut
(1513-1522) saw that his best interests lay in peace, not in
war, the treaty signed on December 1513 would not have
survived the death of Albuquerque in 1515. For instance,
Lopo Soares, the third governor of Portuguese India who
superseded Albuquerque demanded that the Zamorin
should repair the Portuguese fort and wait upon him.
Hostilities were averted by the good sense of the
Portuguese captains, who refused to draw their sword in
such a silly and unjust cause.215 The King of Cochin did not
214
Cartas, vol.VII, p.131.
215
Hermann Gundert ed., Kerala Palama (1498-1531) Kottayam,
1959, p.145.
217
The Tohufut-ul-Mujahideen, p.117; Gaspar Correa gives details
about the fight put up by the Zamorin of Calicut against the
Portuguese and the fortress at Calicut, ref. Gaspar Correa, op.cit,
tomo ii, part ii. pp.81ff., pp.890-918; ibid, pp.941-64.
220
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento e
conquista da India pelos Portugueses, Coimbra, 1924, livro VIII,
p.270. An amount of 1000 golden pardaos was given to the ruler
for the consent.
221
Barros, Da sia, Decada IV, part I, pp.470-75; Simo Botelho, O
Tombo de Estado da India, in Rodrigo Jos de Lima Felner,
Subsidios para Historia da India Portugueza, Lisboa, 1868, pp.13032. Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada IV, Lisboa, 1973 (reprint),
part ii, pp.196ff. Chaliyam is an island formed by the Beypore and
Kadalundi rivers, held by the Portuguese after they left Calicut in
1525. A mound where stood the Portuguese fort destroyed by the
Zamorin in 1571 is still visible at the seas edge. Ref. Barbosa,
op.cit vol.II; p.87, footnote. This fortress at Chale/Chaliyam was
called Santa Maria do Castello, ref. Gaspar Correa, op.cit, tomo iii,
part I, pp.435-37.
222
Diogo de Couto, op.cit, Decada VI, part ii, pp.210-11 gives the
nature of the work of Jangada or Changathi.
223
Gaspar Correa, op.cit, tomo III, part i, p.435. The details of the
structure are furnished by Correa, ibid. pp.437-38. He says that
there was no problem for this fortress till 1563 when he was
writing the history. The plan of the fortress is given by Correa in
tomo = II, part II, before page 439. The plan shows a church and
houses outside the fortress.
224
Castanheda, op.cit. livro VIII; pp.429-36.
226
Biker, Tratados, pp.88-94: Simo Botelho, O Tombo de Estado da
India, pp.249-254.
227
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada viii, p.459.
228
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada ix, p.9.
229
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada vii, part ii, p.495.
231
For details of the route of trade in spices before the arrival of the
Portuguese, and the advantage reaped by the Sultan of Cairo
through trade in this route, refer Ferno Lopes de Castanheda,
Histria do Descobrimento & Conquista da India pelos
Portugueses, Coimbra, 1924, livro.1, pp.381-83.
233
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part II, p.144.
234
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii, pp.27-29.
235
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii. pp.148-49.
236
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii, pp.186-193.
237
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii, pp.190-93.
238
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii, p.315.
239
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada X, part ii, pp.340-43.
241
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada XI, pp.72ff.
242
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada XI, pp.72-73.
244
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada XII, p.70.
246
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada XI, p.188.
247
Diogo de Couto, op.cit, Decada XI p.177.
249
For the details of the fortress and the way in which Kunhali was
caught and beheaded ref. Pyrard de Laval, The Voyage of Franois
Pyrard of Laval, vol.1, London, 1887, pp.350-58: Diogo do Couto,
Da sia, Decada XII. The plan of the fortress of Kunhali at
Kottackal is reproduced in the work of Francisco Pyrard de Laval,
The Voyage of Franois Pyrard of Laval, vol.2, part II, between
pp.510-511. This is reproduced from Livro da India of P. Barreto de
Resende, Sloane Collection, no.97.
251
Biker, Tratados, p.189.
252
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part I, pp.440-41.
253
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part I, pp.446-47.
254
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part i, p.466.
255
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part i, p.467.
257
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part II, p.63.
258
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part II, p.23.
259
Thom Lopes, Navegao as Indias Orientaes in Colleco de
Noticias para a Historia e Geografia das Naes ultramarinas que
vivem nos Dominios Portugueses ou lhes so visinhas, tomo II,
no.1&2, Lisboa, 1812, pp.199-200.
262
Bulho Pato, Raymundo Antnio de, ed., Cartas de Affonso de
Albuquerque, tomo ii, Lisboa, 1898, pp.323.
264
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento &
Conquista da ndia pelos Portugueses, livro I, Coimbra, 1924,
p.255; Joo de Barros, Da sia Decada I, part ii, Lisboa, 1777,
pp.355, 356.
266
Bulho Pato, Raymundo Antnio de, ed., Cartas de Affonso de
Albuquerque, tomo iii, Lisboa, 1903, pp.39, 73-84; Barros, Da sia,
Decada I, part II, p.356.
267
Bulho Pato, Raymundo Antnio de, ed., Cartas de Affonso de
Albuquerque, tomo iv, pp.71-73.
268
Bulho Pato, Raymundo Antnio de, ed., Cartas de Affonso de
Albuquerque, tomo I, pp.367-69.
271
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part i, pp.467.
273
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part i, p.478.
274
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part ii, p.24.
275
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, part ii, pp.39-40.
men were built within the fortress. The church of St. James,
(Santiago) was constructed inside the fortress and the
walls. There were several thatched houses (with olascadjan leaves) made of earth near the fortress but close to
Sea where the Portuguese who were put in charge of
watching the fortress resided.277 An entrance from the bay
to the fortress was also arranged for the people. The
fortress was completed in March 1508. It was named
Santogil (St. Angelo) in accordance with the castle of
St. Angelo in Rome.278 A lot of pieces of artillery including
those brought from Angediv were installed in the fortress.
The viceroy became convinced that the water in
Cannanore was very good for refining saltpeter used for
276
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, parte II, pp.74-75; O Tombo do Estado da
India
por Simo Botelho, pp.28-29.
277
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento &
Conqista da India pelos Portugueses, livro I, Coimbra,1924, p.307.
278
Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, tomo I, part I, Coimbra, 1922,
pp.583, 728.
279
Gaspar Correa, Lendas, op.cit, pp.729-30.
281
Barros, op.cit, Decada II, part I, pp.62-76, Damio de Gois,
Cronica do Felicissimo Rei D. Manuel, Pt. II, Coimbra, 1953,
pp.50ff., Cronica do Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos
Portugueses, Coimbra, 1974, pp.158-59.
282
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento &
Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, livro I, Coimbra, 1924,
pp.304-323.
the Portuguese for the rest of his reign. The fortress and
the factory at Cannanore also functioned satisfactorily. He
wrote to the King of Portugal in 1516 to ensure that horses
from Gujarat and ropes from Ormuz came to Cannanore in
abundance.283 The fortress at Cannanore, a staple centre
for spices, remained in the hands of the Portuguese till it
was captured by the Dutch in 1663.
Quilon
When Vasco da Gama came to Cochin after taking
revenge upon Calicut in 1502, the Queen of Quilon
requested him to send two ships to Quilon to buy spices.
Da Gama willingly sent the vessels to Quilon. A certain
Mathias, a Christian from Kayamkulam helped the
Portuguese load the ships with spices.284 Again in 1503
283
Joo de Souza, Vestigios da Lingua Arabica em Portugal, ou
Lexicon Etymologico des Palavras e nomes Portugueses que tem
origem arabica, Lisboa, 1789, p.81.
284
Bulho Pato, Raymundo Antnio de, Cartas de Affonso de
Albuquerque, tomo ii, Lisboa, 1898 p.268.
285
Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do Descobrimento &
Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, livro I, Coimbra, 1924,
p.127.
286
Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, tomo I, part i, Coimbra, 1922,
p.407.
287
Empoli, Giovanni da, Viagem as Indias Orientaes in Colleco
de Noticias para a Historia e Geografia das naes ultramarinas,
que vivem nos dominios portugueses ou lhes so visnhos, tomo II,
no.1&2, Lisboa, 1812, pp.224-27.
288
Barros, op.cit, Decada, I, part II; p.99, Gaspar Correa, Lendas da
India, tomo i. p.407
290
The local tradition regarding the construction of the church at
Quilon and the departure from there to the Coromandel coast is
described by Ferno Lopes de Castanheda, Histria do
Descobrimento & Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, livro I,
Coimbra, 1924, pp.126-27.
292
Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, tomo 1, part 1, Coimbra, 1922,
p.906.
294
Simo Botelho, Tombo do Estado da India, Lisboa, pp.34-35.
296
Herman Gundert, Kerala Palama, Kottayam, 1868, pp.140ff.
297
Simo Botelho, l.cit, pp.35-36.
299
Simo Botelho, l.cit, pp.36-39.
301
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada V, part I, Lisboa, 1779, p.3.
303
Tombo do Estado da India pp.27-28.
307
Simo Botelho, O tombo do Estado da India, pp.25-26.
and came with all his forces. The King of Cochin too was
duly informed. He conveyed the news to Dr. Pero Vaz do
Amaral, Captain and Comptroller of Finances of the
Portuguese at Cochin and requested him to help prevent
the entry of the Zamorin into the island where the
ceremony was to take place. Besides, the King of Cochin
brought together the rulers of Vadakkumkur, Purakkad,
Udayamperur, Palluruthy, Kaimals of Mangat (Alengattu)
and the Carta of Alwaye. Pero Vaz passed the message to
Nuno Da Cunha, the Governor (1529-1538), who sent
Martim Affonso de Sousa, the Captain-in-Chief with three
galleys and thirty vessels propelled by oars to help the
King of Cochin in the battle against the Zamorin. 308 With
the help of all these allies, the King of Cochin won the
battle. The ruler of Edappally and the Zamorin had to flee
from the place. When the Portuguese Governor of India
Jorge Cabral started loading the ships with pepper, the
local rulers who came together at the request of the King
of Cochin helped them in obtaining large amounts of
pepper. The King of Portugal having been informed of the
service rendered by these local rulers and chieftains and in
view of the opinion of the Portuguese captains who took
part in the battle ordered Pero Vaz Amaral to grant a sum
every year to every one of the local rulers mentioned
above. This is how the disbursal of tenas to local rulers
started. This continued without any interruption with a
308
Diogo de Couto, Da sia, Decada V, part I, Lisboa, 1974, pp.4-7;
38-44.
310
Francisco da Costa, op.cit. p.310.
311
Francisco da Costa, op.cit. p.310.
313
The document was entitled Oramento do que rende o Estado da
India, e o que despende ordinariamente e asi o extraordinario,
que se pode alcansar por contas orado huns anos por outros, o
qual se fez por mandado do Senhor Vice-Rey Dom Antonio de
Noronha, anode se declara miudamente o em que se fez tal
despeza and has been preserved in the Biblioteca de Ajuda
(Lisboa) in the collection entitled Rellaccion de las ciudades y
fortalezas da la India y de los Reynos vizinhos dellas, assi de pax
como de guerra,
ref. BA, 51-VII-32, fls.2v - 40v. This has
been edited by Artur Teodoro de Matos under the title O
Oramento do Estado da ndia 1571, Lisboa,1999.
315
Two copies of the Oramento of 1574 are found published. One
copy is edited and published by Jean Aubin in Studia vol.4, Lisboa,
Julho 1959 pp.169 to 289 while another copy is edited and
published by Panduronga S.S. Piusserlencar, in Regimentos das
Fortalezas da India, op.cit. pp.1ff. The two differ in some details.
317
The principalities of Ambalapuzha (Purakkad), Parur, Vadakkenkur
and Alengad (Mangat) were called the four pillars of the kingdom
of Cochin for they formed
the main support of the kings of
Cochin. Ref. K.P. Padmanabha Menon,
History of Kerala, p.480.
319
Artur Teodoro de Matos, op.cit, pp.70-72.
321
Francisco da Costa, op.cit, p.312.
322
Francisco da Costa, op.cit, pp.312-13.
323
Cartas..., tomo II, p.49.
325
Ibid.
326
Cartas... tomo II, p.303.
327
Cartas, tomo II, p.304.
328
Dmio Perres, Regimento das Casas das Indias. p.35.
330
V.M. Gondinho, LEconomie de LEmpire Portugals aux XV e et XVI
e Siecles, Paris, 1969, pp.49-50.
331
Damio Peres, op.cit, pp.29-30; Fortunato dse Almeida, Historia
de Portugal, tomo III (Coimbra, 1925, p.563).
332
Viriginia Rau, Feitores e Feitorias, Instrumentos do comercio
International Portugues no seculo XVI in Broteria, vol.81, no.5,
Lisboa, 1965, p.462.
333
Cartas. tomo II, p.300.
334
Ibid.
335
Cartas, tomo I., p.70.
337
Cartas, tomo III, pp.39-40.
338
Barros, Decada I, part I, p.445.
339
Barros, op.cit, part II, pp.74, 75.
340
Cartas, tomo III, p.316.
341
Cartas, tomo I, p.271, Simo Botelho, op.cit, p.24, Panduronga SS.
Pissurlencar, ed., Regimento das Fortalezas, Bastora, 1951, p.233.
343
Cartas, tomo IV, pp.201-02.
344
Simo Botelho, op.cit, pp.29, 38.
345
Barros, op.cit, Decada I, pt. I, p.445.
346
Cartas, tomo VI, p.407.
347
Cartas, tomo VI, p.244.
348
Simo Botelho, op.cit, p.24; Pissurlencar, op.cit, p.19.
349
Cartas, tomo V, p.353.
352
Cartas, tomo II, p.98.
353
Ibid, p.204.
355
Cartas, tomo V, pp.204, 485.
356
Cartas, tomo I, p.426, tomo v, p.460.
357
Cartas, tomo II, pp. 134 & 428.
359
Cartas, tomo II, p.436.
361
ANTT, Chancellarias de Dom Joo II, Doaes, liv.45 fl.132v.
CHAPTER 4
T HE
fter
conquering
Constantinople,
the
Turks
continued to invade Europe and wage war against
their enemies. The Christian powers refused to
trade with the Muslim Turks and vice-versa. As we saw
earlier, the Portuguese had obtained papal authorisation
through bulls to discover, conquer and appropriate new
lands in the East. They went so far as to obtain papal
dispensation and remission for the sins committed by
them through conducting trade with non-believers. For fear
367
Ashin Das Gupta, Malabar in Asian Trade 1740-1800, Cambridge,
1967, pp.33-34.
Chetwai
Baliapattam
In the meantime, the English obtained a foothold for a
factory at Baliapattam, near Cannanore, from the Kolathiri
Raja in 1664 where there was an old fort known as Cota
Cunna.The Dutch bribed the local merchants not to sell
any spices to the English or the French.
The English had some difficulty in purchasing pepper
from the bazaar of Cannanore. They were bound to pay
some dues to the Masjid as per the tradition. But the
English were not in favour of this. An official by name Petit
was appointed as the chief of the factory at Baliapattam,
Calicut and Ponnani. The factory at Baliapattam was closed
down in March 1675.
Tellicherry factory
The English started a factory in Dharmapattam close to
Tellicherry in 1671 and the movable items from
Baliapattam were shifted to the new factory. Chase and
Mitchell were the English officials in this factory. When they
heard that the French in Tellicherry left their establishment
in 1682, the officials approached the Kolathiri ruler to
permit them to occupy the factory left vacant by the
French. They promised to pay Rs. 4 as tax for a candy of
cardamom and Rs. 2 as tax for a candy of pepper to the
ruler of Kolathunadu. They were allowed to occupy the
factory vacated by the French, but the Dutch did not like it
and so took every step to oust the English. However, the
local ruler extended protection to the English factors and a
number of Nair soldiers were appointed to protect the
371
Francis Buchanan, A Journey from Madras through the Countries of
Mysore, Canara and Malabar, II. p.178.
374
Leena More, English East India Company and the Local Rulers in
Kerala: A Case Study of Attingal and Travancore, Tellicherry, 2003,
p.44.
The text of the treaty clearly brings out the earnest desire
of the English East India Company to have monopoly of
pepper trade in that region and also underlines the issue of
passes for the safety of ships, a system which was started
by the Portuguese in 1502. A glance at the text of the
treaty (1694) will help us understand how the Europeans
strived hard among the contending powers for greater
intake of spices from the Malabar coast.
Because the English, I called hither have always bin
(sic) obedient to mee, I do hereby grant unto them
the following privileges; I give unto them the hill of
the Iouges that is at Anjengo, to fortify with stone
and to abide there forever, And I will send thither my
officers to set forth and appoint with stone Landmarks the limits of Land that belong unto Mee, that
on each side of the said hill the Company may build
warehouses for their goods, and houses for their
people to dwell in, within which limits they shall rule,
without any impediment, being obedient to me; I
give unto the English Company all the pepper in my
country that they may contract, and pay for it, at the
price currant (sic), And if any other do buy pepper,
and carry it forth by sea; then shall the Company bye
diligence, and take the vessels and goods, and one
half that is taken they shall give unto mee; and the
other half the Company shall have; For every candy
of pepper that the Company buy, they shall pay me
5 Rajas, and for other goods that they embarque, or
disembarque, they shall pay Custome to me 2.5 per
a. Anjengo
Foundation stone for the fortress in Anjengo was laid in
October 1696. It took time to complete the fortress. In the
meantime, there were conflicts between the Queen and
the English. Differences with Queen Umayamma Rani were
soon patched. The fort was completed by the beginning of
1699.
The fortified Anjengo offered the best security to carry
on trade in spices, especially pepper. It had easy access to
the principality of Peritally, the biggest producer of pepper
375
Ms. Bombay Letters Received, 1694, India Office Library, London
and National Archives Delhi (Microfilm). Ref. Leena More, op.cit,
pp.54-55.
b. Edawa
The Queen of Attingal in 1726 granted permission to
the English to build a factory at Edawa with a view to
enhancing her income. The Company accepted it. Yet the
English did not want to improve their relations with the
Queen who did not wield real authority over Attingal on
account of the split among the administrators. They were
more inclined to strengthen their relations with the Raja of
Travancore.
CHAPTER 5
T HE
379
T.R. de Sousa, Goa-Mahe Trade Links (Late 18th-Early 19th
Centuries) - A New Source Material in K.S. Mathew, ed., Studies in
Maritime Trade, Pondicherry, 1990, p.169.
under
the
French
like
Luis
Marin,
de Canaple, de Court, Boyer, Barthe, Jooda Silva, Murdoch
Brown and Thomas Dineur kept commercial relations with
Goa through the Mhamays. Brown and Dineur informed the
Mhamays about the difficulty in procuring spices through
the Mapillas on account of the invasion of Tipu Sultan of
Mysore. Jooda Silva despatched 25 candies of pepper in
1789 from Mahe to a French man in Goa and later the
Mhamays were asked to dispose off is available the pepper
in view of the absence of the French man from there. 380
After Murdoch Brown started his farm, consignments of
pepper and cinnamon were sent to the Mhamays in Goa. In
fact, the biggest orders from the Mhamays were for
pepper, wild cinnamon and other items. There were three
to four regular patamaris plying between Mahe and Goa.
Brown obtained workers from among the Christians and
Kanarese workers through the Mhamays for his farm in
Malabar. Thus Mahe maintained active commercial
relations with Goa, especially in connection with spices,
and that too mainly pepper.
381
Feldbaeck, Ibid, p.20.
383
Martin Krieger, Pepper, Guns and the Scattered Existence of
Danish Factories in Malabar in K.S. Mathew, ed., Maritime
Malabar and the Europeans, New Delhi, 2003, p.448.
Edavai
After the resumption of intercontinental trade between
Tranquebar and Denmark, the demand for pepper as a
commodity for the markets at home rose again. Moreover,
the loss of Bantam and South East Asian market in general
and the increasing demand for pepper raised the Danes
interest in Malabar again. In the 1690s, Danish ships again
headed for Malabar after a long break of around seven
decades. The first voyages were succeeded by the
establishment of a small factory at Edavai near Attingal in
1698. Edavai is known as Oddeway Torre in Danish
documents. Though the trade was limited, the Dutch tried
to get rid of the competition from other trading companies
after 1700. The Danish resident, Hans Bertelsen left Edavai
in 1702 since the establishment did not yield the desired
profit. Some years later, the Danes again took possession
of the factory and finally it was abandoned in 1720.
Calicut (1752-1790)
384
Ashin Das Gupta, India and the Indian Ocean in the Eighteenth
Century in Ashin Das Gupta & M.N. Pearson, eds, India and the
Indian Ocean 1500 -1800, Delhi, 1987, p.142.
Colachel (1755-1821)
Though the Danish factory in Edavai was abandoned in
1720, they later started another factory in Colachel near
Edavai. In 1755, Friedrich Car Thomsen, the Resident of
Calicut went for negotiations with the local ruler of
Travancore to Colachel, though without success. In 1755
they founded a factory in Colachel, some 40 kms north of
Cape Comorin, belonging to the kingdom of Travancore.
There was a strong demand for weapons in Colachel in
Ostend Company
Southern Netherlands undertook East India trade by
establishing the Ostend Company in December 1722.
Many of the captains and a substantial part of the crew
were then British and a common complaint by the Flemish
sailors and officers was that they were treated unjustly vis-vis their colleagues. But after 1722 almost all the
captains were Flemish and complaints of discrimination
diminished substantially. The Ostend Company was
dissolved when the so-called Asiatic Association was
established in Antwerp in 1775.385
Asiatic Association, a trading partnership, was truly an
international organisation. The initiator was the Dutch-born
Willem Bolts, veteran of the English East India Company in
Bengal, who had fallen into disgrace because of his
egregious behaviour, especially after the publication in the
early months of 1772 of his Consideration of Indian
affairs... a pamphlet in the form of a sustained and
copiously documented attack on Clive, his associate and
successor. Bolts now set up a combine with an
unscrupulous Antwerp promoter, the merchant-banker
Count Charles de Proli, son of a former director of the old
385
John Everaert, Willem Bolts: India Regained and Lost: Indiamen,
Imperial Factories and Country Trade (1775-1785) in K.S.Mathew,
ed., Mariners, Merchants and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History,
Delhi, 1995, pp.363-69.
CHAPTER 6
E XCLUSIVE
Papal authority
Right from the commencement of the activities of
expansion and maritime explorations, the Portuguese
prepared themselves for the exclusive claims. As religion
and religious heads held great importance in the late
medieval Europe, they saw to it that with the intervention
of the Pope their contenders were kept away from the
Indian Ocean regions as well as the territories they were
planning to discover and conquer. The Portuguese, intent
on obtaining complete right over the Indian Ocean regions
and proprietary claim over the lands and seas to be
discovered in course of time, equipped themselves with
papal bulls which permitted them to discover, conquer and
appropriate whatever area they liked. Whenever they were
challenged by anyone in connection with their claim, they
referred to the papal authorization and argued for their
special right. Therefore, it will be worth examining the
tenor of papal bulls adduced by the Portuguese in this
regard.
The organized plan for the overseas expansion of the
Portuguese was executed by the Military Order of Christ
which received ecclesiastical approval from Pope John XXII
389
Ibid. pp.36-37.
391
Ibid. pp.47-52.
395
Ibid. p.73.
398
Ibid. pp.98-99. Bull Dum Fidei issued by Pope Leo X on 7
January, 1514.
400
Ibid. p.137.
405
Marino Sanuto, I Diarii di Marino Sanuto, tomo IV, Venice, 1881,
col. 367.
406
J.H. Cunha Rivara, ed., Arquivo Portuguez Oriental, fsciculo v, part
I, New Delhi, 1992 (reprint), pp.30-31.
408
Mss. Ibid, codex no. 1043, fl.50.
global confrontation. He was rather upset with the highhandedness of the Portuguese who warned that the
merchants from Mocha, Tennasserim, Pegu, Ceylon, Turkey,
Egypt, Persia, Ethiopia and Gujarat who frequented the
port of Calicut should be kept away from his port. 409 The
flourishing spice trade had brought significant revenues to
the exchequer of the Zamorin, but with the arrival of the
Portuguese things began to take a different turn
altogether. They sacked the city in 1500 and insisted on
the expulsion of all the Muslim merchants from Calicut. 410
Vasco da Gama in 1502/03 demanded that the Zamorin
should not allow any Muslim vessel to anchor off any of his
ports or have any sort of trade relations with them.411 Since
the Zamorin did not accede to the demands of the
409
Fracansano Montalbodo, Paesi Nouvamente Retrovati & Novo
Modo da Alberto Vesputio Florentino Intitulato, Venice, 1507, p.94;
Ludovico di Varthema, The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in
Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India and
Ethiopia A.D. 1503-08, translated from the original edition of 1510,
London, 1863, p.151; Prospero Peragallo, ed., Carta del Rei D.
Manuel ao Rei Catholico Narrandolhe as Viagens Portuguesas a
India desde 1500 ate 1505 in Centenario do Descobrimento da
America, Lisboa, 1892, p.31.
410
Thome Lopes, Navegaco as Indias Orientais in Colleo de
Noticias para a Historia e Geografia das Nacoes Ultramarinas que
vivem nos dominios Portugueses ou so vizinhas, tomo II, nos
1&2, Lisboa, 1812, p.187; Joo de Barros, Da Asia, Decada I, part
2, Lisboa, 1977, (reprint) p.49.
411
Cronica do Descobrimento e Conquista da India Pelos
Portugueses, Coimbra, 1974, p.33.
412
Report of Giovanni Francisco de Affaitati in Marino Sanuto, I Diarii
di Marino Sanuto 1496-1533, tomo V, Venice, 1881, col.129.
414
Tome Pires, Suma Oriental of Tome Pires, London, 1944, vol.I. p.45.
416
K.S. Mathew, The First Mercantile Battle in the Indian Ocean: The
Afro-Asian Front against the Portuguese (1508-1509) in Luis de
Albuquerque & Inacio Guerreiro (ds.), II Seminario International
de Historia Indo-Portuguesa: Actas, Lisboa, 1985, pp.177ff.
418
CHAPTER 7
STUDY OF SHIPBUILDING
421
422
423
entire vessel was not made of one and the same type of
timber.424 Fernando Oliveira speaks of the quality of timber
for ships, comparing the ocean-going vessel with the body
of an animal: The skeleton of the body can be likened to
the frames of ships because it supports, strengthens and
gives shape to the body. The frames of the ship do the
same in the hull. The planking of the ship is compared to
the skin of animals. Therefore, the construction of the hull
of a ship requires strong and hard timber. It has to bear all
424
the weight of the ship and withstand the forces of the sea
and wind. The planking, on the other hand, must have
softness allowing it to be bent and joined to the frame
according to the curves of the ships side.425 In general,
timber for the construction of ocean-going vessels should
be tough, dry, of bitter and resinous sap. It should be
tough and strong to withstand the impact of sea and wind.
It has to be dry from dampness of the waters before the
ship is conserved in the water. If only the sap of the tree is
resinous, it can get itself rid of water. Bitter sap can keep
off the shipworms. Pliability is required for the timber in
bending and joining as mentioned in the case of planking
above.426
The Portuguese writers of the period wrote that teak
(teca) and angely (andira) of the Malabar coast were the
only trees that had all the above-mentioned qualities so as
to say that nature created them exclusively for naval
425
426
427
Ibid.
428
433
A local ritual song of the Malabar coast describes the way in which
a carpenter selected suitable timber from trees of different sorts
for various parts of a vessel like pandi (keel), kal (rib), aniyam
(stern), tattu (floor), kombu (mast), tandu (oar), chukkan (rudder),
namkuram (anchor) and kalli (compartment) built on the Malabar
coast.
Ref. K. Chandera, ed. Kannakiyum Chermakkavum,
Kottayam, 1973 (Malayalam) and also K.K.N. Kurup, Indigenous
Navigation and Shipbuilding on the Malabar coast in K.S. Mathew,
ed., Shipbuilding and Navigation in the Indian Ocean Regions A.D.
1400-1800, Delhi, 1997, pp.20-25.
435
436
438
439
440
441
Use of nails
Many of the early sixteenth century reports regarding
the vessels used in the Arabian Sea belonging to the
Indians lay stress on the use of coir for joining the planks
of the ships together. Indians used iron nails sparingly
because the ships with iron nails could easily sink when
they came into contact with the magnetic zone found in
the rocks under water. The contemporary writers noted
with great surprise that, unlike the Europeans, the Indians
442
445
447
were those brought from Biscay via Lisbon. The mastercarpenter in Cochin shipyard used to write directly to the
King of Portugal to ensure that iron nails and iron in sheets
were sent from Portugal to Cochin as they were cheaper
and of better quality than the ones available in India.448
Discussing the reasons why iron nails were brought
from Portugal to India for shipbuilding, a sixteenth century
document presents two points. The quality of iron available
in India was much inferior to the one brought from Europe.
Chaul, Bassein and the kingdom of Vijayanagar used to
provide iron. This iron was the best available in India. Even
that was much inferior to the quality of iron imported from
Portugal. Besides, iron from India while being worked on,
incurred a lot of loss. The people working on iron in India
were also not as skilled and hardworking as the Europeans
and so the quality of Indian iron was inferior. Apart from
the quality of the nails, the price of iron after all its loss
was much lower in Portugal than in India. A quintal of nails
used to cost three cruzados in Portugal while in India it was
6.5-8.2 cruzados (8-10 pardaos).449 Even if one quintal of
448
449
One cruzado at that time could be equal to 390 reis while one
pardo fetched 320 reis.
iron was available for 450 reales in India after the wastage
while being worked on, it would cost the same in Portugal.
Iron as such cost 600 reales per quintal in Portugal and
was available in plenty, supplied by the contractors of
Belgium to Lisbon. So it was recommended that the iron
materials for shipbuilding in Portuguese India were to be
imported from Portugal.450 In order that the iron nails
driven into the timber permanently avoid entry of water,
these
were
to
be
caulked.
A number of items were used for caulking.451
450
451
454
The beamier the ships are, the more air they contain.
Therefore, wide-bodied ships in proper proportion are safer
than narrow-bodied ships of the same proportion.
The long voyages undertaken by the ships of
Portuguese India required large volumes of victuals. If the
ships were small, they would be filled with mariners and
their victuals leaving no space for merchandise. Fernando
Oliveira argues out his case for large vessels against the
proponents of small ships for the India run. He states that
if the tonnage of the ships was less, the expenditure would
exceed the gain. Small ships were less safe than the larger
ones for two reasons. First, more men and armaments
could be accommodated in big vessels and they could be
used against robbers both on sea and in the ports they
visited. Small ships could not accommodate a large
number of artillery and men, and therefore they were less
powerful to fight against robbers. Secondly, the very sight
of larger vessels could terrorize the enemy who would not
dare attack them. Countering the arguments of those who
would say that when larger vessels would be lost, the loss
would be greater, he says that only in very rare cases the
loss of large ships was found whereas the case to the
contrary was much more common. So, he very strongly
upheld the idea that the tonnage of the ships should be
enhanced, and advised the Portuguese to follow the
tradition prevalent during the period of Dom Manuel and
D. Joo III.
Fernando Oliveira buttressed his suggestion of building
ships with higher tonnage by citing the practices of
antiquity. The grain ship of Ptolemy Philopator was able to
carry 400 sailors and 3000 fighting men. Similarly, Hiero,
the King of Sicily, had larger ships of more than 1000 tons.
Hence, even by citing cases from the remote past, he
reinforced his argument that Portuguese India should build
vessels of greater tonnage for long distance voyages. The
455
Cochin
On account of geological changes in the confluence of
the river near Cochin in the fourteenth century,
particularly Periyar, Cochin emerged as a port. The seat of
the Perumpadappu Swarupam too was shifted to Cochin.
While it was taking shape as a port town, the Portuguese
who met with a rebuff at the hands of the Zamorin of
Calicut in 1502, took the historic decision of setting up
their commercial establishments in Cochin with the help of
the local king. They set up a warehouse under the care of
a factor and in 1503 a fortress too was built there. This
was later strengthened by masonry in 1505. It became the
seat of the Portuguese viceroy in the same year and the
headquarters of the Portuguese in India from 1505 to
1530. Several installations for trade, commerce, naval
activities and religious functions were set up slowly. One
457
459
460
461
462
463
465
467
468
469
K.S. Mathew, Cochin and the Portuguese Trade with India during
the 16th century Indica, March 1989, p.80.
470
Historical Archives of Goa, Mss. Livros das Mones, no.7 (16001603) fols.113-115.
471
473
474
475
476
CHAPTER 8
L IFE
480
did in this section all what was done by the master in the
poop though he could not issue any orders. He controlled
the work of other seamen and was in charge of the ships
rigging, boats and anchors. The foreman had the charge of
the cargo in the ship, as well as loading and unloading the
consignment on reaching the destination. He had his cabin
in the forecastle and had command over the fouke mast
and the fore-sails. He too had a silver whistle like the
master and took care of all things belonging to the fouke
mast. He had to look after the anchors when they were
found to be fastened.483 He was not expected to leave the
poop. The King appointed all these personnel.
There was a writer for every Portuguese vessel who was
to be accountable to the king. Everything of importance for
the King as well as the individuals in the ship had to be
brought to the notice of the writer and be registered by
him. All the orders and duties of the people travelling in
the ship were to be approved by him as they had some
value unlike those of the French. He was bound to keep all
482
Ibid, p.231.
483
Ibid.
boys with them were also divided in the same way. Each
group had to keep awake for four hours at night. Every one
had to be at the rudder of the ship for two hours. There
were three compasses or magnetic needles in big vessels,
one for the pilot on the top of the poop, another on the
deck with the mariner to hear the voices of the pilots
because those who went to the rudder below could not
hear him and the third for the mariner in the middle which
repeated the voice of the pilot. There were two chief
mariners who were called trinqueiros who took care of
cordage and arrangement as well as the repair of sails.
There were four boy servants or pages who did not do any
work other than call people for respective works and
shouted from the foot of the main mast with all their
strength. They called the people on board for specific
duties assigned to them, and conveyed the message from
the master and other officials. The page boys also
collected the belongings of those who died on board.
There was a bailiff (meirinho) or alcaide who executed
the orders of the captain as far as administration of justice
was concerned. The prisons were situated near the pump
and the culprits were put here usually with chains around
their feet. Only the bailiff was allowed to go there. Besides,
there were small prisons on the deck made of planks with
holes into which the feet of the imprisoned persons were
put with chains lest they escape. The bailiff was in charge
of gunpowder, arms and ammunitions and the fireplace on
board. There were two big kitchens with fireplaces on
every deck of the ship, near the mast. The bailiff lighted
the fireplaces around 8 or 9 o clock in the evening. Two
watchmen were appointed to see that no disaster took
place on account of the fire and that nobody took the fire
to
his
own
individual
places
on
board.
If anyone enjoying the confidence of the captain wanted to
go to the cellar of the ship to see his belongings, the bailiff
gave him a lighted candle in his hand and then closed the
exit with chains. If not, the bailiff himself accompanied him
to the cellar. He had to see that the fire was put out at 4
oclock in the morning.
The ships coming to India from Lisbon had artisans and
craftsmen of all sorts on board for necessary repairs, such
as carpenters, caulkers, coopers and others. A great part
of the cabin boys were attached to them for different
works. Four of these boys were expected to sleep in the
crows nest (cesto da gavea) and others according to
allotment.
The
master,
boatswain,
guardian
or
quartermaster, and the chief of the gunners had their own
silver whistles hanging from the silver chain on the neck to
call respective people for specific work, namely, the
master and the boatswain to call the mariners, the chief of
the gunners to call all the gunners, the guardian to call the
cabin boys and the pages.
There were two dispensers in charge of the stores, one
for the soldiers and another for the mariners. But nothing
from the stores could be distributed, except in the
presence of the writer of the ship. These dispensers were
posted by the king.486
The number of people travelling in a ship of medium
tonnage fluctuated from 500 to 1000. There were
approximately sixty mariners, seventy cabin boys, chief
gunner with twenty five gunners, a chaplain, a writer, four
pages, a bailiff, one or two dispensers, one or two artisans
486
Tensions on board
The social composition of the people on board was quite
varied and capable of tensions considering the perceptions
of the living conditions inside a ship. Some scholars
identify the most important tensions on board as those
arising from the relations between the merchants and
navigating officers like the captain as well as between the
navigating officers and the common sailors as was usual
with the East India man of the Netherlands. Also, the strict
discipline and the brutality of the commanders vis--vis
the robust solidarity among the common sailors could
sometimes pose a serious problem and create severe
tensions.488
The difference of interests played a great role in
creating strained relations. At times when faced with
problems of overloading and unfavourable conditions of
the sea, some cargo had to be thrown out for saving the
487
Diet on board
Before the ships left Lisbon for India, they were fully
provided with necessary victuals. The problem of
managing food for such a big group of men on board a
Portuguese ship that took several months to reach the
destination under the conditions of those times devoid of
the facilities for refrigeration was very complicated. The
tremendous change of climate when the ship passed
through the tropical regions could badly affect the victuals.
Sometimes, on account of contrary winds, the vessels were
bound to spend several days near the Ecuador where the
food items could be spoiled on account of the tropical heat. It
was reported by the passengers that a greater part of
edible and potable items like butter, oil, marmalade, water,
figs, raisins and honey got spoiled on account of the hot
weather.492 The same was the case with salted meat that
got completely perished near the coast of Guinea on
account of being soaked.493
Water was very essential for life on board and potable
water was always a rare and expensive item in the ships.
Moreover, it used to get spoiled fast on account of the
climatic changes on the way from Lisbon to India and back.
Travellers used to mention the adverse effect of heat
492
494
496
498
500
502
504
507
Coastal Society in South India shared the view that even the
ladies remaining at home should lead a life of purity to bring
safety to the persons going for fishing in the sea. The case of
Karuthamma and Parekkutty in the famous novel, Chemmeen,
may be recalled here in this connection.
509
Spiritual services
The Jesuits (members of the Company of Jesus) who
were often found on board the ships of the India run did a
lot of service for the people travelling from Lisbon to India
and back. A few details about them are given below:
Preaching the Good News to the men on board the ship
for the consolidation of faith was one of the important
services done by the members of the Company of Jesus
during the voyage from Lisbon to India. Even during the
stopover in Moambique on the East African coast en route
to India, preaching the Gospel, penitential services,
preparation of the severely sick people for death and
510
511
512
513
515
517
518
519
520
523
525
Maintenance of discipline
The society on board the caravels of the Carreira da
India was one that was dominated by men. Taking into
account the long duration of the voyage and the possible
hazards of life, women by and large were prevented from
travelling aboard the ships to India in the sixteenth
526
527
529
531
533
Entertainment on board
The hard life on board coupled with anxiety,
psychological tension and fear of the enemies prompted
them to follow a very strict religious life. Auctions were
also conducted occasionally. As soon as a passenger died,
his belongings were auctioned. Similarly, after a lot of
fishing on the way, there was auction. These auctions also
kept people on board busy and entertained.
It was reported by the close of the sixteenth century
that approximately 1500 soldiers were sent from Portugal
to India every year out of which about one per cent only
returned to Portugal. As for the rest, some died, some were
murdered and some could not return to Portugal on
account of penury. Therefore the last category of soldiers
stayed in India though they did not want to. If by chance
any soldiers returned, it was with the viceroys or nobles
who were allowed to take a few soldiers with them on their
return to Lisbon. So, twenty to thirty solders were always
accommodated on board the ships. In addition, those who
held some important office in Portuguese India were
allowed to take a few slaves and black people with them
535
was
staged
on
12 April, the day after Easter. Father Vallone composed a
play in Portuguese known as the Dialogo das Trs Marias,
representing the visit of the sepulcher in the liturgy. The
three Marys were Maria Salome, Maria Cleophas and Maria
Magdalena. While approaching the sepulchre of Jesus
Christ they asked who would remove the stone at its
entrance. A performance of this type in the liturgy was
conducted in the Cathedral of Ruan in the thirteenth
century. The Biblical event of the appearance of the angel
dressed in white garment has also been presented here. 537
Another performance was conducted on the feast of
Corpus Christi which was celebrated on 10 June 1574. A
solemn procession in the candlelight was conducted on the
day as if it would look like a procession in a great city.
Afterwards, the drama composed in Spanish by Father
Peter Ramon of the Company of Jesus was staged.
During the voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to
India, the comedy of Sta. Barbara was enacted. Father
536
537
540
take care of the sick. They offered to provide the sick with
some special items like chicken and other edible things,
according to their need. Sometimes they provided coat
and bed to the sick. These priests gave special care to
those sick persons who were not properly treated. Even
those who took care of the sick, fell prey to the same
sickness. The number of sick went on increasing. Many
people were put to bleeding by the barbers who were
considered as surgeons. The captain stored a lot of
oranges in the ship, which were distributed to the sick. He
used to visit them in the company of a priest every
morning to impart courage to them.
Against such
difficulties, the priests on board took special care of the
sick as reported by those who travelled aboard the ships
bound for India. Some of them died aboard suffering from
fever and other ailments prevailing among the passengers.
The ordinary mariners often suffered from the lack of food.
They depended on the goodwill of the officials, noblemen
and the priests on board.542
A few common diseases suffered by passengers aboard
the Portuguese ships in the India run includes Scurvy or
Luandan disease. Caused by a lack of certain vitamins,
Scurvy was one of the most frequent and dangerous
diseases of all found among the sea voyagers. The feet
and hands swelled and the gums grew over the teeth so
that they could not eat or drink anything. This was
accompanied
by
copious
hemorrhage,
respiratory
542
Dispensaries (Boutiques)
On account of the long duration of voyage from Europe
to India and back lasting between eight to twelve months,
the captains of the respective ships in the fleet saw to it
that every ship was equipped with one or more boutiques
where several types of remedies were preserved.
The common treatment for almost all the ailments on
board the ship consisted of bleeding for which barbers
were appointed. They believed that the malignant blood
should be permitted to be bled. There were no surgeons in
the modern sense of the term for this purpose and so
barbers experienced in this profession were posted in the
vessels. There was no qualified physician to look after the
sick. Chiefly, it was the Jesuit priests who, though
prevented from practising medicine, voluntarily did the
nursing of the sick. Vivid descriptions about the healthcare
extended by them are found in a number of documents in
Portuguese and Spanish.543 Besides the natural remedies,
supernatural ones in the form of prayers, celebration of
543
CHAPTER 9
E UROPEAN
MERCHANT FINANCIERS
547
548
549
551
553
Ibid, Barros, Decada I, part ii, pp.183-86. The full text of the letter
of the Sultan is found in Cronica do Descobrimento... pp.137-139.
555
557
Ibid, p.6.
558
Marino Sanuto, I Diarii di Marino Sanuto: 1496-1533, Venice, 18971903 (58 vols.) tomo iv, cols. 66-67.
a. Bertholameu Marchioni
Bertholameu Marchioni, the Florentine, was the most
prominent among the foreign financiers having commercial
establishments in Lisbon at the beginning of the sixteenth
century.560 He had the greatest investment in Lisbon, as
testified by the contemporary historian of Portugal, Joo de
Barros.561 Marchioni settled in Lisbon during the reign of
Dom Joo II and functioned as a financier even at the time
of the voyage of Pedro da Covilham to India before the
discovery of the new spice route entirely through sea by
559
560
562
563
564
565
566
568
569
570
571
c. Girolamo Sernigi
Girolamo Sernigi was another Florentine financier and
merchant who had settled down in Lisbon at the time of
the Portuguese discoveries. Referred to in the Portuguese
documents by the name of Hironimo or Jeronimo, he
participated in fitting out a ship to the Malabar coast in
1500 under Pedro lvares Cabral. Sernigis observation
about the trade on the Malabar coast reveals the
commercial interest he had in the Portuguese venture on
the spice trade of the East. He came to India in 1510
commanding his own ship to participate directly in the
trade.572
572
574
Herman van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the
European Economy Fourteenth-sixteenth centuries, vol.II, The
Hague, 1963, p.129.
576
577
e. Lucas Geraldi
578
579
Ibid.
583
of
the
Amount
pepper
for
584
585
S.Thom
35,200
8,000
S.Felipe
35,200
4,000
Buen Jesu
33,200
4,000
Reliquias
33,200
4000
Salvador
33,200
4000
Total
170,000
194,000
587
For a detailed study on the subject, ref. J.P. Cassel, Previlegia und
Handelsfreiheiten welch die Knige von Portugal ehedem den
deutschen Kaufleuten zu Lissabon erheit haben, Bremen, 1771.
The document is reproduced by J. Denuce in Archivo Historico
Portugues, vol.VII, Lisboa, 1909, pp.381-83.
a. The Welsers
Anton Welser, one of the sons of Lucas Welser,
established a firm in 1496 in Augsburg in collaboration
with his brother-in-law Conrad Vhlin of Memingen and
named it Anton Welser, Conrad Vhlin and Company. They
concentrated their attention on the silver mines of Tyrol. 591
By 1503, he founded a factory in Lisbon with a view to
589
E.A. Strason/Alfred Gandara, Oito Seculos dee Historia LusoAlema, Liboa, 1944, pp.133-34.
590
Ibid, p.138.
591
592
B.Greiff, ed., Tagebuch des Lucas Rem aus den Jahren 1494-1541,
Augsburg, 1861, pp.8-9, 83.
593
595
b. The Fuggers
The Fuggers of Augsburg wielded great influence in the
European banking and commerce sector of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. After the death of Jakob Fugger in
1469, his sons Ulrich and Jakob continued the profession of
their father, and the latter of the brothers called Jakob, the
Rich (1459-1522), came to the fore after the death of the
former in 1510 and acquired great fame all over Europe as
an eminent banker and merchant.596 He founded the firm
with the name Jakob Fugger and Brothers Sons. In the
autumn of 1503, through his agent, he obtained certain
privileges analogous to the ones granted to the Welsers by
the King of Portugal in connection with the trade in spices
on the Malabar coast and established a factory in Lisbon.
596
For details of his activities, see. Gots Freiherr von Plnitz, Die
Fugger, Frankurt am Main, 1960
direct trade with India, the King did not give in but on the
other hand he insisted on royal monopoly over pepper. The
Portuguese factor in Antwerp was expected to look after
the problem of sale price. In fact, the German merchant
financiers did not find the system of monopoly and fixation
of price by the Portuguese a welcome step.
The Fuggers conducted exchange in precious metals
with the Portuguese. Later, they entered into the business
of supplying copper to the Portuguese which was essential
for trade on the Malabar coast. So, the Fuggers developed
their activities by starting a mining industry.
The Fuggers participation in the Portuguese trade with
the Malabar coast became inevitable since they owned
copper and silver mines. These two metals, especially the
former, were very much needed for keeping up trade in
spices from the Malabar coast. They had started trading in
copper in 1495 in Hungary and gradually, by advancing
cash to the Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol and Emperor
Maxmillian I, they bought the entire output of copper and
silver of Tyrol, especially of Schwarz. The Fuggers slowly
established their sway on minting and mining copper and
silver which were of great importance for the Portuguese
trade. They collected copper also from Sweden and
Denmark and delivered it to the King of Portugal, either at
the factory in Antwerp or in Casa da India in Lisbon.
According to a contract concluded with the Portuguese
King, they were supposed to advance an amount of 30,000
florins of gold to the Portuguese King. 597 They insisted that
the King should take silver also along with copper. By
597
ANTT.C.C. I-22-25.
598
ANTT.C.C. I-27-3.
599
ANTT.C.C. I-26-122.
602
crop to get higher profit since the fixed price was far below
the current market price. Better commodities were
purchased first by the Moors and the traditional Arab
merchants at considerably high price and were taken to
Tartary, Arabia and China as reported by Ferdinand Cron,
the agent of the Fuggers in India. The local rulers were
willing to deliver pepper at the fixed rate only when the
Portuguese were ready to help them in their constant fight
among themselves. The Portuguese were not sympathetic
to such demands and so the local rulers did not care to see
that the stipulated volume of pepper was delivered on
time against the fixed rate. This naturally created
insurmountable difficulty to the agents of the Fuggers as
well as those of the others.
The Fuggers were asked by the Portuguese King to
conclude Europa Contract in 1591 through Hartlieb, the
agent of the Fuggers in Lisbon. At the insistence of the
Spanish King, the Fuggers concluded the Europa Contract
to sell pepper and other spices brought to Lisbon from the
Malabar coast. The other partners of the Europa Contract
were those who had been known for their business,
especially in cash, with the Spanish King. The contract was
signed on 8 April 1591 for a period of two years. The firm
of Thomas and Andrea Ximenes of Portugal took 12 out of
32
shares,
the
Fuggers
picked
up
7 shares in the name of Georg Fuggersche Erben, the
Welsers 5, Giovanni Battista Rovelasca and Geraldo Paris 4
and the Spanish business house of Francesco and Pedro
Malvenda obtained 4 shares. After a short while, the
Ximenes purchased two shares more from Malvenda. Thus,
c. The Herwarts
604
d. The Hchstetters
Next to the Fuggers and Welsers, Hchstetters had the
most important business house in Augsburg and
Ambrosius Hchstetter was at the head of the business in
the early sixteenth century. They took part in sending
ships to the Malabar coast in 1505 and invested an
amount of 4,000 florins for the same.606 Later on they
concluded contracts with the Portuguese King for the
purchase of pepper and other spices at the Casa da India
and sent the consignment to their factory in Antwerp.
e. Imhofs
605
f. Hirschvogel
606
607
Ibid, pp.168-71.
608
610
611
612
Ibid.
613
614
615
Castanheda, op.cit, Liv IV, capt. 26, Corrreia, op.cit, tomo II, part
II, p.531.
CHAPTER 10
616
M IDDLE-MEN,
PRODUCERS ON
618
619
Ibid, pp.272-73.
620
621
623
625
626
628
Ibid. p.320.
629
631
Ibid, p.378.
632
634
Ibid.
635
637
638
639
640
641
Cartas, tomo iii, p.30: Barros, Decada I, Pt. ii, p.350; Cartas, tomo
vii, p.93; tomo vi, pp.114,398-99, tomo iii, pp.258-9, tom, ii, p.268.
643
644
646
647
648
649
651
653
654
Ibid, p.330.
655
Ibid, pp.306-7.
657
659
660
662
Ibid, p.219.
664
668
Ibid.
Signed at Tellicherry
18 December 1793
Chocara Mousa
250 candies
Chocara Bapen
100 candies
Baniabelty Coyamo
200 candies
Devarsa Bandary
250 candies
Subayya Set
300 candies
Witness to the above signatures D. Rodrigues.669
th
669
671
673
Cartas, tomo iii, p.30; Joo de Barros, Da Asia, Decada I, Part II,
p.350; Cartas tomo vii, p.93; tomo vi, p.114, tomo vii, pp.93-94.
674
CHAPTER 11
S PICE
ROUTES AND
CULTURAL DIFFUSIO N
Judaism
Spices, exotic animals like peacock, ivory and teakwood
attracted the Jews to India in general and the Malabar
coast in particular. The earliest commercial contact
Buddhism
Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Dynasty (322-185 BCE),
after his conversion to Buddhism, became active in the
spread of the religion. Displacement and conflict began to
take place as a result of the spread of Buddhism. Parthians
of a new Iranian Dynasty were Buddhists on account of
which the Greek Seleucids were exiled to Iran and Central
Asia at the beginning of the second century BCE. Spread of
Buddhism from North India through the silk route took the
direction of modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia,
Xinjiang (Chinese Turkistan) China, Korea and finally to
Japan. Thus Buddhism reached China in the first century
BCE. It was introduced into Yutian (Hetian) and from there
into the vast Western regions. This encompassed
Southeast Asia, East and Central Asia. Buddhism infiltrated
into inland China during the period of the Eastern Han
Dynasty (25-220 CE). The first large scale missionary
movement in the history of any world religion is embodied
in the Buddhist movement of this period. Male and female
monks besides laity actively participated in this. Chinese
pilgrims began to come to India along the silk route from
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Nestorianism were
considered by the Tang Dynasty as Three Foreign
Religions. Zoroastrianism, founded by Zarathushtra and
the state religion of Persia, spread into the Western regions
of China from the fifth century to the first century BCE. It
developed rapidly during the Southern and Northern
Dynasties (420-589 CE) and disappeared completely after
the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The mighty Sussanian
Manichaeism
Manichaeism, a mixture of Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
Christianity and ancient Greek ideas. It was a major
Gnostic religion which originated in Sassanid-era
Babylonia. Mani (216-276) was the founding prophet who
taught an elaborate cosmology based on struggle
between a good spiritual world of light and an evil,
material world of darkness. Between the third and
seventh centuries, Manichaeism flourished, spreading to
China along the silk route. It became quite an influential
religion but was prohibited by the Tang Dynasty.
Nestorianism
Nestorianism teaches a doctrine different from Catholic
Church and remains as a school of Syrian Christianity. It
was introduced to China along the Silk Route in 635 CE.
The Tang Emperor Taizhong, LiShimin, asked the people to
build a temple for the practice of Nestorianism. It
flourished
for
150 years during the Tang Dynasty. Under the rulers of the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it began to decline.
Nestorianism spread into Kerala too in course of time.
Islam
Arab Muslims began to travel to China from the seventh
century CE along the Silk Route as well as through the sea
for the sake of spreading Islam. Guangdong province and
Quanzhou were the strongholds of Islam under the Tang
Christianity
a. St. Thomas Christians
St. Thomas Christians claim their origin from St.
Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. In the
light of recent scientific researchers conducted in the
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, it is proved that
St. Thomas, after the crucifixion of Christ, worked for some
time among the Jews in Alexandria and from there he
reached Barygaza (Bharukacha or Broach) under the ruling
677
679
681
683
b. Latin Christianity
The first Latin Christian Missionary to work in Quilon
was John of Monte Corvino, a member of the Societas
Peregrinantium pro Christo who arrived in 1291 on his way
to China. He worked among the Christians and converted a
large number of people to Latin Christianity. Marco Polo,
the Venetian traveller testifies to the existence of
Christians in Quilon during his visit in 1292. The French
Dominican Friar, Jordanus Catalani de Severac, came to
Quilon in 1323 and converted a lot of people to Christianity
besides reviving the Christianity already in existence there.
Pope John XXII, while in captivity in Avignon, erected the
Diocese of Quilon as suffragan to the Archdiocese of
Sultany in Persia through the decree Romanus Pontifex
issued
on
9 August 1329.The French Dominican Friar, Jordanus
Catalani de Severac, was appointed the Bishop of Quilon
through
a
bull
addressed
to
him
on
21 August 1329 under the caption Venerabili Fratri
Jordano by the same Pope. The diocese of Quilon had
jurisdiction over a large area coming now under India,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka.
686
c. Protestant churches
Arrival of the Dutch and the English in Malabar through
the spice route discovered by Vasco da Gama paved the
way for other Christian denominations like the Calvinists,
Lutherans, and Anglicans in due course of time. London
Missionary Society (LMS), Church Missionary Society and
Basel Mission left their indelible imprints in the field of
education and cultural life of Kerala.
The Dutch Reformed Church united the Dutch in
Malabar together. A polyglot church and school partly
maintained by the Dutch East India Company tried to lure
followers to the Dutch Reformed Church. Calvinist
ministers, lay bible-readers and school teachers worked in
Malabar under the Dutch. The lower ecclesiastical
employees of the VOC visited and taught religion on
687
688
Education in Cochin
690
691
694
695
696
698
700
701
it and to chastise with love those who err. 703 There were
always one hundred brothers or members in this
confraternity. The foundation of this confraternity
coincided with the discovery of sea route to India and so
the activities of this confraternity included the services to
the poor, both in Portugal and overseas, including India.
The widows of those who died in the maritime activities of
the Portuguese found it a suitable and beneficial
organization for their relief and the confraternity in the
overseas possessions of Portugal turned out to be a
symbol of charity extended by the Portuguese. 704 The Holy
House of Mercy functioned in places where there were
hospitals. So, there were Holy Houses of Mercy in
Cannanore, Cranganore and Quilon,705 since 1541.706 Later,
in Cranganore and Quilon colleges were established to
teach the children.707
703
704
705
706
707
709
711
715
716
K.S. Mathew & Afzal Ahmad, ed., Emergence of Cochin in the Preindustrial Era: A Study of Portuguese Cochin, Pondicherry, 1990,
p.58.
718
Artus Teodoro de Matos, ed,. O Estado da India nos anos de 15811588, Aores, 1982, p.73.
720
721
722
723
726
surgeons and others who could look after the sick besides
organizing beds and other amenities.727 Still some others
were severely wounded in naval confrontations. A suitable
building for the patients was constructed though a
permanent edifice was yet to be built. These patients were
given chicken, pulses, olive oil, eggs, wheat bread,
sometimes even wine since there was shortage of it in
Cochin, and certain birds according to availability. Cochin
did not produce wine but had in plenty the nutritious water
of nuts from coconut trees or palms. Provision of wine for
the patients in the hospital at Cochin was given by the
government.728 The patients were given food at the
expense of the Portuguese King.729 The King always gave
money for the expenses of the hospital. 730 An amount of
1,000 pardaos was set apart in the account of the
727
728
730
731
732
733
734
Charities
Affonso de Albuquerque, the Governor issued orders on
13 December 1509 to Diogo Pereira, the treasurer of
commodities and the writers of the factory at Cochin that
alms should be distributed to the poor Christians from
Portugal and Malabar besides the Portuguese children and
the children from Malabar every month. A considerable
sum was set apart for the purpose. This amount was from
the account of the Portuguese King. Two clerics were
appointed to be in charge of receiving and spending the
money besides keeping the account. Frei Francisco Diogo
Pereira was in charge of receipt and Pero Alvarez, the
chaplain for expenditure, while Afonso Vaz was to take care
of the accounts.735
735
CHAPTER 12
C ONCLUSION
Colachel
Once a part of the princely state of Travancore, Colachel
is now in the district of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. A port
some 20 km north-west of the district headquarters of
Nagercoil, it was at one time occupied by the Dutch who
had a factory and a fortress there. But it was retaken by
Marthanda Varma, the King of Travancore, after defeating
the Dutch in the battle of Colachel and remained with
Travancore till the States re-organisation of 1956. The
forces of the Dutch East India Company led by Admiral
Eustachian De Lannoy were routed by the Nairs troops of
Marthanda Varma on 10 August 1741. Along with a few
highly placed officers, De Lannoy was captured by men of
the King of Travancore and was later deployed into his
armed service. Bounded on the south by Arabian Sea, the
Pampoori Vaikal is seen to the western side of Colachel.
The vestiges of the Dutch establishment are traceable
here.
Anchuthengu
Anjengo or Anchuthengu is situated about 36 km north
of Thiruvananthapuram and two km away from the
Kadakkavur Railway Station. It belonged to the kingdom of
Attingal and the Queen, thereof, granted the English East
India Company permission to establish a factory and later
a fortress there in the seventeenth century. This was the
first trade settlement of the Company in Kerala. There are
a number of churches built according to the Portuguese
style of architecture. Several tombs of the English and the
Kollam (Quilon)
Kollam, otherwise known as Quilon has a long history of
maritime trade going back to the Phoenicians, Romans,
Arabs and the Chinese in the first millennium CE. It is
located on the banks of the Ashtamudi Lake and lies 70 km
north of Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala. It is
connected to Tamil Nadu through the Punalur and
Aryankavu passes. Quilon is accessible from Aleppey and
Cochin through waterways also. The Malayalam era known
as Kollavarsham is believed to have started in Kollam in
825 CE as a mark of the founding of the town of Kollam.
Mar Sapor and Mar Proth, two missionaries from Persia,
reached Kollam during this period and Ayyanadikal
Thiruvadikal granted special privileges to them to develop
the town as indicated in the Tharisapally copper plates.
The remains of Mar Sapor is buried in the Martha Mariam
Orthodox Church of Thevalakkara near Kayamkulam.
Kollam was a flourishing port of the Chera dynasty until the
formation of the independent kingdom of Venad.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to set up a
trade establishment in Thangasserry, Kollam during the
first decade of the sixteenth century itself. Later in 1517,
they built up a fortress around the Portuguese factory, and
churches and other ecclesiastical institutions came up
within and outside the fortress. The Dutch occupied the
Portuguese fortress in 1661. However, in 1795, the Dutch
possessions were transferred to the English. Kollam is an
important centre of the Anglo-Indians, probably next to
Cochin.
Kayamkulam
Purakkad
Purakkad, which had contacts with the European
merchants, is another village in Aleppey district. There was
an ancient port at Purakkad. The Dutch East India
Company had a factory there in the seventeenth century.
Some traces of the Dutch inhabitation are seen in a Church
located in the village.
Cochin
Most of the elements of a colonial urban centre are
visible in Cochin (Kochi) known as the Queen of the
Arabian Sea. In the past, it was the rendezvous of the Jews
who have a functional synagogue in Mattancherry, a part
of Cochin. The palace of the local king, known as the Dutch
Palace, is also located in Cochin. When the Portuguese
arrived at this port town, the local King assigned them a
place to put up their factory. Later, they converted it into a
fortress. In addition, the official residence of the
Portuguese Viceroy was also established in the area
granted by the King of Cochin. It was made the capital of
Portuguese India extending from the Cape of Good Hope to
Malacca. The headquarters was shifted to Goa in 1530.
Still, it continued to be the commercial hub of the
Portuguese in the East. It was taken over by the Dutch in
Pattanam
As discussed earlier, Pattanam, situated two kilometres
north of North Paravoor in Ernakulam district and nine
Kottappuram (Cranganore)
The Muziris Heritage Project has taken up excavations
in the site of the Cranganore fortress, which was
established by the Portuguese in 1536 with a view to
stopping the flow of spices to the kingdom of Calicut. In
fact, Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese
Viceroy of Portuguese India suggested in 1508 that a
fortress in Cranganore, at the confluence of the river
flowing in the direction of Calicut, would be necessary to
block the flow of pepper to Calicut. 736 It was agreed with
Martim Afonso, Comptroller of Finances in 1536, to start
the work immediately. Diogo Pereira was appointed the
Captain of the fortress christened as St.Thomas. The main
736
Chetwai
As we discussed in chapter five, the Zamorin of Calicut
ceded Chetwai to the Dutch in 1710. They established a
fort
there
and
extended
it
in1714.
The Zamorin attacked the Dutch possession in 1715 and
was defeated by them. Later, in 1755, it was re-occupied
by the Zamorin. Thus, it continued to be a bone of
contention till the Dutch ceded their possessions to the
English. Chetwai backwater, located between Engandiyur
Panchayat and Kadappuram Panchayat of Trichur District,
attracts a number of tourists. The backwaters start at
Enamakkal lake and empties into the Arabian Sea. Besides,
Chetwai also brings in a number of tourists on account of
its mangroves, Chinese fishing nets, islands and migratory
birds, in addition to the fort William. The Government of
Kerala has declared it in 2010 as a heritage village.
Chetwai Bungalow and Raja islands add lustre to Chetwai.
Ponnani
Ponnani, a sea-shore town is located along the south
banks of the River Bharatapuzha, the second largest river
in Malappuram district of Kerala. It is regarded as the
second capital of Calicut. Trikkavu in Ponnani was one
among the seats of the Zamorin of Calicut, from where he
controlled the trade and commerce. Some scholars identify
Ponnani with Tyndis of the Periplus. Realising the
importance of Ponnani in the maritime trade, the
Portuguese established a fortress in 1585. There are nearly
50 mosques here.
Ponnani contributed a great deal to the development of
the cultural and literary heritage of Kerala. It is considered
as the Al-Ahzar University of Kerala and small Mecca in
view of the education in Islamic theology and philosophy
imparted in Ponnani. The place was used as a hub for
trading with Arabs and Europeans in the early part of the
British rule in Malabar.
Chaliyam
Calicut (Kozhikode)
The
Zamorin
of
Calicut
was
from
the
Nediyiruppuswaroopam in Ernadu Taluk. His residence was
shifted to Tali in Calicut after Polanadu was conquered by
him. Calicut came into prominence as a centre of trade
during the second half of the thirteenth century. When Ibn
Batuta visited the Malabar coast in 1342-47, a certain
Ibrahim from Bahrain was the Shabandar at Calicut.737 By
1344 it attracted merchants from China, Sumatra, Ceylon,
the Maldives, Yemen and Fars who frequented Calicut
737
Mahdi Husain, ed., The Rehla of Ibn Batuta, Baroda, 1976, p.188.
Mahe (Mayyazhi)
The Union Territory of Mah consists of Mah town and
Naluthara, which includes four villages: Pandakkal, Pallur,
Chalakara and Chembra. Naluthara was gifted to the
French by Haider Ali, the ruler of Mysore (1722-1782), as a
token of gratitude for the opposition put up by the French
to the English. This erstwhile French enclave is surrounded
on all sides by Kerala. The Mayyazhi River which flows into
the Arabian sea connects Mahe with the hinterland.
Tellicherry (Thalassery)
Cannanore (Kannur)
Cannanore, the headquarters of the revenue district
with the same name is located 518 km north of
Trivandrum. It is known as the Land of Looms and Lores
because Cannanore is famous for its native performing art
form Theyyam and its exclusive handloom industry. The
district houses the headquarters of the Defence Security
30)
31)
32)
33)
34)
35)
36)
37)
38)
39)
40)
41)
Garlic (Veluthulli)
Cloves (Grambu)
Mint (Pudina)
Long pepper (Pippali)
Brown mustard seed (Kaduku)
White pepper
(Vella Kurumulagu)
Fennel seed (Perumjeerakam)
Black cumin (Karimjeerakam)
Dried ginger (Chukku)
Dill (Chathakuppa)
Sesame seed (Ellu)
Holy basil (Tulasi)
B IBLIOGRAPHY