European Merchant Capital and the Indian Economy

This book attempts to focus on the impact of European merchant capital on the Indian economy in the pre-colonial phase through an indepth analysis of Surat Factory Records for the period 1630-1668, the latter year being significant for the transfer of island of Bombay from Crown to the Company. The original Mss. records of English East India Company pertaining es­pecially to the Surat Factory have been studied in detail. The documents have been transcribed, annotated and edited.The study throws considerable light on the nature and character of India’s foreign and internal trade as also on aspects of the socio-economic and political structure of India in the seventeenth century. The information derived from these records would also help in tracing the impact of an European Joint-stock Company on Indian economic institutions and to examine the trend of transformations that were soon to come. In setting up their trading organisation in India, the English merchants made extensive use of the existing indegenous commercial institutions, and their relation­ships with Indian merchants provide important insights into different forms of economic behaviour.This book is of value to the study of economic history, as the Surat Factory Records provide one of the comprehensive sources of information for the reconstruction of the commercial history of India in the pre-modern age.