一六世紀インド海上貿易の構造 : 主要貿易品の分析を中心として

Abstract

The Indian Ocean of the 16th century witnessed the advance of the Portuguese power, the rise of the Mughal Empire and the Safavid Dynasty, and the zenith of the Ottoman Empire's prosperity. How was India's overseas trade in the century affected by these events? In this paper, the author examines the changes in its pattern and, especially, the volumes of her trades in some important articles such as cotton goods, pepper, rice, horse and silver. India's per capita exports of cotton goods in those days must have exceeded those of today. South Indian kings spent more money for the annual import of Arabian and Persian horses than what the Indian merchants on the Malabar Coast earned in selling all the pepper produced there. Again, the annual exports (in weight) of rice from Negapatam on the Coromandel Coast alone were about three times larger than the annual output of Malabar pepper at the beginning of the century. The annual silver imports of India from West Asia perhaps exceeded those from Portugal at the end of the century. The latter, on the other hand, must not have been surpassed by the annual silver exports of the British East India Company to Asia during the first half of the 17th century. The total volume of India's overseas trade must have increased during the 16th century, which may be inferred from her increasing trade with Malacca and the Red Sea zone. The Portuguese trading activities undoubtedly contributed to this increase. It was, however, the growing demand for Indian goods in Asian countries and the trading ativities of Indian and other Asian merchants who cleared the barriers set up by the Portuguese that greatly contributed to this increase