Publisher's Synopsis
This book builds on Professor Arasaratnam's many years of research in the British, Dutch and Southern Indian archives. Some of the results of this he has already published in a long series of articles and in a study of the commerce of the Coromandel coast in the period 1650û1740. The present work takes this forward to the period when the English had emerged successful from the conflict with the French, and were consolidating their control of the region, notwithstanding challenges from the newly risen kingdom of Mysore. - - The aim of this work is to analyse the extension of English control over major sectors of the region's economy, distinguishing different stages in this process. The textile industry was the English East India Company's prime concern, and this is reflected in the detailed treatment accorded to it here. A great deal of evidence on the progress of the industry and the export trade is assembled, and the author devotes particular attention to the constant interaction between the English Company's policies and their consequences on the ground. The final section of the book then extends the analysis to give a broader discussion of the region's trade, both coastal and long-distance, especially to Southeast Asia, and to examine the effects the changing situation had on local merchants and entrepreneurs.
