SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY

History of Crafts, Manufacturing and Trade in the Indian Subcontinent

HISTORIC ASPECTS OF CRAFT AND TRADE IN INDIA

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Abstract

Several sources point to a thriving system of international trade that linked the ports of Southern India with those of Ancient Rome. The  Roman writer Pliny (AD 23-79) complained of the cost of these and other luxury commodities that were imported from India. "Not a year passed in which India did not take fifty million sesterces away from Rome", wrote Pliny. Textiles comprised an important component of India's exports, and archaeological evidence from Mohenjo-Daro establishes that the complex technology of mordant dyeing had been known in the subcontinent from at least the  second millennium B C. The use of printing blocks in India may go as far back as 3000 B C, and some historians are of the view that India may have been the original home of textile printing. Marco Polo recorded the export of Indian textiles to China and South East Asia from Andhra and Tamil ports in the "largest ships" then known.   According to texts dating from the Buddhist era, woolen carpets were known in India as early as 500 B.C., however, Indian carpets of the Mughal period have been slowly gaining recognition  as the most technically accomplished classical carpets of all times. Indian courts of the medieval era were especially renowned for their patronage of workshops that produced exquisite artifacts such as fine jewelry, carved rock crystals, colored glass-wares, papier mache and decorative pottery. Indians metallurgical skills were particularly advanced  leading Thomas Holland, (chairman of the Indian Industrial Commission of 1916-18) to remark: "The high quality of the native made iron, the early anticipation of the process now employed in Europe for the manufacture of high-class steels, and the artistic products in copper and bronze gave India a prominent position in the metallurgical world." India also seems to have been the first country of the Indian Ocean to possess a real Navy. An extensive trade flourished between India and the Arab world, with the Portuguese and the East India Trading Companies becoming very active after the 16th C. However, protectionist barriers in Europe, Europe's monopolization of India's external trade and colonization coupled with unfair trade practices led to a precipitous decline in both trade and manufacturing after the 18th century. 

Summary of Topics, Main Themes 

• Southern India's trade with Ancient Rome  
• Antiquity of Indian textile and carpet production 
• Technology of mordant dyeing, use of printing blocks 
• 13th C accounts of India's Textile Exports to the Arab World, to China and  South East Asia (Accounts of Chau Ju-kua, Marco Polo and  Chou Ta-kuan)
• Major Ports of Coastal India and Inland Manufacturing Centres 
• Quality of Indian Manufactured goods (such as carpets, jewelry and other decorative crafts)
• Patronage provided by the Mughal, Rajput, and regional courts of the Deccan
• Metallurgy in India, early knowledge of extraction of metals such as zinc, production of alloys, rust-resistant steel
• Indian Shipping and Navy (from the Mauryan period to the Mughals)
• Trade with the Portuguese and the East India Companies
• European Protectionism
• Decline in Trade Revenues
• Colonization and decline of the Indian mercantile bourgeoisie 
• Trade and manufacturing in India's Islamic Courts compared to British Colonial Rule

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Also see: Technological discoveries and applications in India

and History of Orissa: An introduction

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Last update: May 18, 2001