• 1.2: European Trade with the Middle East and Asia

      • 1.2.1: Trade Networks and State Monopolies

        • Gresham College: Dr. Thomas Crump's "The Dutch East Indies Company"

          Listen to these lectures. As you listen to the first lecture on the first 100 years, think about the political and religious factors that led to the creation of the Dutch East Indies Company in the 1600s. How did the firm represent an effort by Northern Europeans to challenge the economic and political power of Portugal and Spain? As you listen to the second lecture on the second hundred years, think about the political and religious factors that led to the creation of the Dutch East Indies Company in the 1600s. How did the firm represent an effort by Northern Europeans to challenge the economic and political power of Portugal and Spain?

          Note on the In this first lecture, Dr. Thomas Crump describes the origins and development of the Dutch East Indies Company, the powerful corporate trading monopoly created by Holland to control commercial access to East Asia, during the 17th and 18th centuries. Dr. Crump discusses how the East Indies Company established trading sites in India, China, Japan, and modern-day Indonesia to carry out business with local merchants, and he explains how the company used its vast resources to create a private army and navy to protect its vast trading empire.

          In his second lecture, Dr. Thomas Crump describes the origins and development of the Dutch East Indies Company, the powerful corporate trading monopoly created by Holland to control commercial access to East Asia, during the 17th and 18th centuries. Dr. Crump discusses how the East Indies Company established trading sites in India, China, Japan, and modern-day Indonesia to carry out business with local merchants. He also explains how the company used its vast resources to create a private army and navy to protect its vast trading empire.

      • 1.2.2: Supply and Demand

        • Shafaat Ahmed Khan's "The East India Trade in the XVIIth Century"

          Read Chapter 1 on pages 1-92. As you read, note the variety of commodities traded by merchants in this era. Which commodities did Western Europeans seek? What did they have to trade with merchants in the East? Was the balance of trade equal, or one-sided? 

          Chapter 1 of this book offers a detailed study of Portuguese, Dutch, and later English efforts to cultivate trade networks with the Middle East, India, China, and the East Indies during the 17th century.

      • 1.2.3: Economic and Political Impact of the India Trade

        • Shafaat Ahmed Khan's "The East India Trade in the XVIIth Century"

          Read Chapter 4 on pages 246-307. As you read, think about how national politics shaped British trade practices during this era.

          Chapter 4 of this book focuses on the economic and political impact of the East India trade on England at the end of the 17th century. Advocates of free trade challenged the British East India Company's trade monopoly with India and Asia and asserted that state-sponsored monopolies were harmful, rather than helpful, to the national economy.