This book studies connections between trade and politics in the Coromandel Coast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with special focus on Madras. It questions the largely uncontested view that trade and traders in pre-modern India were disconnected from the world of politics and the state, arguing instead that south Indian merchants depended on, and functioned within, the structures and stability provided by the state. It also addresses the breakdown of political structures within which the merchants operated, and the impact of the arrival of Europeans, especially the English. In this sense, this is a regional history which challenges accepted notions about the place of merchants and the state, and through a detailed economic history sheds new light on the political and transitional nature of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
About the Author
Dr Radhika Seshan is an Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of Pune. She is currently on lien at the Centre for Regional Studies, University of Hyderabad. She has edited a number of books, of which the most recent is History of Modern Deccan, Vol. II: Socio-Economic and Cultural Aspects, which she has edited jointly with A.R. Kulkarni and M.A. Nayeem.
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