India in the Indian Ocean trade, circa 1500

Abstract

An analysis of the structure and the mechanics of the early modern Indian Ocean trade, alternatively referred to as Asian trade, ought perhaps to start with a recognition of the simple fact that this trade transgressed the boundaries of both the Indian Ocean and Asia. Around the time that the Europeans' participation in the maritime trade of India started, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, India occupied a position of key importance in the structure of Indian Ocean trade. Of the three principal segments of this trade, the Western Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, the first two were dominated by India. In the course of the fifteenth century, Malacca became a truly major centre of international exchange and a meeting point of traders from the East and the West.