Importation from India to East Africa drastically changed East African society. Specifically, the cloth, bead, and pottery industries brought new commodities to East Africa and created an economic link between the two societies. Primary sources and archaeological evidence reveal the existence of a cloth trade between East Africa and Cambay. For example, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a primary source from the first century CE that was written by an anonymous Greek-speaking Egyptian merchant who travelled throughout the Indian Ocean. In this work, the author comments that the imports from northwestern India included many types of cloth, belts, garments, and “a little muslin.”7Social contact had already begun between East Africa and India by the first century CE, and although India likely did not have a strong influence in East Africa at this time, the relationship developed into a complex trading network over the next millennium.
A second primary source, written by Duarte Barbosa in the sixteenth century, reveals the social value that Indian textiles acquired. Barbosa reported that the kings on Mamfia, Pemba, and Zanzibar islands were “clad in very fine silk and cotton garments, which they [had purchased] at [Mombasa] from the Cambaya merchants.”8 His report indicates the high level of prestige that Indian products received in East African society. It also provides evidence as to how developed the trade had become by the time that the Portuguese arrived on the East African coast.
The increasing importation of Indian textiles also had a profound economic impact on the domestic textile industry in East Africa. Archaeologist Mark Horton has studied
archaeological data to draw conclusions on the artisanal relationships between East Africa and India. He argues that the increasing importation of Indian fabrics led to the collapse of the East African textile industry. East African merchants could not compete with the extravagant textiles from
India, which had acquired a high level of social prestige by the fifteenth century.9 By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast in 1498, India had come to dominate the textile industry, as East Africans gradually began to value Indian products more than products produced locally.
The Portuguese recognized the influence that the Indian trade relationship had over East Africa and quickly sought to minimize it. As Portugal began to colonize East Africa in the sixteenth century, Portuguese merchants sought to monopolize the trade by cutting off Gujarati influence on the coast.10 This objective shows that the Portuguese saw the Gujarati merchants as competitors in the East African trade. However, Horton argues that the Portuguese could not break the Gujarati's absolute control of the textile trade and “the principal trading goods for the East African trade continued to be Gujarati cloths.”1 India certainly had a powerful grip on East Africa since the Portuguese sought and failed to hinder their influence. Unlike the Portuguese, the East Africans wanted to maintain their long standing economic relationship with India. The demand for Indian goods hindered the Portuguese plan of monopolizing trade in the region. The second most important industry in the East African-lndian trade revolved around beads and developed from the third to the seventeenth centuries. Horton argues that the “Indian connection with East Africa is best demonstrated in the manufacture and trade in beads.”12The development of the bead industry from the third century onward is thus
The Monsoon Markets
Pre-Colonial Trade Between East Africa and India
AUTHOR: Catherine Ramey
EDITED BY: Ameena Abid, Joshua De Pinto, and Marshall Cosens
A second primary source, written by Duarte Barbosa in the sixteenth century, reveals the social value that Indian textiles acquired. Barbosa reported that the kings on Mamfia, Pemba, and Zanzibar islands were “clad in very fine silk and cotton garments, which they [had purchased] at [Mombasa] from the Cambaya merchants.”8 His report indicates the high level of prestige that Indian products received in East African society. It also provides evidence as to how developed the trade had become by the time that the Portuguese arrived on the East African coast.
The increasing importation of Indian textiles also had a profound economic impact on the domestic textile industry in East Africa. Archaeologist Mark Horton has studied
archaeological data to draw conclusions on the artisanal relationships between East Africa and India. He argues that the increasing importation of Indian fabrics led to the collapse of the East African textile industry. East African merchants could not compete with the extravagant textiles from
India, which had acquired a high level of social prestige by the fifteenth century.9 By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast in 1498, India had come to dominate the textile industry, as East Africans gradually began to value Indian products more than products produced locally.
The Portuguese recognized the influence that the Indian trade relationship had over East Africa and quickly sought to minimize it. As Portugal began to colonize East Africa in the sixteenth century, Portuguese merchants sought to monopolize the trade by cutting off Gujarati influence on the coast.10 This objective shows that the Portuguese saw the Gujarati merchants as competitors in the East African trade. However, Horton argues that the Portuguese could not break the Gujarati's absolute control of the textile trade and “the principal trading goods for the East African trade continued to be Gujarati cloths.”1 India certainly had a powerful grip on East Africa since the Portuguese sought and failed to hinder their influence. Unlike the Portuguese, the East Africans wanted to maintain their long standing economic relationship with India. The demand for Indian goods hindered the Portuguese plan of monopolizing trade in the region. The second most important industry in the East African-lndian trade revolved around beads and developed from the third to the seventeenth centuries. Horton argues that the “Indian connection with East Africa is best demonstrated in the manufacture and trade in beads.”12The development of the bead industry from the third century onward is thus
The Monsoon Markets
Pre-Colonial Trade Between East Africa and India
AUTHOR: Catherine Ramey
EDITED BY: Ameena Abid, Joshua De Pinto, and Marshall Cosens
