Arabia and Persia

Abstract

Before the arrival of the Dutch in Gujerat, there was already a lively traffic between that country and Arabia. The Great Mogul of India, Jahangir, 1605–1627, was a Moslem, as was his dynasty. He ruled Gujerat through a lieutenant at Ahmadabad, and the Gujerat Ports of Cambay and Surat became the great departure points for Moslem pilgrims bound for Mecca. There was also concomitantly heavy commercial traffic carried on by means of the native craft plying between Gujerat and the Arabian ports. When the Netherlanders finally opened trade with Arabia, they followed this trade route. The new commerce was largely a project of their factory at Surat and the Arabian branches were dependencies of the one at Surat. The Company was aware that it could dispose of in Arabia such items as pepper and cloves, cloth from Gujerat, diamonds, indigo, gumlac, musk, benzoin, radix (a root from China used as a drug) and various other medicines. Some useful articles could also be obtained there—myrrh, pearls, and raisins, for example, but inducements to trade these items were insignificant compared with the great fact that goods could be sold in Arabia for cash. Indeed, it was at one time Jan Pieterszoon Coen’s scheme to so develop Arabian trade that he would obtain there the cash to purchase the Gujerat cloth he needed in Indonesia. It was also thought by some Company officials that the presence of Company ships in the Gujerat-Arabia trade would result in the Company’s being treated more respectfully than it had been by the native merchants who were busily plying the trade routes of the Arabian Sea.