4 Boundaries and Beyond
were the direct beneβiciaries of the common economic activity. In fact, in
one way or another the producers of trade goods, traders and consumers
in the hinterlands and seafarers were all interrelated in the trade. In this
sense, the boundary of maritime East Asia consists of both the seas and
lands of the two regions that form a coherent geographical entity.
Studies on maritime regions often refer to the ideas of both Fernand
Braudel (1902‒85) and K.N. Chaudhuri, who published their respective
works in 1949 and 1985. “The idea that the study of a civilization might
be named after a sea originated with Fernand Braudel”, as his admirer
K.N. Chaudhuri remarks in the very βirst sentence of his own book.^3
Writing in the preface to his English edition in 1972, Braudel highlights
one salient feature of the sea that embraces both plurality and unity
when he says that, “[t]he Mediterranean speaks with many voices; it is a
sum of individual histories”.^4 Despite the different cultures and religions,
the Mediterranean regions embodied their unity and coherence because
“the Turkish Mediterranean lived and breathed with the same rhythms
as the Christian, [so] that the whole sea shared a common destiny”.^5 He
believes that, “history cannot be really understood unless it is extended
to cover the entire human past”.^6 One must take the journey “through
the long expanse of history”.^7 In other words, such a history “could only
be written in the longue durée and from a long perspective”.^8 The long
view allows one to discover that, “all change is slow, a history of constant
repetition, ever-recurring cycles”.^9 The Mediterranean must be viewed
in its broadest geographical context because “Mediterranean history is
an aspect of world history”.^10 Among other points, Braudel emphasizes
the importance of exchange, especially long-distance exchange: “It is
imbalance that creates exchange and therefore leads to progress.”^11
The second of these two inβluential works on maritime civilization
is the book by K.N. Chaudhuri. The author was fascinated by Braudel’s
- K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History
from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 1. - Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World, p. 13.
- Ibid., p. 14.
- Fernand Braudel, Memory and the Mediterranean (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
2001), p. xxv. - Ibid.
- See Oswyn Murray, “Introduction” to Fernand Braudel, Memory and the
Mediterranean, p. xvii. - Braudel, Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World, p. 20.
- See Murray, “Introduction”, p. xix.
- Ibid., pp. xix–xx.
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