Commodity and Market 17
Tomé Pires gives a long list of places from where the traders originated
as follows:
[There came] Moors from Cairo, Mecca, Aden, Abyssinians, men
of Kilwa, Malindi, Ormuz, Parsees, Rumes, Turks, Turkomans,
Christian Armenians, Gujaratees, men of Chaul, Dabhol, Goa, of the
kingdom of Deccan, Malabars and Klings, merchants from Orissa,
Ceylon, Bengal, Arakan, Pegu, Siamese, men of Kedah, Malays, men
of Pahang, Pattani, Cambodia, Champa, Cochin China, Chinese,
Lequeos, men of Brunei, Lucoes, men of Tamjompura, Laue, Banka,
Linga (they have a thousand other islands), Moluccas, Banda, Bima,
Timor, Madura, Java, Sunda, Palembang, Jambi, Tongkal, Indragiri,
Kappatta, Menangkabau, Siak, Argua (Arcat?), Aru, Bata, country
of the Tomjano, Pase, Pedir, Maldives.^53Myriads of goods were brought by them from the Mediterranean, West
Asia and India. For example, four ships came every year from Gujarat,
bringing 30 different kinds of cloths. On the return voyage, they shipped
back merchandise that included cloves, mace, nutmeg, sandalwood, seed-
pearls, porcelain, silk, tin, damask and so forth.^54
The Gujaratis were among the prominent groups of merchants of the
Indian Ocean in the βifteenth-century Malay-Indonesian Archipelago.
They arrived with their own shipping and capital. Their wealth allowed
them to enjoy great political inβluence in Malacca.^55 Hindu traders were
another group from India who played a role as go-betweens in the trade
to the Middle East, Southeast and Northeast Asia. Products from the
Malabar Coast included black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, sandalwood,
and cotton textiles. Imports of spices, aromatics and Chinese goods
would also be re-exported to West Asia in exchange for incense, pearls,
precious stones, ivory and other products.^56 In K.N. Chaudhuri’s words,
“the merchants of Gujarat, Malabar, Coromandel and Bengal looked to
the east, to the Indonesian archipelago, for direct voyages organized with
their own shipping and capital”.^57 The Armenians were probably the most
ancient traders in the world and were also active in sixteenth-century
Malacca. They continued to be much appreciated in the trading world in
the following centuries. Their presence was seen in the Mediterranean,
- The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, p. 268.
- Ibid., p. 270.
- K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean, pp. 100–1.
- Ibid., pp. 185–7.
- Ibid., p. 100.