CARAVANS: INDIAN MERCHANTS ON THE SILK ROAD
Scott C Levi
Penguin Allen Lane;
197 pages; Rs 499
Labouring up a steep sand dune outside of the Chinese city of Dunhuang, one of the major stops along the Silk Road, I doffed a metaphorical hat to the fortitude of merchants of yore who would have trudged another 800 kilometers through the Taklamakan Desert to reach the next halt of Kashgar.
We tend to think of the Silk Road primarily as a trade artery connecting the fabulous silks and porcelain of China to the avid markets of Europe. Scott C Levi's slim volume, Caravans: Indian Merchants on the Silk Road, dispels this notion with a detailed account of the huge trade between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia, which continued from early antiquity to as late as the beginning of the 20th century. The Central Asian theatre was not merely a passage along the East-West trade route, but a thriving and dynamic economic region in its own right, and Indian goods were ubiquitous in the camel caravans that traversed it. Moreover, Indian merchant communities settled down across the region, financing and facilitating these large trade flows.
Levi's Caravans is the seventh in a series on the history of Indian business edited by Gurcharan Das, which focuses on lesser-known facets of the vibrant and complex Indian manufacturing and trading scenario through the ages. Das seeks to present interesting tales on Indian business to encourage "sensible" thinking about the future of our economy.
Levi, a professor of Central Asian history at Ohio State University, busts several beliefs related to the Silk Road as a "premodern superhighway of sorts, set up to link Chinese production centres with European markets". India, he says, was always a key participant in the Eurasian trade routes and continued to remain one even after the sea route was opened up. The book emphasises that Indian merchants were hardly mere pedlars; in fact, it highlights the sophisticated business practices of the chief Indian trading communities of the period, the Multanis, Shikarpuris and others. Finally, Caravans points out that rulers of Central Asia and South Asia did much to protect movement of goods through the region, despite occasional instability.
At the turn of the first millennium India was beset by invasions from the northwest but Turko-Afghan rulers of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206-1526 took pains to ensure safety of caravan routes. They built supportive infrastructure such as shady roads, wells, and caravanserais, and took punitive action against thieves. The stability of the Mughal period kept the caravans moving across the Khyber Pass to Kabul and onwards to Central Asia for another 300-plus years.
Special reference is made to the merchants from Multan who settled for years at a time in Central Asia and Iran. When in 1558, Englishman Anthony Jenkinson arrived in Bukhara, he came across Indian merchants well established in the city. The numbers of Multanis in the region increased rapidly in the next couple of hundred years to several tens of thousands, including both Hindus and Muslims. Multani firms were renowned for their multifarious commercial and moneylending activities and innovatively deployed hundis to transfer large amounts of money across long distances.
The modus operandus, as described by Levi, was complex - investments were made by sahs, or firm directors, who recruited and trained gumashtas, then sent them to foreign markets with capital to be invested in buying merchandise and trading as well as lending. These gumashtas travelled long distances in the quest for profit to cities such as Isfahan, Astrakhan and beyond, up the Volga and as far as St Petersburg. In later centuries, merchants from Shikarpur were more ubiquitous, and the mix also included Khatris and Aroras.
Accounts show that in the 17th century, 25,000-30,000 camels with Indian products strapped to their backs made the trek from Qandahar to Isfahan each year. Cotton textiles from India were highly prized across all markets, from Central Asia to Europe, and remained a trade staple throughout the caravan period along with spices, rice, sugar, and so on. A lesser-known fact is that several thousand Indian slaves too were transported to Central Asia every year, till the trade halted in the mid-19th century. Central Asian horses were in high demand in India due to their multiple uses in warfare and as pack animals. The fatality rate was high due to the unfavourable Indian climate, so as many as 100,000 horses may have been traded across the Khyber Pass as well as through the sea route each year.
The caravan route between India and Central Asia remained robust and dynamic through the centuries, ending only after increase in Russian presence and the advent of railways. Presented in a readable style, Levi's Caravans fills many gaps in our knowledge of India's vibrant business past, kindles fresh interest in our present relations with Central Asian economies and highlights India's pervasive role in the Silk Road at a time when it is being rejuvenated.
The reviewer is an author of several books on Indian business history
Scott C Levi
Penguin Allen Lane;
197 pages; Rs 499
Labouring up a steep sand dune outside of the Chinese city of Dunhuang, one of the major stops along the Silk Road, I doffed a metaphorical hat to the fortitude of merchants of yore who would have trudged another 800 kilometers through the Taklamakan Desert to reach the next halt of Kashgar.
We tend to think of the Silk Road primarily as a trade artery connecting the fabulous silks and porcelain of China to the avid markets of Europe. Scott C Levi's slim volume, Caravans: Indian Merchants on the Silk Road, dispels this notion with a detailed account of the huge trade between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia, which continued from early antiquity to as late as the beginning of the 20th century. The Central Asian theatre was not merely a passage along the East-West trade route, but a thriving and dynamic economic region in its own right, and Indian goods were ubiquitous in the camel caravans that traversed it. Moreover, Indian merchant communities settled down across the region, financing and facilitating these large trade flows.
Levi's Caravans is the seventh in a series on the history of Indian business edited by Gurcharan Das, which focuses on lesser-known facets of the vibrant and complex Indian manufacturing and trading scenario through the ages. Das seeks to present interesting tales on Indian business to encourage "sensible" thinking about the future of our economy.
Levi, a professor of Central Asian history at Ohio State University, busts several beliefs related to the Silk Road as a "premodern superhighway of sorts, set up to link Chinese production centres with European markets". India, he says, was always a key participant in the Eurasian trade routes and continued to remain one even after the sea route was opened up. The book emphasises that Indian merchants were hardly mere pedlars; in fact, it highlights the sophisticated business practices of the chief Indian trading communities of the period, the Multanis, Shikarpuris and others. Finally, Caravans points out that rulers of Central Asia and South Asia did much to protect movement of goods through the region, despite occasional instability.
At the turn of the first millennium India was beset by invasions from the northwest but Turko-Afghan rulers of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206-1526 took pains to ensure safety of caravan routes. They built supportive infrastructure such as shady roads, wells, and caravanserais, and took punitive action against thieves. The stability of the Mughal period kept the caravans moving across the Khyber Pass to Kabul and onwards to Central Asia for another 300-plus years.
Special reference is made to the merchants from Multan who settled for years at a time in Central Asia and Iran. When in 1558, Englishman Anthony Jenkinson arrived in Bukhara, he came across Indian merchants well established in the city. The numbers of Multanis in the region increased rapidly in the next couple of hundred years to several tens of thousands, including both Hindus and Muslims. Multani firms were renowned for their multifarious commercial and moneylending activities and innovatively deployed hundis to transfer large amounts of money across long distances.
The modus operandus, as described by Levi, was complex - investments were made by sahs, or firm directors, who recruited and trained gumashtas, then sent them to foreign markets with capital to be invested in buying merchandise and trading as well as lending. These gumashtas travelled long distances in the quest for profit to cities such as Isfahan, Astrakhan and beyond, up the Volga and as far as St Petersburg. In later centuries, merchants from Shikarpur were more ubiquitous, and the mix also included Khatris and Aroras.
Accounts show that in the 17th century, 25,000-30,000 camels with Indian products strapped to their backs made the trek from Qandahar to Isfahan each year. Cotton textiles from India were highly prized across all markets, from Central Asia to Europe, and remained a trade staple throughout the caravan period along with spices, rice, sugar, and so on. A lesser-known fact is that several thousand Indian slaves too were transported to Central Asia every year, till the trade halted in the mid-19th century. Central Asian horses were in high demand in India due to their multiple uses in warfare and as pack animals. The fatality rate was high due to the unfavourable Indian climate, so as many as 100,000 horses may have been traded across the Khyber Pass as well as through the sea route each year.
The caravan route between India and Central Asia remained robust and dynamic through the centuries, ending only after increase in Russian presence and the advent of railways. Presented in a readable style, Levi's Caravans fills many gaps in our knowledge of India's vibrant business past, kindles fresh interest in our present relations with Central Asian economies and highlights India's pervasive role in the Silk Road at a time when it is being rejuvenated.
The reviewer is an author of several books on Indian business history