Trade and Politics on the Coromandel Coast: Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries addresses the breakdown of the political structures within which the merchants operated, and the impact of the arrival of the Europeans, especially the English. In so doing, it explores the transitional nature of the seventeenth century and the ways in which the European trading companies, Indian states, and merchants interacted with each other.

Situated within the larger historical context of the trading world of the Coromandel Coast, this regional history challenges accepted notions about the place of merchants and the state, and through a detailed economic history, sheds new light on the political and transitional nature of the period. * (less)