The Early European Settlements: The Portuguese in India

The Early European Settlements: The Portuguese in India

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The Portuguese in India

• The landing of Vasco da Gama at Calicut on the Malabar coast in 1498, with three ships guided by a Gujarati pilot, Abdul Majid, is generally regarded as the beginning of a new era in the relationship between Asia and Europe — making the advent of the Portuguese in India a foundational theme in UPSC History Optional Medieval Indian History.

Objectives of Finding a Sea Route and Factors Behind the Advent of the Portuguese

• Although Asia and Europe had been in commercial relations since antiquity, the opening of direct sea-relations between them was not merely the fulfilment of an old dream (the Greek historian Herodotus records that the Phoenicians had rounded Africa in the 6th century BC) — it also presaged a big increase in trade between the two continents.
• In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.
  • Merchandise from India reached European markets through Arab Muslim intermediaries.
  • The Red Sea trade route was a state monopoly from which Islamic rulers earned tremendous revenues, and the land routes to India were also controlled by the Arabs.
  • In these circumstances, the Europeans were keen to find a direct sea route to India.
    • A direct sea-link with India would displace the virtual monopoly of the Arabs and Turks over the trade in eastern goods, especially spices.
    • For the Portuguese, opening a sea-route to India would deal a big blow to the Muslims — the Arabs and Turks — who were the traditional enemies of Christianity and posed a growing threat to Europe through the rising military and naval power of the Turks.
    • They also hoped that, through their exploration of Africa, they would link up with the kingdom of the legendary Prester John and be able to attack the Muslims from two sides. Thus, the commercial and religious objectives supported and justified each other.

Interest Shown by the Pope

• The Pope showed growing interest in the search for a sea-route to India when, in 1453, he issued a Bull granting Portugal “in perpetuity” whichever lands it “discovered” beyond the Cape in Africa up to India, on condition of converting the “heathens” of those lands to Christianity.

Effect of the Renaissance

• Interest in the search for a sea-route to India was also spurred by the Renaissance, which gripped Europe in the 15th century, challenged rooted modes of thought, and created a new spirit of daring — the Renaissance had, in effect, called for exploration.
• Growing interest in oriental trade was reflected in the arrival of many Genoese traders in the Indian Ocean from the 13th century onwards.
  • The Venetians Nicolo Conti and Barbosa, and the Russian Nikitin, were among the many others who travelled the Indian Ocean and reached India during this period.

Economic Development of Europe

• The economic development of many European regions progressed rapidly, marked by the expansion of land under cultivation, the introduction of an improved plough, scientific crop management such as crop rotation, and an increased supply of meat (which in turn called for spices, both for cooking and for preservation).
• With growing prosperity, the demand for oriental luxury goods increased, and European dietary habits changed with more meat being consumed.
  • Much of the cattle in Europe had to be slaughtered in winter owing to a shortage of fodder, and the meat was salted away.
  • Oriental spices were in even greater demand to make this salted meat more palatable.

Advances in the Art of Ship-Building and Navigation

• Europe made great advances in ship-building and navigation, which created an eagerness across Europe for adventurous sea voyages to reach the unknown corners of the East.

Genoese Interest

• The principal rivals of the Venetians in Europe were the Genoese, who were also active in distributing oriental goods but had been side-lined by the Venetians.
  • Venice and Genoa, which had earlier prospered through trade in oriental goods, were too small to take on the mighty Ottoman Turks or undertake major exploration on their own.
  • The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 was a severe blow to the Genoese, since the Black Sea ports — their principal mart for oriental goods — were gradually closed to them.
  • This loss, combined with their old rivalry with Venice, led Genoa to help Portugal and Spain with ships, money, and nautical skills in the search for a sea-route to India.
    • Christopher Columbus, who “discovered” America in 1492 while attempting to find a sea route to India, was himself a Genoese.
• Portugal had assumed leadership in Christendom’s resistance to Islam, even as it took upon itself the spirit of exploration.
• The idea of finding an ocean route to India had become an obsession for Prince Henry of Portugal, nicknamed the “Navigator”, who was keen to circumvent Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and the routes connecting India to Europe.

Arrival of Vasco Da Gama

• The arrival of three ships under Vasco Da Gama, led by the Gujarati pilot Abdul Majid, at Calicut in May 1498, profoundly affected the course of Indian history.
• The Hindu ruler of Calicut, the Zamorin (Samuthiri), had no apprehensions regarding European intentions.
  • Since the prosperity of his kingdom rested on Calicut’s position as an entrepot, he accorded Vasco Da Gama a friendly reception and permitted him to trade in spices and set up a factory (warehouse) on the coast.
  • Over the objections of Arab merchants, Gama secured a letter of concession for trading rights from the Zamorin — though the Portuguese were unable to pay the prescribed customs duties and the price of his goods in gold.
  • The Portuguese sought to enforce a monopoly over the spice trade to Europe and claimed the right to search the ships of Arab traders.
    • This led to a fight in which the Portuguese living in their factory were massacred.
    • In retaliation, the Portuguese ships bombarded Calicut before withdrawing.
• Vasco da Gama stayed in India for three months.
  • On returning to Portugal, he carried back a rich cargo and sold it in the European market at a huge profit — the spices were computed at sixty times the cost of the entire expedition.
  • The importance of direct access to the pepper trade is clear from the fact that Europeans buying through Muslim middlemen elsewhere would have had to pay ten times as much for the same amount of pepper.
  • Unsurprisingly, other profit-seeking European merchants were tempted to come to India and trade directly.
• In 1502, Vasco da Gama returned with a fleet of twenty-five vessels and demanded that the Zamorin expel all Muslim merchants settled in Calicut, and bar any Muslim merchant from landing at his ports or trading with them.
  • The Zamorin rejected these demands, holding that the port of Calicut was open to all and that it would be impossible to prohibit anyone — Muslim or otherwise — from trade.
  • Gama’s answer was a brutal assault on Calicut, followed by the establishment of forts at Cochin, Quilon, etc., to dominate the Malabar trade. His rupture with the Zamorin became total and complete.
  • Vasco da Gama set up a trading factory at Cannanore.

Two Competing Philosophies of Trade and State

• What was at issue here were two different philosophies of the relationship between trade and the state.
  • The Asian convention was one of open trade, with governments backing and supporting trade but not deploying military or naval strength to promote or protect it.
  • The Mediterranean tradition which the Portuguese brought with them combined trade with warfare on land and sea — an approach deeply upsetting to Asian traders and to small, trade-dependent states such as Calicut and Cochin, which followed the convention of open trade without recourse to force.
• For centuries, the Indian Ocean trading system had numerous participants — Indians, Arabs, Africans from the east coast, Chinese, Javanese, among others — who acted according to tacit rules of conduct; none had sought overwhelming dominance, though all were in it for profit.
  • The Portuguese changed this: they sought to monopolise the hugely profitable eastern trade by excluding competitors, especially the Arabs.
• Calicut, Cannanore, and Cochin gradually became the important Portuguese trade centres, and under the pretext of protecting these factories and trading activities, the Portuguese obtained permission to fortify these centres.

Portuguese Governors in India

Francisco De Almeida

• In 1505, the King of Portugal appointed a governor in India for a three-year term, on the condition that he set up four forts on the southwestern Indian coast — at Anjediva Island, Cannanore, Cochin, and Quilon — and equipped him with sufficient force to protect Portuguese interests.
• Almeida’s vision was to make the Portuguese masters of the Indian Ocean, a policy known as the Blue Water Policy (cartaze system).
  • He famously stated: “As long as you may be powerful at sea you will hold India as yours; and if you do not possess this power, little will avail you a fortress on shore.”
• Alarmed at growing Portuguese power, the Sultan of Egypt fitted out a fleet and sent it towards India, joined by a contingent from the ruler of Gujarat; the Zamorin of Calicut and the rulers of Bijapur and Ahmednagar also lent support.
  • After an initial victory in which Almeida’s son was killed, this combined fleet was routed by the Portuguese in 1509.
  • This naval victory made the Portuguese navy supreme in the Indian Ocean for the time being and enabled them to extend operations towards the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

Alfonso de Albuquerque

• Albuquerque, who succeeded Almeida as governor, was the real founder of Portuguese power in the East, a task he completed before his death.
• He embarked on a policy of dominating the entire oriental commerce by setting up forts at strategic places across Asia and Africa, supplemented by a strong navy.
  • Defending this philosophy, he wrote: “A dominion founded on a navy alone cannot last.” Lacking forts, he argued, “neither will they (the rulers) trade or be on friendly terms with you.”
• The Portuguese under Albuquerque bolstered their stranglehold by introducing a permit system for other ships and exercising control over major ship-building centres in the region; the non-availability of timber in the Gulf and Red Sea regions further aided Portuguese objectives.
• Albuquerque launched this policy by acquiring Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1510 with ease — the principal port of Bijapur became “the first bit of Indian territory to be under the Europeans since the time of Alexander the Great.”
  • The island of Goa was an excellent natural harbour and fort, strategically located to command the Malabar trade, watch over the policies of the Deccan rulers, and stay near enough to the Gujarat seaports to exert Portuguese influence there.
  • Goa was thus suited to be the principal centre of Portuguese commercial and political activity in the east.
  • The Portuguese also extended their possessions on the mainland opposite Goa, blockading and sacking the Bijapuri ports of Danda-Rajouri and Dabhol, paralysing Bijapur’s sea-trade, until the Adil Shah came to terms by ceding Goa.
• From their base at Goa, the Portuguese further strengthened their position by establishing forts at Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Achin (Sumatra), and by controlling the Malacca port, which commanded the narrow gulf between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra.
  • They also established a station at the island of Socotra, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and besieged Aden — though Vasco da Gama had failed to capture Aden, his only failure in the region.
  • However, they forced the ruler of Ormuz, which controlled entry into the Persian Gulf, to permit them to establish a fort there.
• A major Portuguese concern during this period was to bring under control the forts of Diu and Cambay, centres of Gujarati trade to the Red Sea.
  • The Portuguese made two attempts in 1520–21 to capture Diu, both defeated by its governor, Ahmad Ayaz.
• An interesting feature of Albuquerque’s rule was the abolition of sati, and to secure a permanent Portuguese population in India, he encouraged his men to take Indian wives.

Nino da Cunha

• Nino da Cunha was governor of the Portuguese possessions in India from 1528 to 1538, and he shifted the headquarters of the Portuguese government in India from Cochin to Goa.
• Before the Gujarat–Turkish alliance could be consolidated, a bigger threat to Gujarat appeared from the Mughals, as Humayun attacked Gujarat.
  • Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, during his conflict with Humayun, secured Portuguese help by ceding the island of Bassein with its dependencies and revenues in 1534, and promising them a base in Diu.
  • However, Bahadur Shah’s relations with the Portuguese soured once Humayun withdrew from Gujarat in 1536; he appealed again to the Ottoman sultan for help and tried to limit Portuguese encroachments at Diu.
  • The Portuguese opened negotiations, in the course of which Bahadur Shah was invited aboard a Portuguese ship and killed in 1537. Subsequent efforts to recapture Diu failed.
• The Portuguese acquired several territories from the Sultans of Gujarat:
  • Daman (occupied 1531, formally ceded 1539);
  • Salsette, Bombay, and Baçaim (occupied 1534); and
  • Diu (ceded 1535).
• Da Cunha also attempted to increase Portuguese influence in Bengal by settling many Portuguese nationals there, with Hooghly as their headquarters.

The Ottoman-Portuguese Naval Rivalry

• The Ottoman Turks, under Sulaiman, were passing through the most magnificent period of their history, poised to attack Europe and complete their conquests in Asia.
  • Having defeated the ruler of Iran in 1514 and then conquered Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, the Turks’ role in the Indian Ocean increased correspondingly.
  • The Sultan of Gujarat sent an embassy congratulating the Ottoman ruler on his victories and seeking his support; the Ottoman ruler, in turn, expressed a desire to combat the “infidels” — the Portuguese — who had disturbed the shores of Arabia.
  • From this time, there was a continuous exchange of embassies and letters between the two countries.
• After ousting the Portuguese from the Red Sea in 1529, a strong fleet under Sulaiman Rais was despatched to aid Bahadur Shah.
  • Bahadur Shah received it well, and two Turkish officials, given Indian names, were appointed governors of Surat and Diu.
    • Of these, Rumi Khan later earned a great name for himself as a master gunner.
  • In 1531, after intriguing with local officials, the Portuguese attacked Daman and Diu, but Rumi Khan repulsed the attack; the Portuguese, however, built a fort at Chaul lower down the coast.
• The Turks made their biggest naval demonstration against the Portuguese in Indian waters in 1536, drawing many sailors pressed into service from the Venetian galleys at Alexandria.
  • The fleet, commanded by Sulaiman Pasha — an 82-year-old, then governor of Cairo — appeared before Diu in 1538 and besieged it.
  • Unfortunately, the Turkish admiral’s arrogant conduct led the Sultan of Gujarat to withdraw his support.
  • After a two-month siege, the Turkish fleet retired upon news of the arrival of a formidable Portuguese armada to relieve Diu.
• Note:
  • The Turkish threat to the Portuguese persisted for another two decades, while the Portuguese meanwhile strengthened their position by securing Daman.
  • A final Ottoman expedition was sent under Ali Rais in 1554; its failure led to a change in Turkish attitude.
  • In 1566, the Portuguese and the Ottomans agreed to share the oriental trade, including spices, and not to clash in the Arab seas.
  • Following this, the Ottomans shifted their interest back to Europe, precluding a future alliance between the Turks and the rising Mughal power against the Portuguese.

Favourable Conditions for the Portuguese

• In India, except for Gujarat, ruled by the powerful Mahmud Begarha (1458–1511), the north was much divided among many small powers.
• In the Deccan, the Bahmani Kingdom was breaking up into smaller kingdoms; none of these powers possessed a navy worth its name, nor thought to develop naval strength.
• In the Far East, an imperial decree of the Chinese emperor limited the navigational reach of Chinese ships.
• As for the Arab merchants and ship-owners who had until then dominated Indian Ocean trade, they had nothing to match the organisation and unity of the Portuguese, who moreover had cannons placed on their ships.

Why Did Indian Powers Permit Portuguese Domination of the Indian Ocean for over a Century?

• Technologically, the Indo-Arab dhow and the Chinese junk could match Portuguese galleons and caravelles in strength, cargo-holding capacity (tonnage), and the ability to sail against the wind using lateen (triangular) sails; Asian sailors possessed sufficient nautical skill for open-sea travel.
• Where the Portuguese were superior was in the manoeuvring capacity of their ships — the Indo-Arab vessels being slow and clumsy owing to their heavy sails — and the stronger hulls of Portuguese ships, which could withstand the shock of firing cannons.
• Above all, it was the determination of Portuguese sailors that decided the issue; Indians, more accustomed to fighting pirates, had little stomach for naval warfare unbacked by their own rulers.
• Thus, it was not naval technology alone, but several other factors that enabled the Portuguese to establish naval domination over Indian seas for more than a century.
  • The Indian powers reconciled themselves to this domination since it did not threaten their own political positions on the mainland, nor did it adversely affect their income from overseas trade.
  • Consequently, undertaking a naval conflict with the Portuguese appeared difficult, uncertain of success, and unlikely to yield financial returns.

Religious Policy of the Portuguese

• The Portuguese brought with them a zeal to promote Christianity and a wish to persecute all Muslims.
• Though intolerant towards Muslims, the Portuguese were initially tolerant towards Hindus; over time, however, following the introduction of the Inquisition in Goa, Hindus too came to be persecuted.
• In spite of this intolerance, the Jesuits made a good impression at the court of Akbar, largely owing to the emperor’s interest in questions of theology.
  • In September 1579, Akbar wrote to the authorities at Goa requesting two learned priests.
  • The Church authorities in Goa eagerly accepted, seeing a chance to convert the emperor — and, through him, his court and people — to Christianity.
  • The Jesuit fathers Rodolfo Aquaviva and Antonio Monserrate reached Fatehpur Sikri in 1580, returning in 1583, belying Portuguese hopes of Akbar’s conversion.
  • Jesuit priests continued to remain in contact with the Mughal emperor even during Jahangir’s reign.

Portuguese Lose Favour with the Mughals

• In 1608, Captain William Hawkins reached Surat aboard the ship Hector, carrying a letter from James I, King of England, requesting permission to trade in India.
  • Portuguese authorities tried their best to prevent Hawkins from reaching the Mughal court, but did not succeed.
  • Jahangir received Hawkins favourably in 1609, accepting his gifts; since Hawkins knew Turkish well, he conversed with the emperor directly, without an interpreter.
  • Pleased with him, Jahangir appointed Hawkins a Mansabdar of 400.
• The grant of trading facilities to the English offended the Portuguese; after negotiations, a truce was established between the Portuguese and the Mughal emperor.
  • The Portuguese nevertheless stopped English ships from entering Surat, and a baffled Hawkins left the Mughal court in 1611, unable to counter Portuguese intrigues or the Mughals’ vacillating policy.
  • In November 1612, however, the English ship Dragon under Captain Best successfully fought a Portuguese fleet in the naval Battle of Swally, greatly impressing Jahangir, who had no navy worth its name.
• Portuguese acts of piracy further strained relations with the imperial Mughal government.
  • In 1613, the Portuguese offended Jahangir by capturing Mughal ships, imprisoning Muslims, and plundering cargoes; an enraged Jahangir ordered Muqarrab Khan, then in charge of Surat, to obtain compensation.
• It was, however, during the reign of Shah Jahan that the advantages the Portuguese had enjoyed at the Mughal court were lost forever.

Capture of Hooghly

• In 1579, the Portuguese settled on a riverbank a short distance from Satgaon in Bengal to carry on trade; over the years, their construction of large buildings led to a migration of trade from Satgaon to the new port of Hooghly.
  • They monopolised the manufacture of salt, built their own custom house, and strictly enforced the levy of duty on tobacco, an important trade article since its introduction in the early 17th century.
  • The Portuguese also ran a cruel slave trade, purchasing or seizing Hindu and Muslim children and raising them as Christians — in the course of which they seized two slave girls of Mumtaz Mahal.
• On 24 June 1632, the siege of Hooghly began, ending in its capture three months later, after Shah Jahan ordered the Bengal governor Qasim Khan to act against the Portuguese; the siege ultimately led to the Portuguese fleeing.
  • The Mughals suffered a loss of 1,000 men but took 400 prisoners to Agra, who were offered the choice of converting to Islam or becoming slaves.
  • The persecution of Christians continued for some time before gradually dying down.

Impact of the Portuguese on Indian Trade

• The Portuguese ended the era of unarmed open sea-trade in Indian waters and dealt a big blow to the virtual Muslim monopoly of trade in the western Indian Ocean and the movement of eastern goods to Europe.
  • From the time they arrived at Calicut, the Portuguese demanded that other merchants — Indian and foreign alike — be ousted, and that a complete monopoly over trade be granted to them.
  • Portuguese ships, equipped with arms and ammunition, threatened other merchants and confiscated their merchandise and vessels — marking the beginning of armed trade.

Introduction of the Cartaz System

• In 1502, the Portuguese demanded exclusive trading rights at Calicut, which the Zamorin refused to grant.
  • Vasco da Gama thereupon declared war on all ships plying the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, introducing an expedient whereby ships carrying a cartaz — duly signed by the Portuguese royal factor — would not be attacked. This certificate was first issued in 1502 as a sea-pass or trading licence.
• The Portuguese declared spices, drugs, dyes (including indigo), copper, silver, gold, arms and ammunition, and war horses to be a royal monopoly; no trader — Portuguese or otherwise — was permitted to deal in these commodities outside the crown’s sanction.
  • Ships trading in other commodities required a permit or cartaz from Portuguese officials.
  • The system aimed to control and enforce the Portuguese trade monopoly across a wide area of the Indian Ocean and ensure merchants paid taxes at Portuguese trading posts.
  • Indian merchants and rulers engaged in maritime trade had to obtain a cartaz; passes specified that monopoly items were not to be loaded, and the routes and destinations of ships were also sought to be controlled — the Portuguese tried to force all ships bound for the east or Africa to pass by Goa and pay customs duty there.
  • To enforce these rules, the Portuguese searched suspect ships; any ship suspected of carrying contraband, or which refused to be searched, could be treated as a prize of war — sunk or captured, with its passengers enslaved.
  • Rulers such as Akbar, Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar, Adil Shah of Bijapur, the kings of Cochin, the Zamorins of Calicut, and the rulers of Cannanore purchased passes from the Portuguese to send their ships abroad.

Monopoly Trade

• When the Portuguese arrived, merchants from across the world were already engaged in trade along India’s coasts.
  • As Vasco da Gama reported in 1498, merchants from Mecca, Tenasserim, Pegu, Ceylon, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Ethiopia, Tunis, and various parts of India could all be found at the port of Calicut, alongside Chinese merchants and traders from the Red Sea.
  • There is no record of any merchant group demanding exclusive trading rights, nor of any attempt to reserve commodities for particular traders, prior to the Portuguese arrival.
• With the Portuguese, however, this situation changed considerably: kings were pressured to forbid other merchants from trading at their ports, and certain commodities were declared forbidden to others — in short, the Portuguese demanded a monopoly of trade, a demand specifically written into treaties with Indian rulers.
  • The setting up of Portuguese fortresses at strategic places, surveillance by patrolling vessels, and insistence on passes for other ships were all attempts to establish this monopoly in Asian waters.

Trade of the Indian Rulers and Merchants

• The Portuguese attempt at total monopoly did not entirely uproot trade conducted by Indian rulers and merchants.
  • The king of Cannanore, for instance, collected passes from the Portuguese to send vessels laden with goods to Cambay and Hormuz, importing horses from these places even though horses were a declared Portuguese monopoly item — though such vessels ran the risk of confiscation.
  • The same held for the kings of Tanur, Challe, and Calicut on the Malabar coast, while the nobles of Gujarat — including Malik Gopi, Malik Ayaz, and Khwaja Sofar — continued their trade with or without Portuguese passes.

The Monopoly Was Never Fully Effective

• Local and foreign merchants settled in India carried on trade with or without a cartaz. The Portuguese soon found they stood to lose more on land than they gained at sea by continuing these practices, since traders who lost goods at sea pressured their own governments to retaliate against Portuguese trade in their territories.
  • It proved impossible to police trade along Asia’s vast coastlines; sea-pirates preying on Portuguese ships were active in Oman, Malabar, and South-East Asia, and Portuguese policies only encouraged greater support for such piracy from traders and small rulers.
  • Of the 60,000 quintals of pepper produced annually between Calicut and Cape Comorin, only 15,000 quintals were delivered to Portuguese factories, with the remaining three-fourths — termed “illegal” by the Portuguese — taken to other ports.
  • Since the Portuguese refused to raise the price of pepper fixed in 1503 even after several decades, pepper producers had little choice but to sell to merchants who would carry it to other trade centres without Portuguese knowledge.
  • Arab and Gujarati traders found ways around the Portuguese trade embargo, and even Portuguese private traders grew unhappy with the royal monopoly and cartaz system — poorly paid royal officials were frequently bribed by private traders of all origins, and several Portuguese officials conducted their own private trade unknown to their government.
• The Portuguese control over the Indian Ocean remained incomplete owing to their failure to capture Aden and thereby control entry to the Red Sea.
  • The Turkish conquest of Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, and the expansion of their naval power in the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, made it difficult for the Portuguese to effectively enforce their blockade of Bab-el-Mandeb, the entrance to the Persian Gulf; Portuguese monopoly was never effective in the Red Sea zone.
  • At the other end of the Indian Ocean, Portuguese control over the Spice Islands also weakened. Using traditional Javanese naval skills, the Sumatran ruler Sultan Ali Mughayat Shah defeated the Portuguese in several naval skirmishes, capturing guns to fortify Acheh, and secured bronze guns from the Ottoman Sultan to withstand sieges.
    • This enabled Acheh to emerge as a major spice-export centre rivalling Malacca, which remained under Portuguese control; Arabs and Gujaratis entrenched at Malacca used Acheh to export spices to the Red Sea via the Laccadives, bypassing Portuguese-controlled Malabar waters.
  • Thus, the key factors that limited Portuguese success were:
    • the structure of the Asian trade network;
    • the strength and resourcefulness of Asian merchants — Arabs, Gujaratis, Tamils, and others — with long experience of operating the system;
    • the naval and military strength of Turkey and of the ruler of north Sumatra; and
    • the internal limitations of the Portuguese and of the working of the cartaz system within the Portuguese Empire of India (Estado da India).
• The complete control of oceanic trade via the Cartaz system did not fully succeed, forcing the Portuguese to liberalise the granting of cartaz to local traders — including Muslim traders.
  • The horse trade, exclusively in Muslim hands, was highly profitable and strategically vital to various rulers; Muslims were similarly active in trade in textiles, glass, aromatics, and coffee, in which the Portuguese had neither the money nor the ships to compete.
  • Hence, the dictates of trade and profit soon overcame religious prejudice, and Portuguese efforts to push Muslims out of the oriental trade and establish a monopoly over West Asian trade achieved only limited success.
  • By the mid-16th century, despite the large volume of spices reaching Lisbon — marketed mainly through Antwerp — the Black Sea ports and the markets of the Levant and Egypt remained as well supplied with eastern goods (spices, dyes, cotton, and silk textiles) as before.
• The Portuguese thus used the Cartaz system to control oceanic trade only partially, until the Dutch and English made their appearance in the 17th century.

Limitation of Portugal

• Portugal itself was a small country, and despite rapid commercial development, its financial resources were limited; German and Italian merchants consequently became the principal agents distributing eastern goods brought to Lisbon across Europe.
• Since demand in Asia for European goods (which could be exchanged for pepper and other eastern goods) was limited, precious metals — especially silver — had to be exported.
  • Unlike Spain, Portugal had no silver mines in America to fall back on, and had to depend heavily on Italian and German financiers.
  • The Portuguese king’s expectation that control of India’s coastal trade would fund the export of pepper and eastern goods to Europe also proved a misnomer; the Portuguese trade to Europe remained confined to only twelve to thirteen ships a year from Lisbon to India.
• This picture changed by the end of the 16th century: the share of private Portuguese traders in trade to Europe rose sharply to over 90 per cent of the total, with the additional cargo consisting mainly of textiles and precious stones, financed by large-scale involvement in Asian trade.
  • For the Portuguese government, however, the enterprise in the western Indian Ocean remained largely a “redistributive enterprise” — its main income came from taxing others’ trade rather than expanding trade or opening new trade routes.
  • A real expansion of Europe–East trade had to await the arrival of the Dutch and English in the 17th century.

Significance of the Portuguese

Contribution to the Political System

• The Portuguese impact on Asia’s political system was small: too few in number to capture and hold large mainland territories in India or elsewhere, they wisely confined their control to islands and coastal forts that could be defended and supplied by sea — Goa, their seat of government, being the prime example.
  • Beyond this, they induced rulers of small states such as Calicut, Cochin, and Craganore, through threats and persuasion, to act as their agents or brokers in the spice trade.
• The Portuguese establishment at Goa was controlled by a Governor-General, assisted by a Council that included the Ecclesiastical Head.
  • Owing to their small numbers, the Portuguese encouraged mixed marriages, giving rise over time to a new Indo-Portuguese or Goanese society.
  • However, this society and its government were organised on rigid racial lines — those of pure Portuguese origin at the head, and those of mixed origin at the bottom, denied any share in political power.
  • The Church at times exercised the dreaded “auto da fé” (burning at the stake) to root out heresy among Christians.
  • Thus, the Portuguese contribution to politics or the expansion of world trade remained negligible.

Significance of Opening the Direct Sea-Route to India

• It opened the way for India’s closer integration with the growing world economy and contributed to the further growth of a market economy in India, marking a blow to India’s “introspectiveness.”
• Most historians observe that the Portuguese arrival not only initiated what may be called the “European era” but also marked the emergence of naval power in world affairs.
  • The Cholas, among others, had been a naval power earlier, but this was the first time a foreign power had reached India by sea.
  • Note: the Portuguese were the first among Europeans to come (1498) and the last to leave (1961).

New Trade Links

• They established India’s trade links with Japan, the Philippines, and Latin America, among others, and paved the way for the advent of other European powers — Spain, the Dutch, the English, and the French.
• The Portuguese also introduced their coin, the Cruzado, in Goa and neighbouring areas; it was accepted even in the territories of the Vijayanagar and Bahmani kingdoms.

Introduction of Technology

• The Portuguese were masters of improved techniques at sea.
  • Under Portuguese supervision, ship-building using western techniques began at Cochin; their heavily constructed multi-decked ships permitted a heavier armament.
  • In 16th-century Malabar, the Portuguese showed military innovation through the use of body armour, matchlock men, and guns landed from ships — possibly contributing, by example, to the Mughal use of field guns and the “artillery of the stirrup.”
  • Other technologies, such as printing and clocks, though introduced in Goa, made a far-reaching impact there but did not find acceptance on the mainland.
• The Portuguese are also known for building new roads and irrigation works.

Contribution to Agriculture

• Many Latin American products — maize, potato, corn, pineapple, tobacco, and chilli — entered the Indian rural economy, just as new fruit varieties had earlier arrived with the Turks.
  • Of these, tobacco became a major trade item.
  • Other plants introduced by the Portuguese included papaya (first cultivated in Mexico), cashew (native to Brazil), and guava (native to Central and South America).
  • The quality of mango and citrus fruits was greatly improved, and better plantation varieties of coconut were introduced along with large-scale coconut groves.
• The Indian peasant, in short, was not averse to accepting new products if they promised profit.

Cultural Contribution

• The missionaries and the Church also served as teachers and patrons of the arts of the painter, carver, and sculptor in India.
  • As with music, they were interpreters not merely of Portuguese but of European art to India.

Decline of the Portuguese

• By the 18th century, the Portuguese in India had lost their commercial influence, though some continued trading individually, and many turned to piracy and robbery — Hooghly, for instance, was used by some Portuguese as a base for piracy in the Bay of Bengal.
• The decline of the Portuguese was brought about by several factors:
  • The local advantages the Portuguese had enjoyed in India were reduced by the emergence of powerful dynasties in Egypt, Persia, and North India, and by the rise of the turbulent Marathas as immediate neighbours (the Marathas captured Salsette and Bassein in 1739 from the Portuguese).
  • The Portuguese religious policies, including Jesuit activities, gave rise to political fears; their antagonism towards Muslims aside, their policy of conversion to Christianity also made Hindus resentful.
  • Their dishonest trade practices evoked strong reaction, and they earned notoriety as sea pirates; their arrogance and violence brought them the animosity of both small rulers and the imperial Mughals.
  • The discovery of Brazil diverted Portugal’s colonising energies westward.
  • The union of the two kingdoms of Spain and Portugal in 1580–81 — which dragged the smaller kingdom into Spain’s wars with England and Holland — badly affected the Portuguese trade monopoly in India.
  • Their earlier monopoly of knowledge of the sea route to India could not remain secret forever; the Dutch and English, mastering the skills of ocean navigation, soon learnt of it.
    • As new European trading communities arrived in India, fierce rivalry developed among them, and the Portuguese had to give way to more powerful, enterprising competitors.
    • The Dutch and the English, with greater resources and stronger compulsions to expand overseas, ultimately overcame Portuguese resistance.
    • Goa, which remained under Portuguese control, had already lost its importance as a port following the fall of the Vijayanagara empire, and it soon ceased to matter in whose possession it was.