This is a study of the history of the maritime regions of India in the seventeenth century.

Professor Arasaratnam has drawn on his own researches into the overseas trade of India and its commercial economy. He supplements this with a thorough study of the current historiography on these themes. He divides the maritime region into four zones - Gujarat, Malabar, Coromandel and Bengal - and looks at the ports, the seas and the commerce of each region, sketching the general trends of this commerce and the major external and internal influences which had an impact on them.

He picks up major general themes relating to the maritime region as a whole, the identity and functions of merchants, and the part played by states. He brings together the current views on the role of merchants and the state in seaborne commerce, and attempts a synthesized analysis of these two major players in the commercial economy of maritime India.

1. The book concludes by attempting a profile of the maritime region in what is arguably its most dynamic and productive period.