'Moorish Bazaar'

'Moorish Bazaar' by Rudolf Ernst 1854-1932 via Wikimedia Commons

It is not clear where this was painted. The Austrian painter Rudolf Ernst travelled to Spain, Morocco, Istanbul and Egypt to document life as he saw it.

Tea: Fancy a Cuppa?

Land girls enjoy a hot cup of tea after a hard day of rat-catching on a Sussex farm during 1942. Source: Ministry of Information via Wikimedia Commons

A few weeks ago, a southern African friend of mine was dropping me back home after a thirsty morning of shopping. It was a hot afternoon, and we were gasping for some refreshments. I invited my friend in for a ‘cuppa’ (British English for a cup of tea). "Iced tea?", she queried hopefully. To her disappointment, my considerable collection of tea solely consisted of the hot beverage kind. She exclaimed: "You're so British! Whoever heard of drinking hot tea on a day like this!"

Five Facts about the Slave Trade from the 1997 Film 'Amistad'

Poster from the film 'Amistad'. Source: Dreamworks via Wikipedia

1) The 53 Africans who revolted aboard the ship La Amistad in January 1839, were originally kidnapped from Mendeland near Sierra Leone. Once sold into the slave trade they were transported to Cuba, a hub for the transatlantic slave trade, on board the notorious illegal Portuguese slave ship called the 'Tecora'. In Cuba they were fraudulently classified as Cuban-born slaves, and were sold to two Spanish plantation owners who put them on board the Cuban schooner La Amistad for transportation to another Cuban port near a sugar plantation.

The Bazaar: Not a Quaint Market

Bazaar of Athens during the Ottoman Empire. Source Edward Dodwell, Views in Greece, 1821, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Eastern notion of the Bazaar was not just a marketplace, but also a nexus for craftsmen and merchants, where interest rates on credit, and currency trading values were set, much like a stock exchange.These rates and values could differ quite radically from one bazaar to another, which is why arbitrage often took place. However, distances between bazaars, and the hardship and danger involved with getting from one bazaar to another, could make arbitrage very complex.

 Bazaars were, in other words, wholesale hubs for commerce and they provided key arteries for the flow of capital across trading routes around the globe. This is important because it would indicate that West or East Asian capital had vast linkages that were not defined by European colonial capital alone. These bazaars were also not 'informal' although colonial authorities were often keen to describe them as such. In India for example, the most important mercantile communities would report their monthly bazaar rates to monetary authorities of British India. These bazaar rates would have a significant influence on official bank rates. If you are interested in a more detailed academic account of this see Rajat Kanta Ray's influential article: 'Asian Capital in the Age of European Domination: The Rise of the Bazaar, 1800-1914.'

Hundi for Payment of a Ransom

A hundi used by the English explorer William Moorcroft (1767-1825), to pay for a ransom. Source: World Digital Library  via Wikimedia Commons

Hundis were used for a variety of purposes, including payment of ransoms. It is not clear what ransom was being paid here. This hundi, to the value of Rs 11,000, was written in both Persian and English and signed by the English explorer and William Moorcroft on December 20, 1824, possibly in Central Asia or within the borders of what is now known as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Pepper Trade

14th Century Painting, Harvesting of Pepper in Coilum (Quilon/Kollam) in Southern India. Source: Wikimedia Commons

"Worth its weight in gold" was not just a figurative expression when it came to pepper in history. It might be your standard table fixture today, but back in medieval times, black pepper was the height of luxury. Native to the Malabar coast of south west India, in the state known as Kerala today, black pepper was the most important spice in the world during this period. A pound of pepper could literally rival the value of a pound of gold. Arab mariners travelled to the Malabar coast to procure the lucrative pepper and other spices (such as cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and many more) for many centuries, long before the arrival of Europeans. The Mappilah (Mappila, Moplah) muslims who live in Kerala today are the intermarried descendants of these Levantine traders.