The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveriesof the
closing years of the fifteenth century had importantimplications for each of the
major segments of the newly emergingearly modern international economy. As far
as Asia was concerned,the commercial operations of the European corporate
enterprises aswell as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between
thesixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reachingconsequences for the
economies and the polities of the countries ofthe region. Asian merchants
engaged in the Indian Ocean tradeinteracted with the European intruders into the
Ocean in a varietyof ways. The twenty-one essays included in this volume are
firmlyembedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly