Peter Borschberg

I won't summarise this work as the publisher has written an extensive and thorough summary of this work and has included several reviews by various experts, so let me limit my notes to those from a wholly personal point of view.

I wish this work had been available a few years ago when I was doing some research on Indian trade textiles as it would have filled in some gaps in where some of those remarkable textiles were sent. It's the perfect accompaniment to John Guy's Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East or his later book co-authored with several other textile experts, Interwoven Trade: The Worldwide Textile Trade. Unfortunately, Jacques de Coutre was no textile expert, and leaves us no descriptions of these textiles aside from a single reference to "red cloth", other than their places of origin: Cambay, Coromandel Coast, etc. (which fortunately DOES tell us a lot of what type of textiles these were--palampores, calicoes, kalimkari, etc.-- and must have looked like). The Index contains half a page of entries that reads: "take to Aceh; take to Arabia; from Cambay; to Cambodia; to Champa; to Mombasa, to Mozambique, from Sindh...."

The maps were also deliciously rewarding, as was the extensive list of Place Names and Geographic Terms. For those who believe Singapore was first discovered by Raffles in 1819, this book should be an eye-opener as it recounts many voyages in the region and nearby waters with very sound details confirming knowledge of great portions of Southeast Asia and its waters.

And the very earnest memorials, 17C versions of those corporate memos written by junior employees trying to respectfully but earnestly help their desk-bound superiors 'understand' an opportunity. When the Flemish Jacques writes to the King of Spain, "the Dutch have taken all these estuaries [and natural harbours]. It is very worrying." my heart goes out to him. As Lucy Kellaway would have told him, "Save your ink."

Not a fun read, but an amusing and interesting volume, which shall go alongside my other works on early Southeast Asia and Francesco Carletti's My Voyage Around the World: The Chronicles of a 16th Century Florentine Merchant. Best read alongside such a book as Richard Hall's Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and its Invaders or the wonderfully readable book by Giles Milton, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History.

… (altro)