Sugar and the Indian Ocean World

Trade and Consumption in the Eighteenth-Century Persian Gulf

Norifumi Daito

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781350399211
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350399228
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: History

Tracing the history of the sugar trade and its consumption in the Persian Gulf during the 18th century, this book explores the interplay of social, economic and political interests created by this popular commodity. The study of sugar has, until now, focused mainly on its significant growth in European markets from the mid-17th century and, more recently, parallel developments in East Asia. In this book, Daito shows how the sugar trade also developed in, and became important to, the Indian Ocean World.

Studying how the consumption of sugar wavered after the brutal overthrow of the Safavid dynasty in 1722, this book shows how the Dutch East India Company and the trading network responded to political upheavals in the region and, consequently, the changing trading conditions. Arguing that sugar continued to be imported and consumed despite these political disturbances, Sugar and the Indian Ocean World proves this was not a period of economic stagnation for the region, and shows how sugar became an important intersection between socio-cultural practices and the Indian Ocean economy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Images
• List of Maps
• List of Charts
• Author’s Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Sugar Consumption and the Sugar Market
• Chapter 2 Enduring Demand
• Chapter 3 Sugar Trade in the Persian Gulf: The VOC
• Chapter 4 Sugar Trade in the Persian Gulf: The VOC’s Competitors
• Chapter 5 Alternative Sugar Hubs: Basra, Bushire and Kharg
• Chapter 6 Company Brokers
• Chapter 7 Persistence of the Commercial Middle Ground
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index