L19_cw_Rdg- Seventeenth Century Commerce in India

Task:
● Please work in groups to address these questions.
● Members of the class will be selected to post responses online for others to
read and comment on.

"Seventeenth Century Commerce in India"

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India
Source: The Human Record
● Read this primary source beginning with the introduction “The Great Mughals
and the West”, on page 487. Continue reading from 491 to 493. Older version
of this textbook (blue cover) has this reading located on pages 478 (bottom)-
bottom of 480.
● Respond to questions 1 - 5, found within the reading (they appear below as
well).
● Be sure to write complete sentences. Include these responses with the
appropriate lesson notes.

Questions
1. Why do you think the English and Dutch East India Companies paid a lower
tariff on their imported goods and gold? What added to their costs of doing
business in India, and why do you think they paid these extra expenses?
2. Did the European merchants take advantage of the Indian officials with whom
they dealt? Did the Indian officials seem to resent or not want this business
with the Europeans? What do your answers suggest?
3. Why do you think the officers of the English and Dutch East India Companies
were treated as described? Why did they refuse to engage in smuggling?
What do your answers suggest about the relations between the Mughal
government and these trading companies?
4. What does the story of the roast pig suggest?
5. Do you perceive any significant differences in Indian-European relations
between the era of Akbar and the period described by Tavernier? If so, what
are they? What do these changes suggest to you?