A Life Lived Across Continents: The Global Microhistory of an Armenian Agent of the Compagnie des Indes Orientales, 1666–1688

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-54
Author(s):  
Sebouh David Aslanian
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Finance Minister ◽  
Modern France ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Set Up

In 1666, French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert hired Martin di Marcara Avachinz, an Armenian merchant who had lived in Iran and India, as an agent for his newly established Compagnie des Indes orientales. In 1669, shortly after the Armenian had secured a royal edict from the sultan Of Golconda to set up a French trading center in the port of Masulipatam, he was summarily arrested, tortured, and sent to France by his superior François Caron. This article provides a close reading of the legal briefs or factums produced during the sensational trial that followed Marcara’s release from prison in 1675. In tracing a “global microhistory” of his life across continents, it seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of early modern long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean, comparing the network of the CIO and other joint-stock corporations with the “stateless” nature of the trade diaspora of Armenian merchants from the township of New Julfa on the outskirts of the Safavid capital Isfahan. Finally, the article considers the role of factums in early modern France and explores how the “exceptionally normal” story of Marcara’s life provides a useful window onto French perceptions of the Orient and the fear induced by communities such as Armenian and Indian merchants, bankers, and brokers.

Maritime Diasporas in Asia before da Gama: An Introductory Commentary

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Clark
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Early Modern History ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Scholarship

AbstractThis preface introduces the five essays that comprise this special issue of JESHO. The author provides a synoptic overview of western scholarship on the Indian Ocean and on trade diasporas in order to situate the papers. This scholarship has only recently begun to recognize the important role of the Indian Ocean in early modern history, a change that the author traces to the work of K.N. Chaudhuri, Janet Abu-Lughod, and Philip Curtin. He concludes that the five papers in this special issue collectively mark an important step forward in the historiography of the Indian Ocean. Les cinq articles qui font partie du numéro du JESHO sont précedés d'une préface ou l'auteur donne une vue d'ensemble du travail scientifique occidental qui parle de l'océan Indien et des diasporas mercantiles. D'après l'auteur, le role capital de l'océan Indien au début de l'époque moderne commence à être mieux connu grace aux publications de K.N. Chaudhuri, de Janet Abu-Lughod et de Philip Curtin. Les cinq articles ci-compris représentent, donc, un pas en avant pour l'historiographie de l'océan Indien, selon cet auteur.

Human intentionality in the functionalist theory of social change: the role of French provincial intendants in state-society differentiation

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Human Intentionality ◽  
Modern France ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Functionalist Theory

This paper seeks to assess the validity, in a particular historical case, of two ways of thinking in functionalist literature about the role of human intentionality in social change. It does so by means of an analysis of the contribution of French provincial intendants of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the differentiation of state and society. It is argued that if functionalists are to build a theory of social change it is necessary that they deal more directly with the question of human intentionality. Four historical views, each positing a different relationship between intentionality and the evolution of the state in Early Modern France, are outlined as different approaches to understanding the establishment of the institution of intendants and the part they played in state-society differentiation. The historical evolution of French intendants is traced and 1066 actions by intendants and the French crown during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are analysed to determine the extent to which intendants contributed to state-society differentiation and whether they and the crown did so intentionally.

Trade, Production, and Incorporation. The Indian Ocean in Flux, 1600–1900

Itinerario ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Tagliacozzo
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Regional Histories ◽  
Shed Light

Historians have approached the Indian Ocean from a variety of vantages in their attempts to explain the modern history of this huge maritime arena. Some scholars have concentrated on predation as a linking theme, charting how piracy connected a broad range of actors for centuries in these dangerous waters. Others have focused on environmental issues, asking how patterns of winds, currents, and weather allowed trade to flourish on such a vast, oceanic scale. These latter historians have appropriated a page out of Braudel, and have grafted his approaches to the Mediterranean to fit local, Indian Ocean realities, such as the role of cyclones and mangrove swamps in both helping and hindering long-distance commerce. Still other scholars have used different tacks, following trails of commodities such as spices or precious metals, or even focusing on far-flung archaeological remains, in an attempt to piece together trans-regional histories from the detritus civilisations left behind. All of these epistemological vectors have shed light on the region as a whole, though through different tools and lenses, and via a variety of techniques of inquiry.

scholarly journals Coral Stone Architecture, Chinese Porcelain, and Indian Ocean Artifacts along the Swahili Coast: Cross-Cultural Dynamics in Medieval East Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera-Simone Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Swahili Coast ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean

While the use of Chinese porcelain dishes in the stone towns along the Swahili coast has recently found much attention in art historical scholarship regarding the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, the pre-history of these dynamics in the medieval period has up to now only been fully considered in other fields such as archaeology and anthropology. This paper sheds new light on the interrelations between the built environment and material culture in coastal East Africa from an art historical perspective, focusing on premodern Indian Ocean trajectories, the role of Chinese porcelain bowls that were immured into Swahili coral stone buildings, and on architecture across boundaries in a medieval world characterized by far-reaching transcultural entanglements and connectivity. It will show how Chinese porcelain bowls in premodern Swahili architecture linked the stone towns along the coast with other sites both inland and across the Indian Ocean and beyond, and how these dynamics were shaped by complex intersections between short-distance and long-distance-relationships and negotiations between the local and the global along the Swahili coast and beyond.

Response to Henry Heller’s ‘The Longue Durée of the French Bourgeoisie’

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Beik
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée

Beik criticises Heller’s mechanical view of the dynamic role of the bourgeoisie in the rise of capitalism in early-modern France. While they agree that the primary class-conflict was between the nobility and the peasantry, Beik stresses the slow emergence of genuine capitalist social relations and the cooptation of the bourgeoisie by a monarchical state which was still propping up the feudal regime, whereas Heller views mercantile activity and production increases as evidence of rising capitalism.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Marie Seong-Hak Kim
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Modern France ◽  
History Of ◽  
Proper Subject ◽  
Cultural Turn

Historiography of early modern France has of late taken a definite social and cultural turn as scholars shied away from political and intellectual history. While the value of illuminating social life and practices is undisputable, examination of the sources of law, including legal texts and juristic writings, and of the role of the political authorities in creating the state legal hierarchy is indispensable before a theorization of interaction between law and society can be envisaged. How the legal system comprising various sources of law in early modern France functioned to meet the changing needs of society and also the growing institutional demands of the state presents an important question to historians and jurists alike. History of custom as law articulates the concept of custom and its relationship to royal sovereignty and provides a clear path to our understanding of the absolute monarchy. Literature on custom is now large enough that the literature itself is a proper subject of research.

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