1 - Structure and Agency in the World of Indian Ocean Commerce, 1700-1800

This paper considers the career of a few eighteenth- century Armenian merchants against the information on trans-regional trade in the Indian Ocean left by an Ostend Company official in the late 1720s and reflects on the complex relationship between agency and structure (Subrahmanyam 2011).

Both connected history and cross-cultural connections are said to have inspired empires to borrow socio-cultural elements from each other. Yet, merchants, who were agents of cross-cultural connections, seem to have looked inward while organising their trade. Considering commercial activity as a “field” (Bourdieu 1984), I argue that most Asian merchants were individual operators working on own account. Was it possible for lone adventurers to claim their own space without the support from kith and kin? Among other issues, the paper argues that a thriving abstract money market was a crucial feature facilitating adventurers in the Indian Ocean, and despite conflicts of interest, and instances of cross-cultural negotiations based on weak ties often turning sour for the individual Asian merchant, remaining on the “field” implied there were always merchants entering such negotiations.