Indian Merchants in the International Trade of Zanzibar in 1840-1888

Abstract

The article describes the role of Indian merchants in the international trade of Zanzibar during the period 1840-1888, i.e. from the strengthening of the rule of Sa’īd ibn Sultān Āl Bu Saʻīdī on the East African coast to the loss of this area by his son Bargaš ibn Sa’īd as a result of colonial conquest. The article deals with both objective and subjective factors determining the place of Indians in the trade of Zanzibar, including transport and communication, currency, factors related to participation in exchange mechanisms, negotiations, cooperation, competition and capital flow. Moreover, the author analyses the transformation within the Indian community of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, referring to the concept of commercial diaspora. He focuses on the ways in which the diaspora acted as an intermediary in the international exchange at various levels, adapting to changing political, technical and financial conditions. He scrutinises the changes in relations with Europeans, including the erosion of trust which was related to the increase of competition and risk. The author draws a model of the evolution of the Indian community from the stage in which access to brokering was controlled by the diasporaʼs narrow elite and the ruler to a situation in which the hierarchy of diaspora became fragmented and the access to credit opened up new opportunities to a broader wave of immigrants at various levels of exchange. This concerned both the direct trade with Western markets and the trade on the East African coast. The author used the archival sources from Zanzibar, Great Britain, Germany, the USA and France, including those created by the merchant companies from Staatsarchiv in Hamburg and the Peabody Essex Museum in Peabody (MA, USA).