Abstract

OFFICE OF CHEF DE COURTIER AND THE FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY: REVISITING COMMERCIAL RELATIONSHIP IN PONDICHERRY (1674-1761)

Sandeep Kumar Verma

Volume: 7 Issue: 2 2017

Abstract:

Pondicherry was occupied by the French East India Company in 1674 and it developed as an important commercial center on the Indian Ocean Rim, which repersented the French presence in India for centuries. In initial phase of their rule, they had established their relationship with the indigenous merchants of the region and appointed them as chef de courtier and chef de malabar. In traditional historiography, indigenous merchants have been represented as middlemen or intermediaries, who worked for the French East India Company. However, such description does not do justice to the interaction and the crucial roles played by indigenous merchants of the town that developed between the long-term resident merchants and the French East India Company in Pondicherry. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to address the various aspects of the indigenous merchants, such as their commercial activities, mutual ties, collective association, and their integration with the French officials and traders to show how the relations between indigenous merchants of Pondicherry and the French authority were negotiated and renegotiated continuously with some ruptures.

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References

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• Here, Ashin Das Gupta called merchants to merchants of general trade, who were different in nature and functions (even slight), merchants in general trade divided their risks over a number of commodities and hired space on vessels going abroad.
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• Thanappa Mudalier was an inhabitant of Poonamalle belomged to the Vellala caste. As mentioned, members of this caste were cultivators and landholders. Thanappa had a good business network with Mylapore. He was a Hindu but he embraced Christianity as early as 1671 and adopted the name Lazaro de Mota, Josselin, Histoire de l’Inde Française 1664-1814, Pondicherry, 1940, p. 59, cited by K.S. Mathew, 1999.
• Abbé Carré, was sent to India by the French East India Company, not only to watch over the conduct and motions of the English and the Dutch, but also to observe his own compatriots. Abbé Carré, 1990.
• He was an official of French East India Company, who accompanied de la Haye.
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• François Martin, 1998, India in the 17th Century (Social, Economic and Political) Memoirs of François Martin 1670-1694), trans. and ed. Lotika Varadarajan, New Delhi: Munsiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1998, pp. 302-303.
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• K.S. Mathew, Indo-French Relation, 1999, p. 133.
• C.S. Srinivasachari, pp 22-32; Ibid.
• Le 13 janvier 1674 François Martin est accompagne d‘un « toppa » portugais, du nom d‘Antoine Cadel, de Thanappamodeliar, de certaines autres personnes et ouvriers français et comportant 150 femmes et enfants, in Cojande Dairianadin, 1975, p. 3; François Martin, 1931, tome (vol.) II, p. 308.
• K.S. Mathew, Indo-French Relation, 1999, p. 134.
• Few exceptions are, Ananda Ranga Pillai, The Private Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, Dubash to Joseph François Dupleix, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, and Governor of Pondicherry: A Record of Matters Political, Historical, Social, and Personal, from 1736 to 1761, Madras: The Superintendent Government Press, 1904 (henceforth, A.R.P.); Rustam Manock and the Persian Qisseh, this is a biography of Parsi merchant of Surat, Rustumji Manakji, written by Mobed Jamshed Kaikobad, private tutor of Rustamji‘s son in 1711.
• National Archive of India, Ms. Fr. 6231, Mémoire sur la compagnie des Indes Orientales, p. 34; Same discussion is available in Procès-verbaux, vol. I, p. 17.
• Procès-verbaux, vol. I, p.17.
• La compagnie doit à Surate 1100 mil Livres, à Bengale 300 mil Livres et a Pondichéry à 450 mil Livres in NAI, 6231, Mémoire sur la compagnie des Indes Orientales, pp. 42-42.
• Procès-verbaux, vol. I, p. 66.
• Dairianadin, Cojande, 1975, pp. 15-16.
• Paul Olagnier, Les jésuites à Pondichéry et l’affaire Naniapa,1705 à 1720, Paris: Société de l‘histoire des colonies Françaises, 1932, pp. 55-56.
• K.S. Mathew, 1999, Indo-French relation, p. 140.