Capital and community: Syrian Christian agrarian enterprise in Travancore,c. 1880–1950 ce

Abstract

This article analyses the business history of the Syrian Christian community in Travancore during the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. It attempts to study the entrepreneurial networks and accumulation strategies of the community to establish a dominant native business class in Travancore. It argues that the Syrian Christians utilised their familial relations and community affiliations to build capital-intensive agricultural enterprises. Drawing upon government records, vernacular newspapers and magazines, company records and biographies, the study traces the evolution of Syrian Christian joint-stock enterprises in plantations and banking. The joint-stock enterprises were based on trusted social relations for turning their agrarian surplus into business investments such as plantations, banking and trade. These were a distinct form of communal enterprise that allowed the Syrian Christians to consolidate their wealth within the community and paved a pathway for business enterprises in Travancore.