Indian shipping and security on the seas in the days of the Mughal empire

Abstract

The article studies how Indian shipping in late sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century was subjected to forcible despoliation by the Portuguese and later by the English and Dutch, and to attacks by European privateers as also communities of Indian pirates. To some extent the imposition of ‘protection costs’ provided some safety to the licensed ships, and the Mughal Empire could hold at least the English and Dutch companies hostage in view of their large trade with the Empire. Finally, there was the system of insurance, which provided some safeguards for individual merchants and vessels.