_ 141 _ - These merchants were dependent on kings and sultans and paid taxes to them. Though they played a role in local administration they rarely held governmental posts. Nevertheless, they were all powerful in economic and maritime matters. They had the right to carry on war at sea in defence of their own interests, and to levy taxes in distant and isolated places. These Muslim sea-trading communities were organised in gilds and in family companies; their solidarity was remarkable, and they had set up networks with correspondents who kept them in touch with producers and consumers. The Portuguese only learnt piecemeal about these networks, whose complexity was the chief obstacle to the development of their own economic activities. - By the beginning of the 16th century Muslim communities had achieved a dominant position in most of the sea-going trade. They had gained this at the expense of those who had enjoyed the same role in the medieval period, that is to say the Jews and Christians of Kerala, the Jains and even the Kling’s, who were beginning to fall into disgrace at Malacca. As for the Chinese, they had abandoned their voyages into Indian waters from the middle of the previous century.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy