How the Spice Trade Shaped Mumbai, New York, and Global Capitalism: Nicholas Nugent

Speedy Summary

• Author & Book: Nicholas Nugent, former BBC journalist and frequent visitor to India, has authored The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Spice Trade (2024), which explores the historical, economic, and social impacts of the spice trade.
• Focus on India: Two chapters are dedicated to India’s west coast ports including Malabar Coast and Goa, highlighting their roles in spice production and trade during colonial times. Mumbai also features prominently as an example of how European powers transformed Indian territories into thriving trading hubs.
• Global Context: The book chronicles European maritime innovation (shipbuilding, map-making) that fueled global spice trades under monarchies like Portugal’s first route around Africa and joint-stock ventures pioneered by the Dutch East India Company. It examines interconnected elements of colonization, commerce in spices like peppercorns/nutmeg, early capitalism via stock markets/banking evolution linked from Amsterdam onwards shaped visible world-economy foundations globally relying ships!.

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