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• Director
• Associates
  • Clarence-Smith, W.
  • Freitag, U.
  • Pearson, M.
  • Prakash, O.
  • Ray, H. P.
  • Sheriff, A.
  • Schottenhammer, A.
  • Soodyall, H.
  • Warren, J.
  • Worden, N.
• Research Associates
  • Machado, P.
  • Vink, M.
  • Vernet, T.
• McGill Faculty Affiliates
  • Echenberg, M.
  • Elbourne, E.
• PhD Students
  • Ferguson, M.
  • Ghabrial, S.
  • Rath, Andrew
  • Serels, S.
  • Tesfaye, F.
• MA Students
  • Shivji, N.
• Graduate Assistants
  • Chowdhury, R.
  • Sayles, J.
  • Seagle, C.
• Past Affiliates

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• Website Designers

IOWC Associates

Om Prakash

Om Prakash, currently Editorial Fellow, Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, Centre for Studies in Civilizations, New Delhi, gained a BA in Economics at the University of Delhi, an MA in Economics at the Delhi School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Economic History at the Delhi School of Economics. He has since held a number of prestigious positions including most recently at the Delhi School of Economics: Head of the Department of Economics (1989-92), Director (2001-2) and Professor of Economic History. An internationally renowned scholar, Professor Prakash is an elected Member of the Executive Committee, International Economic History Association (2002-2009). He has been a permanent Foreign Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands since 2000 and a permanent Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Haarlem, The Netherlands since 1992. He was Associate Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review from 1965 to 1996.

Major Publications

Books

• 2007. (forthcoming). The Dutch Factories in India, Vol.II, 1624-1627 (Delhi).
• 2004. Bullion For Goods, European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500-1800 (New Delhi: Manohar).
• 2003. Euro-Asian Encounter in the Early Modern Period (Kuala Lumpur: Sephis-University of Malaya).
• 2003. Circumambulations of South Asian History, Essays in Honour of D.H.A. Kolff, edited        jointly with Jos J.L. Gommans (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
• 2000. European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India vol. II. 5 in the New Cambridge History of India series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Paperback edition of 1998 publication.
• 1999. Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800, edited jointly with Denys Lombard (Delhi: Manohar).
• 1998. European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India vol. II. 5 in the New Cambridge History of India series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) - Paperback edition appeared in 2000).
• 1997. European Commercial Expansion in Early Modern Asia, Vol.X in the Expanding World series (Hampshire, UK: Variorum).
• 1995. Asia and the Pre - modern World Economy (Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies).
• 1994. Precious Metals and Commerce: The Dutch East India Company in the Indian Ocean Trade (Hampshire, UK: Variorum).
• 1989. With M. Muchie and H.L. Wesseling, North-South Perspectives.  Debates on Colonialism and North-South Relations (Amsterdam: Royal Institute for the Tropics).
• 1988. The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Reprint of 1985 publication.Press, New Delhi, 1988
• 1985. The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
• 1984. The Dutch Factories in India, 1617-1623: a collection of Dutch East India Company documents pertaining to India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal).

Articles

Forthcoming

• ‘First European Interventions in India,’ in the World and its People Encyclopedia.
• ‘The Dutch East India Company,’ in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World.
• ‘Long Distance Trade, Coinage and Wages in India, 1500-1960,’ in Jan Lucassen and Arent Pol (eds.), Wages and Currency : Global and Historical Comparisons.
• ‘English Private Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 1720 – 1740,’ Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient.
• ‘From Negotiation to Coercion: Textile Manufacturing in India in the Eighteenth Century,’ Modern Asian Studies.
• ‘From market-determined to coercion-based: Textile manufacturing and procurement in Bengal in the eighteenth century,’ in Tirthankar Roy et al (ed.), Indian Textiles in Early Modern World Trade.
• ‘Indian Textiles in the Indian Ocean Trade in the Early Modern Period,’ in Prasannan Parthasarathi and Giorgio Riello (ed.), Textiles in the World Economy (Oxford University Press).

Published

• 2005. ‘Asian Merchants and the Portuguese Trade in Asia” in Ernst van Veen and Leonard Blusse (eds.) Rivalry and Conflict, European Traders and Asian Trading Networks in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Leiden: CNWS Publications).
• 2005. ‘Alternative Trading Strategies: The Dutch and the English East India Companies in Asia, 1600-1650,’ in Jan Parmentier (ed.), Noord-Zuid in Oost-Indisch Perspectief (Zutphen: Walburg Pers).
• 2005. ‘Magalhães Godinho et l’historiographie des Portugais dans le commerce de l’Ocean Indien,’ in Arquivos do Centro Cultural Calouste Gulbenkian, Volume L, le Portugal et le Monde: Lectures de l'oeuvre de Vitorino Magalhães Godinho (Lisboa: Centro Cultural Calouste Gulbenkian).
• 2005. ‘Seventeenth–Century India as Seen by the Dutch,’ in Irfan Habib (ed.), India – Studies in the History of an Idea (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal).
• 2004. ‘The Mughal Empire and the Dutch East India Company in the Seventeenth Century,’ in Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Peter Rietbergen (eds.), Hof en Handel, Aziatische Vorsten en de VOC, 1620-1720 (Leiden: KITLV Press).
• 2004. ‘The Indian Maritime Merchant, 1500-1800,’, Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 47.3.
• 2004. ‘Commercial Communication and Monetary Integration in Early Modern India,’ in Markus A. Denzel (ed.), From Commercial Communication to Commercial Integration (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag).
• 2003. ‘Bombay, Calcutta, India: Colonial Period,’ in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History (New York: Oxford University Press).
• 2003. ‘Spices and Spice Trade,’ in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History (New York: Oxford University Press).
• 2003. ‘Precious Metal Flows into India in the Early Modern Period,’ in Dennis O. Flynn, Arturo Giraldez and Richard Von Glahn (eds.), Global Connections and Monetary History 1470-1800 (Hampshire, U.K: Ashgate).
• 2003. ‘Introduction” in Jos J.L. Gommans and Om Prakash (eds.), Circumambulations of South Asian History, Essays in Honour of D.H.A. Kolff (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
• 2002. ‘Coastal Burma and the Trading World of the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1680” in Jos Gommans and Jacques Leider (eds.), The Maritime Frontier of Burma, Exploring Political, Cultural and Commercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, 1200-1800 (Leiden: Edita).
• 2002. ‘The System of Credit in Mughal India,’ in Amiya Kumar Bagchi (ed.), Money and Credit in Indian History: From Early Medieval Times (New Delhi: Tulika Books).
• 2002. ‘Conflict and Cooperation Among European Traders in the Indian Ocean in the Late Eighteenth Century,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 39.
• 2002. ‘Asia and the Rise of the World Economy in the Early Modern Period,’ in Rainer Gommel and Markus A. Denzel (eds.), Weltwirtschaft and Wirtschafts-ordnung (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag).
• 2002. ‘The English East India Company and India,’ in Huw Bowen, Margarette Lincoln and Nigel Rigby (eds.), The Worlds of the East India Company (Suffolk, U.K: The Boydell Press). Paperback edition appeared in 2004
• 2002. ‘Trade and Politics in Eighteenth Century Bengal,’ in Seema Alavi (ed.), The Eighteenth Century in India, Debates in Indian History and Society, Delhi: Oxford University Press). Reprint of 1998 article.
• 2001. ‘The Economic Dimension of the Portuguese Enterprise in Asia,’ in Joaquim Romero Magalhães and Jorge Manuel Flores (eds.), Vasco da Gama. Homens, Viagens e Culturas. Actas do Congresso Internacional (Lisbon: CNCDP).
• 2001. ‘European Private Traders in the Eastern Indian Ocean Trading Network in the Early Modern Period,’ in Jan Parmentier and Sander Spanoghe (eds.), Orbis in Orbem, Liber Amicorum John Everart (Gent: Academia Press).
• 2001. ‘Portuguese-Dutch Economic Interaction in Asia in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century,’ in Avelino de Freitas de Meneses (ed.), Portos, Escalas e Ilhéus no Relacionamento entre o Ocidente e o Oriente, Actas do Congresso Internacional comemorativo do regresso de Vasco da Gama a Portugal, Ilhas Terceira e S. Miguel (Açores), 11-18 April 1999 (Lisboa: Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses e Universidade dos Açores).
• 2001. ‘Global Precious Metal Flows and India, 1500-1750,’ in John Mcguire, Patrick Bertola and Peter Reeves (eds.) Evolution of the World Economy, Precious Metals and India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
• 2001. ‘India in the Indian Ocean Trading Network on the Eve of the Europeans' Arrival in the Asian Seas,’ in Hermann Kulke et. al. (eds.), Explorations in the History of South Asia. Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund(New Delhi: Manohar).
• 2000. ‘The Portuguese in the Far East, 1540-1640,’ in A.R. Disney (ed.), Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press).
• 1999. ‘Spice Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Early Modern Period,’ in Markus A. Denzel (ed.), Spices: Production, Trade and Consumption (St. Katharinen, Germany: Scripta Mercaturae Verlag).
• 1999. ‘The Portuguese Indian Economy in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century,’ in Teotonio R. de Souza and José Manuel Garcia (eds.) Vasco da Gama e Índia (Lisboa: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation).
• 1999. ‘David Landes and the Rise of the West,’ European Review.
• 1999. ‘The Portuguese and the Dutch in Asian Maritime Trade: A Comparative Analysis,’ in Sushil Chaudhury and Michel  Morineau (eds.), Merchants, Companies and Trade, Europe and Asia in the Early Modern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
• 1999. ‘From Hostility to Collaboration, European Corporate Enterprise and Private Trade in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800,’ in Om Prakash and Denys Lombard (eds.), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800 (Delhi: Manohar).
• 1999. ‘Introduction’ to Om Prakash and Denys Lombard (eds.), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal, 1500-1800 (Delhi: Manohar).
• 1998. ‘Trade and Politics in Eighteenth Century Bengal,’ in Leonard Blusse and F.S. Gaastra (ed.) On the Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History, Van Leur in Retrospect (Brookfield, Vt: Ashgate, U.K.).
• 1998. ‘Precious Metal Flows into India in the Early Modern Period,’ in Clara Eugenia Núñez, (ed.), Monetary History in Global Perspective, 1500-1808. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Economic History Congress at Madrid, August 1998 (Seville).
• 1998. ‘Culture Makes all the Difference’ - a Review Article on David S. Landes, ‘The Wealth and Poverty of Nations,’ Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, 22.4.
• 1998. ‘The Trading World of India and Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Period,’ Archipel, 56.
• 1998. ‘Financing the European Trade with Asia in the Early Modern Period: Dutch Initiatives and Innovations,’ Journal of European Economic History, (Rome), 27. 2.
• 1998. ‘Archival Source Material in the Netherlands on the History of Gujarat  in the Early Modern Period,’ in Ernestine Carreira (ed.), ‘Sources européenes sur le Gujarat,’ Moyen-Orient et Ocean Indien, 10.
• 1998. ‘European Corporate Enterprises and the Politics of Trade in India, 1600-1800,’ in Rudrangshu Mukherjee and Lakshmi Subramanian (eds.), Politics and Trade in the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Das Gupta (New York: Oxford University Press).
• 1998. ‘Was the Portuguese Asian Enterprise Redistibutive?,’ in Artur Teodoro de Matos and Luís Filipe F.R. Thomaz (eds.), A Carreira da Índia e as rotas dos estreitos. Actas do VIII Seminário Internacional de História Indo-Portuguesa (Lisboa : CHAM/CEPCEP/IICT).
• 1996. ‘The  European Factories in India : A Blessing or a Curse ?,’ in J. Everaert and J. Parmentier (eds.), International Conference on Shipping, Factories and Colonization (Brussels).
• 1996. ‘Europeans, India, and the Indian Ocean in the Early Modern Period,’ South Asia, XIX. Special Issue on Asia and Europe: Commerce, Colonialism and Cultures, edited by M.N. Pearson and I.B. Watson.
• 1996. ‘Restrictive Trade Regimes: The Dutch East India Company in Asian Spice Trade in the Seventeenth Century,’ in M.N. Pearson (ed.), Spices in the Indian Ocean Trade (Brookfield, VT: Variorum). Reprint of 1991 article.
• 1996. ‘The Dutch factory at Vengurla in the Seventeenth Century,’ in A.R. Kulkarni, M.A. Nayeem and T.R. de Souza (eds.), Medieval Deccan History:Commemoration Volume in Honour of Purshottam Mahadeo Joshi (Bombay: Popular Prakashan).
• 1994. ‘International Trade and Economic Change: the Case of India in a Historical Perspective" in R. van den Berg, R. and U. Bosma (eds.), Historical Dimension of Development, Change and Conflict in the South - Poverty and Development Analysis and Policy series (The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
• 1993. ‘On Estimating the Employment Implications of European Trade for the Eighteenth Century Bengal Textile Industry - A Reply,’, Modern Asian Studies, 27.
• 1993. ‘The Asian Maritime Trading Network of the Portuguese and the Dutch : A Comparative Analysis,’ in Artur Teodoro de Matos and Luís Filipe F. Reis Thomaz (eds.), As Relações entre a Índia Portuguesa, a Ásia do Sueste e o Extremo Oriente: Actas do VI Seminário Internacional de História Indo-Portuguesa, Macau/Lisbon.
• 1992. ‘Trade in a Culturally Hostile Environment, Europeans in the Japan Trade 1550-1700,’ in Jens Christian V. Johansen, Erling Ladewig Petersen and Henrik Stevnsborg (ed.), Clashes of Culture, Essays in Honour of Niels Steensgaard (Odense: Odense University Press).
• 1992. ‘From an Equal to an Unequal Relationship: Economic Contacts between Europe and Asia between the Sixteenth and the Twentieth Centuries,’ in Jürgen Elvert and Michael Salewski (eds.), Staatenbildung in Übersee. Die Staatenwelt Lateinamerikas und Asiens. Historische Mitteilungen der Ranke-Gesellschaft Beiheft 2.
• 1991. ‘Asian and European Merchants in Asian Maritime Trade: Some Issues of  Methodology and Evidence,’  Review of Culture, Macao, Special number on The Asian Seas 1500- 1800, Local Societies, European Expansion and the Portuguese, 13/14.
• 1991. ‘Portugiesen und Niederländer im asiatischen Seehandel 1500-1700,’ in Dietmar Rothermund (ed.), Periplus, Jahrbuch für außereuropäische Geschichte (Münster und Hamburg). 1: 25-36.
• 1991. ‘Restrictive Trade Regimes: The Dutch East India Company in Asian Spice Trade in the Seventeenth Century,’ in D. Rothermund and R. Ptak (eds.), Emporia, Commodities and Entrepreneurs in Asian Maritime Trade, c.1400-1750 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag).
• 1991. ‘Precious Metal Flows, Coinage and Prices in India in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century,’ in Eddy van Cauwenberghe (ed.), Money, Coins and Commerce : Essays in the Monetary History of Asia and Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times (Leuven: Leuven University Press).
• 1991. ‘Sarrafs, Financial Intermediation and Credit Network in Mughal India,’ in Eddy van Cauwenberghe (ed.), Money, Coins and Commerce : Essays in the Monetary History of Asia and Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times (Leuven: Leuven University Press).
• 1990. ‘Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century,’  in Sanjay Subrahmanyam (ed.), Merchants, Market and the State in Early Modern India (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Reprint of 1987 article.
• 1990. ‘Long Distance Maritime Trade in Asia : Decline and Revival,’ in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Studies in Maritime History (Pondicherry: Pondicherry University).
• 1990. ‘The Transfer of Science and Technology between Asia and Europe,’ Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, XIV. 2.
• 1988. ‘Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century,’ Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, XII.1. Reprint of 1987 article.
• 1988. ‘European Expansion and Asian Economic Development Since 1850: India, Indonesia and Japan,’ Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, XII. 2.
• 1988. ‘On coinage in Mughal India,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 25.
• 1987. ‘Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 24.
• 1987. ‘Foreign Merchants and Indian Mints in the Seventeenth and the Early Eighteenth Century,’ in J.F. Richards (ed.), The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India (Delhi: Oxford University Press).
• 1987. ‘The Dutch East India Company in the Trade of the Indian Ocean,’ in A. Das Gupta and M.N. Pearson (eds.), India and the Indian Ocean (Calcutta: Oxford University Press).
• 1986. ‘European Trading Companies and the Economy of Bengal in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century,’ in J. van Goor (ed.), Trading Companies in Asia 1600-1830 (Utrecht: HES Uitgevers).
• 1986. ‘Precious Metal Flows in Asia and the World Economic Integration in the Seventeenth Century,’ in W. Fischer, R. Marvin McInnis and Jurgen Scheneider (eds.), The Emergence of a World Economy, 1500-1914: Papers of the Ninth International Congress of Economic History. Part 1: 1500-1850 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag).
• 1985. ‘Dutch Source Material on the History of Surat in the Seventeenth Century,’ in V.K. Chavda (ed.), Studies in Trade and Urbanization in Western India (Baroda: University of Baroda).
• 1985. ‘Trade and Urbanization in Gujarat in the Early Seventeenth Century: A Dutch Account,’ in V.K. Chavda (ed.), Studies in Trade and Urbanization in Western India (Baroda: University of Baroda).
• 1984. Review article on ‘The Cambridge Economic History of India,’ vol.I, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 21.
• 1983. ‘The Dutch East India Company Documents as Source Material on Indian History in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century,’ Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History, VII. 2.
• 1981-2. ‘Dutch Source Material on Indian Maritime History in the Early Modern Period - An Evaluation,’  Indian Historical Review, 8.
• 1981. ‘Some Aspects of Trade in Mughal India,’ Presidential address to the Medieval Section of the Indian History Congress, 1981, published in the Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Bodh-Gaya Session.
• 1981. ‘European Trade and South Asian Economies: Some Regional Contrasts, 1600-1800,’ in L. Blusse and F.S. Gaastra (eds.), Companies and Trade. Comparative Studies in Overseas History, vol.III (The Hague:  Martinus Nijhoff, for Leiden University Press).
• 1979. ‘Asian Trade and European Impact : A Study of the Trade from Bengal, 1630-1720,’ in Blair B. Kling and M.N. Pearson (eds.), The Age of Partnership, Europeans in Asia Before  Dominion (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii).
• 1976. With Tapan Raychaudhuri, ‘Agrarian Agitations in India under the British Rule,’ in Les mouvements paysans dans le monde contemporain (Naples: International Commission of Social Movements and Social Structures).
• 1976. ‘Bullion for Goods: International Trade and the Economy of Early Eighteenth Century Bengal,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 13.
• 1975. ‘The Sobha Singh Revolt : Dutch Policy and Response,’ Bengal Past and Presen, 94.
• 1975. ‘Bengal Textiles in Seventeenth Century International Trade,’ in Warren M. Gunderson (ed.), Studies on Bengal (Asian Studies Centre: Michigan State University). South Asia Series, Occasional paper no. 26.
• 1972. ‘The Dutch East India Company in Bengal : Trade Privileges and Problems 1633-1712,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 9.
• 1970. With J. Krishnamurty, ‘Mughal Silver Currency : A Critique,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 7.
• 1963-64. ‘The European Trading Companies and the Merchants of Bengal, 1650-1720,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1.

Upcoming Events

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• IOWC Visiting Lecturer: Himanshu Prabha Ray
  28 November 2008, 5-7pm
  The Greeks in the Western Indian Ocean and the Coming of Islam

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• International Conference on Debt & Slavery
  7-9th May, 2009
  Please note the timeline for submission of papers has changed.

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