'Précis on slave trade in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, 1873-1905 (With a Retrospect into previous history from 1852) By J A Saldanha BA, LL B' [‎11] (19/126)

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In a word, throughout the Zanzibar coast line, extending alone 14 decrees of latiftid*
£ H r a g r drv nd a f lof "'"t 8 ' 311 banki "f me r«„til€ business passes thigh
without lndian aie.cv ■ no °„ - . ™SoUa mortgage effected, or a bill cashfd
w tnout Indian agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. not an import cargo can be distributed, nor an export cargo collected
the Arab nr's ! d ^ eS g0 thr0Ugh Indian hands - The European o? American'
the Arab or Swahih, may trade and profit, but only as an occasional link in the chain bet'
rmport^l^ofan; 0 " 5 ^ 6 ^ ^ ^ Indian trader ^he one .nvaria^td mo^t
Thus a vast commerce has grown up or rather revived during the last so vears on thp«?p
aS en '/ nagr f eatmeasure > recreated, and silently monopolised by a few
of the less prominent classes of Indian traders. I know nothing like it in 7^;^ ^
commerce, and it is difficult to convey to those at a distance an adequate idea of the extent
or completeness of the monopoly. We wonder at the vast development of Greek com
mercial industry during the same period, but though their business may be on a larger scale
^ Same ^ 0f m0n0 P^ Wllich lhe
. ' have s P^n here merely of the Zanzibar Coast line ; but it must be remembered
far L the^nrJ" 1 ratlng ,nf,u ! nce ' ' f not monopoly, of the Indian trader is equally great as
tar as the Portuguese possessions extend to the south and on the north-western coasts of
Madagascar. Northward it extends with rare intervals along all the shores of Africa
Arabia, Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Baluchistan to the western frontiers of India. Along some
6,000 miles of sea coast in Africa and its islands, and nearly the same extent in A^ia the
Indian trader is, if not the monopolist, the most influential, permanent and all pervadino-
element of the commercial community. I doubt whether along the whole coast from
Delagoa Bay to Kurrachi there are half a dozen ports known to^omm^
Indian traders are not better able as a body to buy or sell a cargo, than any other class and
at most of the great ports a cargo can only be sold or collected through them. '
It may be asked how it is possible that such a trade can have grown up so little notired
by the commercial wor d elsewhere ? The explanation is to be found "n the fact thaUhe
^ J belong to the commercial classes, which, less than any others in
India, have assimilated their methods of commerce to ours. The Parsis and manv r.f-V.P
mercantile classes in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, even when they have not adopted our
our comm ercial associations, and, so to speak, make more or less common cause
' ^ ^ r0 Pf an merc ^ ant ' But this has not been done by any of the classes who havp
absorbed the African trade ; and our European merchants and officials and fhamh^rc nf
C0 0 mmunu e y kn0wpr0bab ' y IeSS 0f their P roceedin g s than of any other class in the mercantile
Then the European and American commerce to Africa has been almost a serrpf mnnr.
^71" a V u ery The greatest pains have been taken to keep everything quiet'
and though some of the houses traded on a great scale and employed quite a fleet nf
merchant vessels the extent of their business was known to none but t ^Sves and L!
not fully realized by any but the most observant of their neighbours at Zanzibar. '
1 Co ™ph clt y 0 f /ndia n Tridet-sin Slave-trade.-A% regards the extent to which
Ind^n traders are connected with slave-trade, I would premise that I found thrquestion
Tnfl te f T ? e t' aSm,ght be ex Peeted, with the utmost interest by the large and
influential body of Indian merchants at Zanzibar. I had repeated conLeLs and dk-
cussions with the leading men, and the subject was one which was never lost sight of in mv
intercouise with this class of traders on the coast and in the islands off it.
two 'f" t0 Tt tW0 e . nclosed P a P ers ' as giving, in a readable form, statements of
of Kh, t^ccTmp^
:mrtto :t ^^t ^ov^ 0died in thiS paper the reSU,tS 0f "-^i^whfct
^nti^ately n a<^ainted a w : ith 0I afl r the de details of'lndo-African
commerce. For obvious reasons I have omitted his flame. It will be seen that wWM h»
suggests impossible remedies he regards his countrymen as deeply implicated tlhe traffic
the fu " ctlona 0 ' """'""E "d disttibuline all i'rticlesoi tcidet, this
to fed 1 sure e tllft the "rf' Tw™ 7 nearly impossible it is for any one so employed
with slave deaHng. P eommercal transactions is connected, directly or indirectly,
If we take, for instance, the firm of whose affairs we have iust «?ppn a c ., mrv , 0 „r 1,
can the trader, who has made such large advances to Arab borrowers fed ZeThat nn
part of his loans goes to replenish the slave labour on the mortgaged'estate, of to be