Nine papers from a March 2011 conference in New York look at the the Red Sea as the cradle of Rome's ancient India trade, and comparative perspectives on that trade. Their topics are Red Sea trade and the state; Trajan's Canal: river navigation from the Nile to the Red Sea; mercantile networks and economic considerations of the pearl trade in the Roman Empire; Roman policy on the Red Sea in the second century CE; evidence for Nabataean middlemen in Puteoli; Indian gold crossing the Indian Ocean through the millennia; changing fortunes, submerged histories, and the slow capitalism of the sea; comparative perspectives on the pepper trade; and European merchants in Asian markets during the early modern period. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajans Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of trade, and the rise and demise of the VOC.
