Book Review - Panama Fever

A thrilling tale of exploration, conquest, glory, money, politics and medicine.What amazed me most about the book is the amount of information the author has collected from multiple sources while putting together this epic story in the form of a book. The smallest of incidents that happened more than a century back are all well documented and archived in multiple sources. The book is about the epic story of building one of the greatest engineering marvels of the modern era the Panama canal. For centuries kings,business leaders and explorers were constantly looking at ways to connect this small passage across the Isthmus of Panama which in turn would connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific
and whoever controlled this canal would get enough power and influence over global trade and in turn a control on the fate of nations.The effort was literally back breaking and took almost 35 years before it was finally commissioned in the year 1914.

The French initially led the effort to build the Canal in the year 1881 and the man incharge was the Ferdinand De Lesseps the same genius who had build the Suez canal
a few years back. The ambitious project took America and Europe by storm and drew everyone's attention including engineers, drafstmen,diggers, machinists all
wanted to be a part of this project and take advantage of the high wages and in turn be amongst the men who were part of his high profile project. Politicians and businessmen from Europe and America were constantly involved in high stakes diplomacy and in deciding the path to be taken, the technology to be used, the funding plan and where to get cheap labor from. While most of the administrative and engineering jobs were led by the French the construction jobs were invariably from close by West Indian colony of Jamaica.

Unfortunately the French effort to build the canal didnt last for long and after about 14 years they had to give up due to many reasons the most important being cost overruns and thousands of deaths of workmen in the tropical climate of Panama due to Yellow fever , Malaria and Typhoid. Thousands of people lost their lives due to these diseases and many returned to their countries never to come back to work in these horrific condition.

After a decade or so the effort was again revived and this time the Americans took the lead and were backed by the US Government itself. Extremely committed and highly decorated Engineers were now sent to Panama to get the work back on track. In spite of poor living conditions in the humid tropical climate and racial discrimination against the West Indian black workforce the project managed to go on as per schedule. At the later part the US army was also involved in the construction work. Eventually after 10 year from the time the Americans started the work and more than 20000 people loosing their lives due to diseases and accidents in the site the canal was finally commissioned in the year 1914.

The story shows how a small strip of land in a small Central american country suddenly changed the world and made it smaller and launched the era of American Engineering dominance. The Americas were separated by the canal but the world of global trade just became one.

Book Review - The Ocean of Churn

This book covers much more than what the title suggests, all though a lot of research has gone into building the narrative at times the sequence of events and timeliness get a bit confusing for a novice reader on history. Nevertheless a good read to know more about various civilisations that ruled the world, maritime and trade history of the world, the colonial era and the impact of the industrial revolution in trade.

Aspects of formation of continents and land masses , the life of Man in the ice age to the bronze age and finally the iron age are covered well in the first few chapters.

The role of the Indian Ocean in facilitating trade between Europe empires and south East Asian powers including the Greek, roman and later on the turks is something which many of us wouldn't be aware of. The Arab merchants who frequently visited India and how they set up their trading bases in south India and later on Yemen, Oman and Africa are worth knowing. Not many of us would be aware that India also contributed immensely to global trade and would see merchants from mainland India travel as far as Kenya, Oman, East Africa, Iran, Iraq in search of new business opportunities. No wonder that even to this day we can find of people of Indian origin in many of these independent countries.

The south Indian empire of Cholas had a big role to play when it came to exploit trading opportunities in south East Asia and they used their military conquest to spread their empire upto Indonesia which was then followed by business expansion by private merchants.

The post mid 15th century started the new era of European intervention to control trade in the Indian Ocean right from mainland China to south East Asia and upto East Africa. The Arabs who had dominated this route were not very comfortable with this and how all the colonial powers including the British, French, Dutch etc used trading as an opportunity to slowly grow their empire is explained in detail. The major wars, treaties between the colonial powers and the native powers in India, south East Asia and sequence of events that lead to their domination and eventual decline post world war two are aptly examined in depth.

The Indian Ocean trade routes have shaped history and will continue to remain the most important trading route in the world as it touches Asia, Africa and Europe partly and with the growing influence of China and India it will only get bigger .

A good read to know history and the little facts that somewhere are lost in this information age.

Book Review - The Marwaris From Jagat Seth to the Birlas

Very few books have been written on Indian Business history but these series of books edited by Gurucharan Das make up for it. The book primarily deals with what factors have led to make the Marwaris extremely successful businessmen not only in India but also outside of India.

A good amount of information about where these Marwari businessmen came from, how they migrated across different parts of India and set up businesses is covered in the book. A lot of comparison between the family firms set up by Marwaris and the Jewish family firms (mainly into money lending) is presented, the manner in which these small firms scaled up from money lending to becoming leading Industrialists in pre and post-independence Era is explained in detail. Marwari is a generic term which refers to the business community who were predominantly from the Marwar region in Western Rajasthan, they were typically Agarwals or Jains. It is interesting to note that most of these Marwari firms were not only into money lending to the peasants but also the preferred business partner for the smaller kings and also the East India Company when the British came into India to set up their trading business in India.

Most of the Marwaris migrated towards the Eastern part of India and set up their trading firms in and around Calcutta, Assam and to an extent Bihar also, while some of them ventured towards Bombay but it was usually the Parsee and the Gujarathi businessmen who dominated the trading empires in Bombay.
Over the period of 19th century many of these family firms had graduated from just money lending, to private banks to becoming dealers for various multinational products from Europe and this set the stage for the MNCs to enter India post-Independence.

The reader get a good overall picture of what fundamental traits the Marwaris have to make them so successful in the field of business. The most important of them being a good accounting method (Parta as it is called), ability to allocate capital in the most efficient and productive way and form a good network within their own community to help each other in times of distress. What initially started of just Opium and cotton textiles trading over the years has now seen Marwari firms into various industries be it old economy or the new age business. As the fundamentals of business management haven’t changed much the family firms have changed and adapted to the new paradigms of business.
Case in example is of the Birla group which has been extensively covered by the Author and also taken input from the book Business Maharajas by business historians Swati Piramal. The challenges faced in today’s complex business world be it about succession planning, corporate culture etc etc is something the new generation of Marwari firms have to deal with. The GD Birla group seems to have got their act together by appointing professionals to run the company but the family still monitors it on a regular basis and also involved in key decisions, something that other first generation non business group will have to learn from.

A good book for anyone interested in knowing Indian Business history and the rise of Marwari businesses in particular.

Book Review - Caravans Indian Merchants on the Silk Road

This book is a part of series of books under the name of ' The Story of Indian Business' and it is mainly about the Multani and Shikaripuri merchants and how they went about building their trading empires in Central Asia .The much romanticized Silk Route as the west have called it was not an easy route that was built overnight but it was built with lot of effort, time, resources and money being spent to make it happen.

The book starts of with firstly throwing away the popular narrative that it was the East India Company and the Dutch who were the first to introduce cross border trade from the northern parts of India.The fact is trade between this region and Central Asia and Europe can be traced to as early as the Ghaznavid period in the 900 AD.

The merchants from Multan ( now in Sind province of Pakistan )most of them from the Khatri and the Arora Community and some even from the Muslim community had traveled far and established trade links in Central Asia( now covering Iran, Afghanistan, Azherbaijan, Uzbekistan and parts of Russia). Trade prospered and was encouraged by the Delhi Sultanate under the Lodhis and also under the various Mughal Kings most prominent among them being Akbar. They realized that it  was in their own interest that they did enough to ensure smooth trade happening between their traders and the far off lands in central Asia. The main incentive being the tax collected from the traders, the same was reciprocated by the rulers in these lands across the Hindu Kush Mountains. The kings took many steps to ensure that the road that the traders took to move their caravans , camels laden merchandise was free from enemy and attacking tribes by deploying armed guards and outposts along the route, had enough trees with shades for these traders to rest and enough wells to provide for drinking water.

The major cities that hosted these caravan merchants from India also referred to as Multani or Shikaripuris were Bukharan, Ishrafan, Baku, Samarkhand etc etc all of which had thousands of merchants from India coming year after year and settling down in separate settlements given to them to sell their goods. The main goods they sold were textiles, Indigo, Sugar, Rice and human capital in the form of Slaves and in return they used to bring back Horses ( to be used in the cavalry) fruits, and wool.What ceases to amaze today's historians is also the fact that these merchant s who were predominantly Hindus were very adapt in setting up businesses in there Islamic states of Central Asia, which speaks volumes of how important it was for the local rulers to keep trade and business going, many a times there was friction between these merchants and the locals but the rule of law ensured that the business interests were never harmed.

Various travelers from Europe who were passing through central Asia were is awe of the network that these traders from India had built in the central Asia . They not only were involved in trading but also offered a complete set of financial services including money lending ( Shroff community) and also brokerage services for the farm produces( Dalals ). The concept of Hundis or Bill of Exchange where in to avoid carrying cash across long distances people to carry home to India just a piece of paper with coded language in it and presents it on their arrival in India and get their money here is something that the Multani traders had mastered and is something the European travelers were very impressed with and write about it in their chronicles . They also mention these traders from Multan, Shikaripuri and few Marwaris also were much better and smarter than the famed Jewish money lenders.

The heart of this trading firms that they built was the family firm which ensured that things do not go wrong as they all were part of an extended family or at least the same cast.Trade in this route prospered for a long time until the mid 1800s but after due to Russian invasions, invasion of Multan by the Sikhs, Marathas and British and instability in the Afghan region somehow this once famous busy trading route got dull as traders started looking for new pastures and route.

The book has been written By Scot Levi a Professor at Ohio State University and is more like a text book format taking reference from many books, papers and Chronicles but is worth reading to understand how trade happened and what techniques were used by these shrewd masterful traders from Multan.

Book Review - Merchants of Tamilakam

Book on Business History and Trade
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A very underrated subject caught my attention and hence decided to pick up and read this book, after reading this book
about the merchants from Tamilakam I can confidently say the seeds of globalization started way back during this era ie about 1500 years back.

The book draws data and facts from multiple sources to trace and undertand the political,business and trade ennvironment
that was prevalent in Tamilakam. Tamilakam refers to the area in the Deccan plateau predominantly consisting of people
bound by the Tamil language.

Trade with the outside world was something that came naturally to the merchants of Tamilakam, there are many pieces of historical
evidences which show trade happening with Rome in the 2nd and 3rd century, merchants from Tamil country exporting spices in exchange for metals, horses, brocade etc etc from the Roman mechants.

The Sangam Era was also a important phase where trade with the external world only increased with Tamil merchants taking big risks and travelling to China and south East Asia to sell their goods.

There are numerous instances in the tamil epics like Silappatikaram and Manimekalai which talks about the role and the various aspects of trade by the merchants of Tamilakam. Tamil Country had a big advantage of a long coastline and the merchants used it to their advantage to travel by ship across the high seas and establish trade links, the ports of Mamallapuram, Tondi, Nagapattinam were major trading ports built during the 5th-10th century.

The various dynasties that ruled Tamilakam like the Pallavas, Pandyas and the Cholas and their support to the merchant community have been well highlighted. Of all the dynasties the Cholas deserve a special mention as they used military conquest to not just capture new territory but also to grow trade and business.The phenomenon of why urbanization which lead to formation of cities like Kanchi, Madurai, Tanjavur which became major trading hubs and market places has been explained well.

The role of the temples, how they were funded, what standing they had in the socio,political and economic aspects of society during this era is detailed out well in the book. How merchant guilds across different trades were formed to protect their interest and negotiate better is something which we see today also in industry trade associations is also explained in detail. Capital formation, tax structure and collection , city administration , monetisation of state and temple assets are all concepts which were well used in this period itself.

A quick read to get a glimpse of our rich business and trade history.