Panel 06: Reassessing the Formation and Function of Institutions in an Era of Global Mobility, 1450-1650 (EN)

Chairs: Edmond Smith & Mariana Boscariol (University of Manchester)

Part I: April 15, 2:00 pm | Room D106

Courtly Spaces as Global Marketplaces: Material Desire and Institutional Change in Early Modern South Asia

Shounak Ghosh (University of Manchester)

This paper examines how ruling elites in Islamicate South Asia — especially the Mughal empire and Deccan sultanates — engaged with expanding global commercial networks in the early sixteenth century to access rare and previously unattainable goods. Building on Emma Flatt’s thesis that early modern courts actively created demand for exotic commodities, it explores the institutional mechanisms that facilitated this engagement. First, it analyzes epistolary subgenres in Persian archival registers — such as nishans and farmans (royal orders) — in which rulers instructed officials along major routes to guarantee safe passage to royal merchants dispatched on long-distance procurement missions. The affective language in these documents reveals both the courts’ anxieties about trade security and the infrastructural efforts undertaken to support it. Second, the paper investigates the range of goods commissioned by these elites, highlighting emerging consumption patterns driven by interactions with European and Central Asian traders. These exchanges stimulated new supply chains rooted in diplomatic, mercantile, and intellectual networks. Finally, the paper turns to the visual archive of miniature painting to trace the presence and circulation of rare objects in courtly settings, exploring how such items were sourced, displayed, and consumed. By foregrounding the role of individual agents—rulers, merchants, and artists—in shaping these circuits, the paper offers a microhistorical account of how global mobility informed institutional transformations in courtly and commercial life during the early modern period.

Keywords: consumption; court; trade; diplomacy; market

Between Black and White: Diaspora, Institutional Mobility, and Racialized Hierarchies among the Jews of Malabar under VOC Rule

Lija Mary Kambakkaran Joseph (Leiden University)

Shaping Diaspora: Morisco Mobility and Ottoman Governance Between the Adriatic and the Aegean in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Yunus Dogan (European University Institute)

In 1610, Spanish Ambassador Alonso de la Cueva described a group of Moriscos en route to the Ottoman Balkans. He noted that Moriscos from Aragon and Valencia, already settled in Istanbul, had formally petitioned Ottoman authorities to be placed in regions where members of their community had previously migrated. When asked to specify their preferred destinations, they chose Morea and awaited an official decision. Indeed, this was not an isolated episode but part of a broader pattern in which Moriscos actively shaped their resettlement within Ottoman territories between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas. While scholarship has largely focused on the Morisco diaspora in North Africa, owing to the volume of arrivals and the relative abundance of documentation, the Ottoman Balkans and insular territories remain an overlooked arena of Morisco presence. Diplomatic correspondence from Spain and Italy, together with decrees issued by the Sublime Porte, reveals not only the Ottoman state’s mechanisms for managing displaced populations but also the negotiating power of Moriscos themselves in determining where and how they would settle and form their diaspora. This paper examines these sources to trace the formation of Morisco communities in the Balkans and to analyze the institutional policies that framed their integration. By foregrounding both imperial governance and Morisco agency, it repositions the Ottoman Balkans as a significant yet neglected site of Morisco exile, underscoring how diaspora-making was the product of a dynamic interplay between displaced communities and imperial institutions in the early modern Mediterranean.

Keywords: Moriscos; diaspora; mobility; Ottoman Empire; governance

Part II: 15 April, 3:25 pm | Room D106

Why Did the Dutch and English East India Companies Form a Cartel?

Elizabeth Hines (Johns Hopkins University)

In 1619, England and the Netherlands signed a treaty forming a cartel between their individual East India Companies. The companies would legally share employees as well as expenses and profits: England would invest and earn one third, while the Netherlands would invest and earn two thirds. Why did these two institutions combine to such a degree? What did this adaptation mean to them in the context of their expansion in the early seventeenth century? And what does it tell us about early modern global trade and empire? This paper argues that the two companies formed the cartel because of early imperial uncertainty over their charter renewals. The Dutch East India Company's original charter only lasted for 21 years, and many were nervous that political tensions and trading difficulties around the world would prevent its renewal in 1623. The English East India Company would lose its charter anytime three years passed without the company bringing in a profit, and the company was finding less success than the Dutch East India Company in most locations. The companies' continuing difficulties then contributed to the treaty's breakdown in the following years. Investigating the uncertainty over what form these two institutions should take shows that the nature of two of the largest companies in world history changed dramatically over the centuries, and that the later dominance by either was not guaranteed.

Keywords: company; cartel; treaty; charter; empire

Revisiting the first decades of the Portuguese presence in India: early views on institutional practices of maritime trade (1498-1515)

Mariana Boscariol (University of Manchester)

The arrival of the Portuguese in India at the end of the fifteenth century marked the beginning of a new era in maritime trade and cross-cultural interactions in the Indian Ocean World. This paper proposes an in-depth analysis of how the Portuguese perceived existing institutional frameworks of commercial activities in India during the first two decades of their presence in the region. The study will draw on primary sources such as royal decrees, correspondence, and contemporary chronicles from both Portuguese and local archives. By focusing on early descriptions of local customs and institutions, this paper will contribute to a nuanced understanding of early modern global trade, highlighting the processes of exchange and transformation that underpinned the Portuguese presence and activities in Asia.

Keywords: global; institutions; empire; trade; transcultural

Globalisation, Labour Mobility and institutional change in the Mughal Empire

Safya Morshed (University of Manchester)

In the early modern period, the South Asian subcontinent was the playground of a number of global superpowers, where it attracted traders, merchants and ethnicities from across the globe. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, India was a global sink for not only commodities like silver, but also for labour migrants, especially from Central Asia. Migration of groups within India and from abroad meant there was a competitive labour market for skills, where competition between political and economic opponents drove the demand for skilled groups. In many cases, the skills demanded fit the conventional demands of a commercial hub; these could include translators, guides, artisans and merchants. In other cases, the skills which were in demand really reflected conditions more particular to conditions of the region. These could include military labour, which provided security, or political influence.

This paper explores how the confluence of a competitive environment and the high demand for skilled labour in the region influenced the development of institutions in the region. It studies how labour market dynamics and perceived skillsets affected the way in which institutions developed employment policies and attempted to retain skilled workers. The paper joins a wider discourse within the economic history literature on the way in which labour market dynamics and globalisation have impacted the development of institutions. Douglas North (1990), for example, has argued that changes in the population of medieval England impacted the bargaining power between peasants and landlords, and others have argued that 19th-century West Africa experienced an influx of migration as a consequence of an increase in the global demand for cash crops. Using a case-study approach, this article explores how increased competition in the labour market between different polities affected the market for skills and induced institutional change by increasing demand for skills. It argues the patterns are evident only in the context of understanding pre-existing institutions in the region and the way in which new conflicts, invasions and commercial actors affected the dynamic of the economic landscape.

Keywords: globalisation; institutions; South Asia; early modern; labour market