The Making of an Indian Ocean World-Economy, 1250-1650: Princes, Paddy fields, and Bazaars (Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies)

This book draws upon the histories of societies based on wet-rice cultivation, such as India and China, to chart a pattern of social evolution and state formation different from Eurocentric notions. Professor Palat argues that production conditions in wet-rice agriculture did not favor large farms and that the absence of a political relationship between capitalists and rulers led to the absence of monopolies which generated the surplus that facilitated capitalism. The density of commercial linkages within the Indian Ocean world-system led to commercialism without capitalism and the large population that could be supported by rice cultivation promoted an 'industrious revolution' in which skill and manual dexterity had a decisive advantage over machines.