The book under review is a collection of nine essays by a German academic of the Heidelberg University (FRG). Rothermond’s interest in social, economic and modern Indian history is an on-going affair since he has written books which include The Phases of Indian Nationalism & Other Essays, Government, Landlord and Peasant in India and Agrarian Relations under British Rule 1865-1935. The present volume is the out¬come of special research done by the author. It is divided into three sections, each com¬prising of three essays. Rothermond feels that these essays are only preliminary explora¬tions of the central theme, which is related to the study of ‘Asian Trade and European Expansion in the Age of Mer¬cantilism’. Lucid and readable, the intro¬duction, which delves into the problems of traditional Indian economy, tries to highlight the Mughal dilemma of military feudalism on the one hand and trade and public finance on the other. This portion is a summarized ver¬sion of the detailed and interesting volume of the Cambridge Economic History of India, edited by Tapankumar Rai Chaudhari and Irfan Habib.
March-April 1985, volume 9, No 3/4