ABSTRACT
The importance of the ports of the Deccan in the pre-modern period has long been understood. However, research has tended to concentrate on specific ports of the northern part of the coast. As a result, the ports of the southern Deccan are largely ignored.
This chapter proposes to focus on southern Deccan and figure out the problem of the relationship of the ports with their hinterlands through a study of three ports in particular - Karwar, on the Karnataka coast, where the English East India Company had a small factory; Rajapur, where first the English and later the French had a factory; and Vengurla, where the Dutch had a factory for many years. Each of these ports was controlled by a different ruler, but all tapped into the production centres of the Deccan. An attempt has been made to study the patterns of trade with the interior and to try and examine the impact of the politics of the hinterland on the developments of the ports.
