ABSTRACT
Both to contemporaries and to later generations the embodiment of Europe’s East India trade has always seemed to be the great ship, be it carrack, galleon or East Indiaman, making its stately way with a rich cargo of spices, textiles or tea from Asia to its home port in Europe. The success or failure of Asian trading has been assessed on how well such cargoes sold when the ships got to Europe. Yet from early in the sixteenth century Europeans were deeply concerned in ships that never went to Europe at all, sailing instead from one part of Asia to another, and the final outcome of the East India trades could depend as much on the result of these voyages as on sales in Europe.
