The Beds of empire: power and profit at the pearl fisheries of South India and Sri Lanka, c.1770-1840 / Samuel M. Ostroff.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Ostroff, Samuel M., author.

Contributor:

Ali, Daud, degree supervisor.

Mitchell, Lisa, degree committee member.

Sevea, Terenjit, degree committee member.

Sreenivasan, Ramya, degree committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. South Asia Regional Studies Department, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.

South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--South Asia Regional Studies.

South Asia Regional Studies--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

2 volumes ( xii, 456 leaves) : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2016.

Summary:

The Gulf of Mannar-the shallow body of water between present-day India and Sri Lanka-was one of the largest sources of natural pearls in the world for at least two millennia. This dissertation focuses on a relatively brief period during which managerial control over the human and natural resources of the pearling industry transferred from Dutch to British powers. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries also witnessed a shift in political economic thought, as classical liberalism dislodged mercantilism as the prevailing framework for interpreting the relationship between the state and economy. The Company and Crown governments brought an assemblage of ideas to bear on the management and governance of people and oysters that sought to not only increase productivity but also fundamentally reshape the social, economic, and political foundations of the pearling industry. However, the attempt by British officials to extricate local networks and institutions from pearling operations was fraught with contradictions and seldom delivered on the promise of reform. Through an examination of key targets of government intervention-labor, markets, merchants, sovereignty, and corruption-this dissertation explores the interstices between success and failure and tracks such developments through the evolving contexts of colonialism and imperialism in India and Sri Lanka.

Notes:

Ph. D. University of Pennsylvania 2016.

Department: South Asia Regional Studies.

Supervisor: Daud Ali.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

982012932