Cochin on the Malabar Coast

One of the other important coastal towns along the Malabar Coast was Cochin. Alongside Calicut (Kozhikode), Anjengo (Anchuthengu) and other important trading ports. It was subject to the first European settlement by the Portuguese in the 1500s after being discovered in 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral. After being under Portuguese control till 1633, Cochin received importance in the seafaring world of the 16th and early 17th century. When the Dutch conquered Cochin in 1633, Cochin achieved immense prosperity in the Dutch rule through trade in pepper, cardamom and various other spices and drugs, coir, coconut, and copra. It was highly significant as a port as it was connected to networks of individuals with stakes all around the world including Persia, Surat and the Coromandel Coast, Bengal and the Indonesian archi[eloagos. Cochin continued to be one of the crucial VOC trading ports and a main region for the slave trade under the VOC control. The city was ethnically quite diverse during the 18th century with a Hindu majority and Muslim, Syrian, Christian and Jewish minorities comprising the enterprising trading milieu and being a part of the city’s prosperity. After the arrival of the British East India company in India, and their subsequent victories of the Mysore emperor, Cochin proved to be a key port that the British wished to control. The Dutch officials were already aware of the Haider Ali’s power during his Malabar conquests earlier and were alarmed by the presence of another strong naval power in the midst. However, over the years the Dutch lost control of their hold over the Coromandel Coast as well as the coastal town of Cochin to the English. The situation of war and instability in Europe during the late 1700s was also crucial to the rising abilities and powers of the British trading companies in India and the surrounding areas like Ceylon.

The coastal city of Kochi saw a upswing in its fortunes after a freak climate event. A flooding of the Periyar river in 1341 created a natural harbour and inside a century, Kochi had picked up the mantle dropped by Muziris as star of the Malabar. Under native and imperial rule in the 16th and early 17th centuries, Kochi became a prosperous city trading in pepper, cardamom and other spices, herbs and derivatives of the coconut palm, like coir and dried kernels or kopra. It was connected through a network of backwaters to the spice plantations of Idukki, Kottayam and Alleppey, giving it a strategic position in maritime trade. Historically, the port has seen trade with Persia, Surat, the Coromandel Coast, Bengal and the Indonesian archipelagos.