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Jens Nordlunde · 20th January 2008, 04:03 PM

Allan, James & Gilmour, Brian: Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection. Oxford University Press, 2000.

(page 115 and 116). In the 17th century, both East Indian Company and the Dutch East Indian Company were involved in trading iron from the Kingdom of Golconda to south-east Asia, and sometimes to western India, from where it would have been traded still further west. …………Bronson has established that is 1682, Masulipatam and Pulicat, the chief Dutch factory on the southern Coromandel Coast, shipped a total of 144.34 English tons of iron and steel to Indonesia, of which 49.43 tons were Masulipatam steel. The previous year the two ports had shipped 158.51 tons, including 15.01 tons of Masulipatam steel, to the same destination. Bronson concludes that the annual production of iron in India cannor have been far below that of Europe.

This is a lot of iron/steel at the time, and we know that there were other export markets as well, plus what the Indians used themselves. If the export of iron/steel to SEA was equvilant to the European production, the total production of iron /steel in India must have been huge.

We know about Indian iron/steel export to Arabia, Africa and the Mediterranean in the second century AD, if not before, and there is reason to believe that the Indians also exported iron /steel to the SEA area in the early centuries.

But how about export to the north? We know that furnaces, for making wootz ingots, have been excavated in Khorasan, that they were in use in the 9th century, and that they did not have iron ore nor any wood in Khorasan, so they had to import it to be able to make the ingots, which they sold to the caravans passing on the Silk Road. It seems, however, to be unclear from where they got the iron ore, the wood, and maybe the clay.

Did Nepal or Kashmir have any iron ores, and were they enough to cover the need for weapons and tools, so they could export to Khorasan, or did it all come from India?

20th January 2008, 04:03 PM	#1
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Indian export of iron/steel Allan, James & Gilmour, Brian: Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection. Oxford University Press, 2000. (page 115 and 116). In the 17th century, both East Indian Company and the Dutch East Indian Company were involved in trading iron from the Kingdom of Golconda to south-east Asia, and sometimes to western India, from where it would have been traded still further west. …………Bronson has established that is 1682, Masulipatam and Pulicat, the chief Dutch factory on the southern Coromandel Coast, shipped a total of 144.34 English tons of iron and steel to Indonesia, of which 49.43 tons were Masulipatam steel. The previous year the two ports had shipped 158.51 tons, including 15.01 tons of Masulipatam steel, to the same destination. Bronson concludes that the annual production of iron in India cannor have been far below that of Europe. This is a lot of iron/steel at the time, and we know that there were other export markets as well, plus what the Indians used themselves. If the export of iron/steel to SEA was equvilant to the European production, the total production of iron /steel in India must have been huge. We know about Indian iron/steel export to Arabia, Africa and the Mediterranean in the second century AD, if not before, and there is reason to believe that the Indians also exported iron /steel to the SEA area in the early centuries. But how about export to the north? We know that furnaces, for making wootz ingots, have been excavated in Khorasan, that they were in use in the 9th century, and that they did not have iron ore nor any wood in Khorasan, so they had to import it to be able to make the ingots, which they sold to the caravans passing on the Silk Road. It seems, however, to be unclear from where they got the iron ore, the wood, and maybe the clay. Did Nepal or Kashmir have any iron ores, and were they enough to cover the need for weapons and tools, so they could export to Khorasan, or did it all come from India?