"It is nothing short of a classic, bound to appeal to the lay as well as the initiated. Dasgupta's book is a scholarly exercise in empirical scholarship, written in elegant prose and dredged out of material that is unscrutable, inconsistant and downright unreliable... The bookis a delightful, compulsive read." The stateman. "It is a real pleasure to welcome this new edition of this classic essay. a stunning essay which tell us as much about merchant society at the time, the best example of what use can be made of eorepean records. The fact of the decline of Surat is well attested. This has long been seen as a very important thesis." The northern mariner.
