Ethnography and Encounter

Guido van Meersbergen, Ph.D. (2015), UCL, is Assistant Professor in Early Modern Global History at the University of Warwick. He has published on the Dutch and English East India Companies, travel writing, and cross-cultural diplomacy in the early modern world.

• General Series Editor’s PrefaceList of Maps and IllustrationsAbbreviationsGlossaryAcknowledgementsIntroduction1Ethnography and Encounter2Company Writing3The East India Companies in Seventeenth-Century South Asia4Plan of the BookPART 1: Corporate Ethnography1 Company Writing and Early Modern Ethnography1Ethnography on Early Expeditions2Instructions: Cordiality and Caution3Civility and Barbarism4Despotism5Character and Complexion6“Moors” and “Gentiles”2 Writing Routines and the Making of Company Discourse1‘Continuall and True Iournalls’2The VOC’s Memoir for the Writing of Reports3The Logic of Company WritingPART 2: Accommodation and Conflict3 Trade Relations and Representations: The EIC and VOC in Gujarat1‘The Only Key to Open All the Rich and Best Trades’2Brokerage and Trust4 ‘No Thing but Feare Keepes a Moore in Awe’: Local Conflict and Quotidian Exchange1Raids and Retaliations2Mutual Accommodations and Quotidian ExchangePART 3: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange5 Ceremonies of Submission: Diplomacy in a Mughal Register1Diplomacy and Mughal Court Culture2The Companies and Khilʾat3Diplomatic Communication and Self-Representation6 Gratifying Mughal Tastes: Company Gift-Giving Strategies1Local Tastes and Global Gifts2Gifts and Interaction Ritual3Gift-Giving and Ethnographic DiscoursePART 4: The Birth of Company Settlements7 ‘Safe Habitations’: Colonial Settlement in Ceylon and Madras1‘Under Your Owne Command’: The Settling of Madras2‘A Permanent Colony’: Establishing Dutch Power on Ceylon8 Governing Pluriform Populations: Company Rule in an Asian Setting1The Eic and Mestization2Cultures of Governance: The Case of Madras3Governing “Others”: Voc Rule on CeylonConclusionBibliographyIndex

"Guido van Meersbergen’s book is much less dramatic, and it does not judge the VOC’s actions. He focuses on corporate ethnographic (avant la lettre) writings and oppressive political and trade strategies. [...] The book is a fascinating read, well written and engaging, based on rich archives."– Ines G. Županov, in: Journal of Jesuit Studies Vol 9 (2022), pp. 459–482