Saturday, January 3, 2009: 10:30 AM
New York Ballroom East (Sheraton New York)
In this paper I will examine how one city was a site of exchange - in terms of trade in goods, but also in terms of trade in knowledge. This city was a major point of exchange between Arab and Asian cultures before it caught the attention of the expansionist powers of Europe. Once it was brought directly into the European sphere of influence by the Portuguese, it became a site not only to acquire spices and other goods, but to acquire knowledge about Asia.
As it passed from Portuguese to Dutch to British control, it also became a site for exchanging knowledge of colonial attitudes, among its European holders.
From Tomé Pire’s Suma Oriental and the translations of the Sejarah Melayu to later travel and reconnaissance accounts, Malacca was the centre of trade in knowledge about the Malay world, just as it was a major staging post for spices on their way to European markets.
I intend to draw on the work of Gwendolyn Wright, Mark Crinson and Thomas Metcalf (among others) on the construction of modernity and the creation of imperial image in French and British colonial cities and recent work by Nordin Hussin’s on the economic role of the Straits in British and Dutch trade.
As it passed from Portuguese to Dutch to British control, it also became a site for exchanging knowledge of colonial attitudes, among its European holders.
From Tomé Pire’s Suma Oriental and the translations of the Sejarah Melayu to later travel and reconnaissance accounts, Malacca was the centre of trade in knowledge about the Malay world, just as it was a major staging post for spices on their way to European markets.
I intend to draw on the work of Gwendolyn Wright, Mark Crinson and Thomas Metcalf (among others) on the construction of modernity and the creation of imperial image in French and British colonial cities and recent work by Nordin Hussin’s on the economic role of the Straits in British and Dutch trade.
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