Conclusion

This chapter looks at two accounts of the French 1737 bombing of Mocha to make the concluding case that cultural and religious differences in the ports and emporia of Yemen were often understood in material terms and that the anxieties and discomforts generated by the cross-cultural encounter were expressed most readily through a language of things. It validates material culture as an important tool that served to assert, but also to evaluate, merchant identity and standing across the early modern western Indian Ocean.

Everyday Objects and Tools of the Trade

Drawing on company inventories and request lists, this chapter delves into the relatively mundane objects that English and Dutch merchants imported from Bombay and Batavia, but also London and Amsterdam, for their daily use. Certain items, such as imported scales, basic writing materials, and the company seal, were essential for their trade, whereas others, such as food, drink, and raised furniture, were key to preserving European lifestyles far from home. When considered along with the cargo that was transported to be sold at port, these objects were far more than utilitarian goods. They allow us to reflect on the dynamic and multifaceted character of the import, which was not only intended for the purposes of exchange, but also to sustain the very structure of the overseas trade enterprise.

European Merchant Tribute in Yemen

Drawing on the gift registers of the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company, this chapter shows that the gifts bestowed by European merchants in Yemen may not be collapsed indistinguishably with other types of offerings, such as diplomatic bestowals, imperial gifts, and acts of pious charity. By contrast, European merchants’ gifts were comprised of relatively routine trade items and were remarkably formulaic in nature, thus overlapping with Indian Ocean commodities in uneven and unexpected ways and drawing their power and meaning from their association with extended commercial geographies. A close perusal of European commercial gifting practices also reveals that foreign merchants became quite adept at the local grammar of giving, even if they decried its legitimacy in their letters back to home offices.

Rites of Entry at the Maritime Threshold

This chapter delves into the ceremonial receptions that the local administration of the port of Mocha staged to welcome high-profile merchants when they arrived in the harbor from their extended sea journeys. The ceremonies involved drummers, musicians, flags, and parades of decorated horses as well as the appearance of the city’s notables splendidly dressed in imported textiles to welcome new arrivals at Mocha’s jetty. It argues that these welcome rituals were not just empty, extravagant displays of pomp. Rather, they constituted a requisite stage of commercial initiation when the local maritime administration, in addition to other merchants, vetted and sized up new arrivals. Material objects, such as flags, sumptuous robes, Arabian horses, various items of reception, and architectural spaces, played a key role in this process of selection and the conferral of local approval.

Merchants from India and Their Gift Practices in Yemen

This chapter examines the gift practices of the major merchants from India that traded in Yemen, distinguishing them from those of the Europeans. It argues that their offerings must be situated within the accepted reciprocal codes of social interaction and visitation that dominated in the Islamic world, such as the awarding of robes of honor and fine horses. Moreover, the elaborate spectacles and presentations surrounding these yearly gifts, which were visually impressive, exceeded the value of the gifts themselves, inscribed within a language of public display. These bestowals were not only consumed by their intended recipients, but also by those who observed their conveyance and passage, which were awe-inspiring in their size and scope.

Introduction

This chapter introduces the central role of coffee in the history of eighteenth-century Yemen during the Qasimi imamate. It also sketches the concept of the “major overseas merchant” as a group tied together not only by their trading investments and shipping routes, but also by the shared yet exclusive materially-oriented social practices and protocols that they engaged in while trading in the southern Arabian Peninsula. The sources and archives that have provided resources for the study are also introduced and framed.