. The Economy Agriculture India was primarily an agricultural economy. Most of the population lived in the rural areas and they depended on agriculture for their livelihood. In addition to food grains, they grew several commercial crops.
These included sugarcane, oil seeds, cotton and indigo. There was a brisk trade in food grains, ghee, sugar and other food products from the surplus areas to the deficit areas within India. Food grains, particularly, were transported on coastal boats and the Tamil region, for instance, imported food grains from the Andhra region and Bengal. On the west coast, food grains from Gujarat were exported to the Malabar region in return for pepper, cinnamon and ginger.
Food grains were also shipped to the Dutch establishments in Sri Lanka and Batavia (Indonesia). XI History - Lesson - - The Coming of the Europeans Overseas Trade The overseas trade from both the east and west coast was incorporated into Indian Ocean trade which had stabilized into a well-set pattern by the sixteenth century. Shipping in the Indian Ocean was segmented and carried on over several demarcated stages. Ships coming from China and the Far East sailed up to Malacca, where their cargoes were unloaded, and in return, goods from the west were taken back.
From Malacca, ships sailed to the west coast of India, to Calicut or Cambay or Surat in Gujarat. Such intermediate ports were known as “entrepots”. Goods from Europe and West Asia were exchanged in these ports for goods from the east, as well as locally produced pepper, spices, dyes, clothes and food grains. In the sixteenth century, Calicut gradually lost out to the Gujarat ports which were served by a much larger hinterland producing a wider range of products.
The ports of the Coromandel coast, like Masulipatnam, Pulicat and other ports further south served as intermediate ports for the ships from Burma and the Malay peninsula.