The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [168]
The rise of Mombasa meant that other East African ports were left to fall into insignificance, at least in term of being linked in to blue water routes. This happened all over the Indian Ocean as imperial concerns dictated that one port be privileged at the expense of another. Fremantle rose, Albany fell; Colombo triumphed over Galle; Mumbai over Surat; Chennai over a host of traditional ports in Coromandel; Singapore over Melaka; Jakarta over other ports in Java. In South Africa Durban superseded Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London. It had 52 per cent of landed cargo in all South Africa in 1918.
There are important differences in the roles of these colonial port cities as compared with earlier times. We have written extensively about port cities in the pre-colonial period, and stressed that when they prospered they did so partly because of location, partly because some could draw on productive hinterlands, but mostly because merchants knew they would be treated fairly. The early western port cities often also did well for these same reasons. In the earlier period they had extensive forelands, going even to East Asia and to Europe, and they drew products from the interior. The crucial change came when the Europeans did not just trade with the interior, but rather began to control production there, and finally conquer the inland. The great example obviously is India. The port cities in the colonial era were different, as for the first time their influence was turned in on the land, rather than out to the Indian Ocean. In landed terms they became the entry points for industrial products from the west, and exit points for raw materials from the colonies. In maritime terms, as Broeze and his colleagues put it, they 'have been the gateways into this maritime world as well as the nodal points of the interlocking system that comprises it.'88 And they were totally imperial creations. The engineering works were directed by westerners, and financed by loans from Europe which paid good rates of interest to western investors guaranteed, just like the analogous railways, by colonial revenues. In terms of opportunities for investment, or encouraging the acquisition of new technological skills, there were no backward linkages to the countries in which they were located; in these areas they were colonial enclaves. They were then in several aspects central parts of the process which incorporated and subordinated the colonies to the metropole.89
It was not however just a matter of the west being able to establish a port wherever they wanted; nor could they always build their ports in the best harbours or places with favourable geographies. Access to the foreland, and to the hinterland, dictated development as much as did imperial decisions; the two went hand in hand. Kolkata provides the best example. We have noted how difficult it was and is to access this delta port. It is a very difficult 80 miles from the sea, and has an intimidating tidal range of 22 feet. Yet the fact that the city was essentially built on silt provides an explanation for why it had to be where it was. Silt produces very fertile agricultural lands which fed the city. The main export in the nineteenth century, jute, grows on silt. The maze of waterways were a hazard to navigation certainly, yet they also provided low-cost access to a vast riparian hinterland.
The pattern in the nineteenth century is mixed indeed. The broad trend is one where successful competition with the imperial powers became more and more difficult, and local seafarers were reduced to operating in the interstices of their system, rather than competing with them in areas in which the imperial power took an interest. The fate of Indian shipping and Indian shipbuilding provides an instructive example. The famous Parsi Wadia family established a fine shipyard in Mumbai. Between 1736 and 1821 they built 159 ships of over 100 tons, and 15 of them were sizeable ships of over 1,000 tons. Some were used by the Royal Navy: Codrington's flag ship at Navarino, the Asia, was built by