The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [98]
But who is a pirate? To the Portuguese, anyone flouting their system of trade control, most notably the Mapillah traders in Malabar, were pirates. Today we see these people as traditional traders who perforce tried to avoid the Portuguese system and continue trading in pepper and other products just as they had done for centuries. We will later find many other examples of Europeans stigmatising their competitors as pirates, and thus 'legitimate' objects of attacks by navies (see pages 198–9). Regardless, a strong case can be made that the trade control policies of the Portuguese substantially increased piracy, for many Asian traders were dispossessed, and turned to piracy simply in order to survive. This applies to the Malabar traders whose spokesperson was Zain al-Din.
Pirates are a very varied lot, and the attitude of states to them also varied. Some operated with tacit or even open state acquiescence, and so must be seen as corsairs. In 1610 the Sheikh of Qadil, on the Makran coast, allowed piracy, but it had to be focused and controlled. In particular, the Portuguese were not to be targets, as their ships routinely called at the port to get refreshments. The sheik and the pirates agreed to let them alone.28 So also in Malabar, where at times the rulers of Calicut knew of the activities of the Kunjali corsairs, and at others did not, or claimed not to. Nor were all navies really that opposed to piracy. Mitchell points out that in the early eighteenth century in the Caribbean naval ships quite liked having piracy in the area. The crews of the men of war hired for escort duty were well paid, and could carry freight – illegally – at a premium as they were considered to be very safe. And in any case pirates never attacked a guarded merchant convoy.29 So also in the Indian Ocean, where Portuguese crews and captains sometimes, for a price, turned a blind eye to piracy.
Similarly with merchants, who often were happy to tacitly support piracy in order to acquire dubious, 'hot' goods. Writing from Kedah, Bowrey said:
Anno Domini 1675. A Small Vessell belonginge to the English was Sent from Achin hither laden with very fine goods, and was mett with the Pyrats.... They Sett Upon her and killed Samuel Ware, the master and two more of his men, and tooke the Vessell, which done, they Sent away the Other Seamen in a Prow bound for Achin and came boldly Up to Queda and Sold the goods to Sarajah Cawn [Suraj Khan], a Chulyar, and chiefe Shabandar of Quedah, an rogue Enough too. This Rogue by reason he bought them very Cheape made noe question how they came by the goods, although he Saw English marks and Number upon Each particular baile.30
Piracy can be a sign of flourishing trade. They can be seen as macroparasites, human groups that draw sustenance from the toil and enterprise of others, offering nothing in return. As parasites they do best when trade is flourishing as then hosts are readily available. Pirates also move depending on how easy the pickings are. Many European pirates, such as Captain Kidd, moved from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean in the late seventeenth century. The most celebrated capture in this 'pirate round' of the last decade of the century was that of the Mughal ship the Ganj-i-sawai, in 1695, taken by Captain Every and four other pirate ships off the mouth of the Red Sea. The ship carried a huge and valuable cargo, including jewels and a saddle and bridle meant for the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Among the passengers were many pilgrims, some of them elite people and even relations of the emperor. The women were raped, the ship plundered, and some 400 pirates