maritime activities economy and social customs of the muslims of ...

A record of Fort St. George of 28 Jan 1644 refers to the miserable condition of the Danes.
Then the Dutch were negotiating wlth the Danes to purchase Tranquebar fort to prevent it's
falling into the hands of the Portuguese or the English. However, the Dams promlssod the
~utch their first offer1".
In 1653, the Danish chief at Tranquebar had offered to deliver the
fort to the Dutch if they agree to pay their debts in Thanjavur coast and to restore the fort to
the king of
Denmark on demand, which was unacceptable to the Dutch149.
The Danes had fallen from the favours of the Nayaks at the close of the seventeenth
century. The English factory records refer to Chokanatha Nayak's negotiation with Froncois
Martin in 1675 offering both Nagapattanam and Tranquebar for his help in driving away
the Dutch and Danes from Thanjavur coastlS0. When Thanjavur terrttoy was taken over by
the English in 1799, the English permitted the Thanjavur Maratha to continue to receive the
rent on Tranquebarlsl.
The Danish trade was built on fragile foundation and was crumbling day by
day. Their trading activities had not created a marked impact on Coromandel
trade. Occarionally they interferred in the local politics also. They supplied gun
powder to Yusuf Khan, the renter of Madurails2. Though the Danes were financially
weak, they continued their trading activities with the help of the local traders.
They lent their flags to the local merchants to trade with the ports of Ceylon, Ache,
Penang, Malacca, Malaya, Malabar, and Bengal during the time of political turmoils.
The Danish Government was neutral in the war between the English and the French
in the last decade of the eighteenth century. But when the Danes were found to be
no longer neutral, the native ships with their flags were captured by French
privateer el^'.
Though the Danes were insignificant in their trading activities due to thelr
financial deficiency, their relationship with the local traders, particularly the Muslims
was cordial. They maintained a good rapport with the Muslims of the Coromandel
and the Southeast Asian countries.
The Danes helped the Marakkayar traders of
Nagore, Karaikkal,Thirumalairajanpattanam, and Tranquebar to continue thelr trade
by
giving their colours during the ~eriod of political unrest and wars.