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

Apart from all the above external factors, the internal differences and deficiencies among the
Muslims also contributed to the decline of their maritime commerce and other activities. Right from the
early times, the Indian ocean trade was based on the comercial success of numerous individual Muslim
merchants. Adherance to a common religious faith some times enabled the building of a commercial link
and network and ewlution of a mechanism of credit. But Muslim merchants competed fiercebwith each
other. They were by far the most numerous though they generally operated individually or in groups
according to their ethnic orlgin and never as one cohesive group. The concept of high and low in terms
of ethnlcity, doscent and culture and social position etc., creates a d situation characted by the lack
of solidarity and coopemUon among people and these in turn fail to produce a collective consciousness
among them to change and dewlop their society. It is a fact that laissez faire doctrine promoted by Adam
Smith postulates that individual pursuance for their own interest will bring great happiness in economy.
&It in the changed modem capitalistic pattern of society, the monopiy of the Europeans and the formation
of corporations ( joint stock companies etc.,) proved a real challenge and competition to the free
enterp~ises~~~. This is hue in the case of the Muslims of Coromandel.
Most of the Muslim traders were men who operated with limited capital resources and some
times obtained loans from the money lending chettiars. There were only a few rich Muslim merchants
and ship owners, who seldom undertook voyages across the sea but advanced money to small maritime
traders on the condition that it should be returned dobuled on return. The Coromandel Marakkayars and
Labbaii could not stand against the large capital resources of the European adventures. According to a
statistics in the second half of the nineteenth centuy, the bigger individual Muslim merchants of
Nagapattanarn and Nagore operated with a limited capital of R5.35.000 to 50.000 whereas the English
private merchants had liquid capital several times higher than thiszz8. Though the Chettiar merchants in
the coastal towns could not compete with the Muslims in commercial voyages and maritime commerce,
they were better in financial resources. They financed large sums at a higher rate of interest, to those
who were engaged in overseas trade. Many Muslim traders obtained loans from them for their trading
activities229. So the capital resources of the Muslims could not keep space with the developed European
capitalism. They took no serious note of the growing global modern capitalism and it's characters.
Further their economic activities were conditioned by their religious doctrines, as rightly put forth by Max
Weber in his famous work " Protestant Ethics ad Spirit of Capitalism ". For example usuay is prohibited
in Islam. Even though the Muslim traders paid heay rate of interest to the Chemar money lenders