2 - Shifting Sands and Fluid Frontiers

Summary

Chapter 2 examines the various ways in which British conquest affected the harbour’s relationship with two neighbouring princely states over the course of the nineteenth century. While the English East India Company attempted to erect various fiscal barriers between the British port and the two neighbouring states over the course of the nineteenth century, these restrictions ultimately proved to be counterproductive severing the port from its hinterland, which lay almost entirely in the two states. As the global market for agrarian produce expanded in the latter half of the nineteenth century therefore, the colonial state was forced to ease many of these restrictions to facilitate the passage of commodities, especially since countermeasures enacted by the two states had begun to adversely affect the port’s fortunes. Through a close analysis of the interportal agreement of 1865, the most significant step towards the region’s economic integration, this chapter will assess the motivations behind the agreement and its wide-ranging impact. Utilizing sources from the archives of the Cochin State, this chapter will track the political and commercial motivations guiding the state as it attempted to get more involved in the British port’s affairs and assess the impact of its growing involvement on Cochin’s development.