"If we take this trade of Malacca out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca will be entirely ruined, and to Venice will no spices be conveyed except that which her merchants go and buy in Portugal. And the Great Turk, who is the ruler of Egypt and the Red Sea, will be deprived of the revenues that he gains from the duties levied on these spices..."
— Afonso de Albuquerque, Portuguese governor of India, letter to King Manuel I, 1512
The trade strategy outlined by Albuquerque in the passage is best understood as an attempt by the Portuguese to establish which of the following in the Indian Ocean?
- AA maritime route system that relied on seasonal monsoon wind patterns to establish direct trade links between East Africa and East Asia.
- A trading post empire that controlled commercial choke points and monopolized the regional spice trade.Answer
- CA corporate trading network financed by joint-stock companies to establish commercial monopolies in Southeast Asia.
- DA territorial colonial system modeled on Spanish conquests in the Americas, which relied on military force and local alliances to establish direct administrative control over vast agricultural lands.
Answer
A trading post empire that controlled commercial choke points and monopolized the regional spice trade.
The correct answer is correct because Afonso de Albuquerque outlines a strategy to capture Malacca—a key trade choke point in Southeast Asia—in order to redirect spice trade routes away from Islamic states and Italian merchants and funnel the wealth directly to Portugal. This focus on controlling strategic coastal trade routes and ports to establish a monopoly, rather than colonizing large inland territories, defines the Portuguese trading post empire in the Indian Ocean.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
The establishment of maritime trading post empires by European powers in Asia during the early modern era.