Who is tome pires

However, Pires' observation about the dishonesty of the Bengal merchants deserves scrutiny. His categorisation of the Bengal merchants as 'false' perhaps has its explanation in the prevailing weakness of the Asian commercial pattern in which a large number of pedlars with small cargoes, small capital sailing in a junk - each one with its own money, its own weights and measures, used to participate in the seaborne trade.

Since the pedlars were often forced to work on faulty intelligence and under unpredictable supply conditions and price fluctuations - a situation not familiar to the Europeans, Bengal merchants' practices seemed queer to Pires.

Before accepting everything verbatim of the Bengal section of the Suma Oriental it should be borne in mind that Pires' great work was lost and buried in oblivion for long. The copy of Suma Oriental which the Hakluyat Society got translated and published in was not the original one written by him, and the copyist had left too many instances of carelessness.

Pires' unclear style along with the most anarchic punctuation rendered a correct interpretation of the whole text difficult, at times leaving room for guesswork by the translator. Bibliography' Armando Cortesao tr. Toggle navigation Banglapedia. Main page Random page Contact. Tome Pires.

This page was last edited on 18 June , at The punctuation of the text itself greatly facilitates its reading. The technical arrangement is straightforward and very clear. There is a simple reason for this: Experts are familiar with the relevant material anyway; also, secondary works abound and one can hardly consider all possible sources in each case. Finally, the introduction is very informative and contains a well-balanced bibliography.

There is also a detailed and reliable index at the end of the book. In sum: Libraries and historians dealing with maritime Asia ought to acquire this item for their collections.

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