Shafaat Ahmed Khan's "The East India Trade in the XVIIth Century"

Read Chapter 1 on pages 1–92. As you read, note the variety of commodities traded by merchants in this era. Which commodities did Western Europeans seek? What did they have to trade with merchants in the East? Was the balance of trade equal, or one-sided? 

Chapter 1 of this book offers a detailed study of Portuguese, Dutch, and later English efforts to cultivate trade networks with the Middle East, India, China, and the East Indies during the 17th century.