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| Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
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Freemason
secret in global warlordism
Solemn thoughts by Wendell Solomons (Continued from last week) For contrasting the more southerly Indian Ocean route, in this account we can use the term `Spice Route'. Commencing in China and Japan, this route led either - (a) to the Red Sea and Egypt or, (b) to the Persian Gulf and deep into the ports of the river Euphrates in Mesopotamia. Both West Asian trails could carry spices, tea, silks, cottons and other Eastern produce to the Mediterranean and Europe. At this stage, moneylenders of West Asia, who mainly professed Judaism, began to face off mustered competition. Their competitors in the Indian subcontinent included the forebears of Marathis, Marwaris and Chettiars. In both West and South Asia, fairs and markets had come to arise for safety close to temples. With the use of gold, silver and other metals in coinage, money dealers sought safe turf inside the temple to store their stock-in-trade (that included customers' pawned belongings). As a service in return, money dealers would maintain the account books of the temple. With a room allotted to them for meetings, it led on to moneylenders such as the Chettiars controlling the revenue of the Hindu temples and its Caste-Brahmin priests. While taking on the appearance of philanthropy or cooperation, the influence of the Chettiars climbed upwards to South Indian rulers through Brahmins who performed devotions for princes (moneylending musn't be associated purely with pious men because it would be difficult for pawnbrokers to avoid contacts with raiders who disposed of valuables won in skirmishes with neighbouring villages.) Finally, men such as the Chettiars sometimes led the rites of coronation and occupied an important position in the royal Court where, for better or worse, providing intelligence on neighbouring kingdoms was gained through Inter-Chettiar ties. As traffic on the overland Silk Road dwindled, Hindu moneylending clans lost revenue in Central Asia. The shift to the Spice Route that used southern ports in India, Lanka and Malaya would not pass unnoticed by the Indians. The Chettiar moneylenders' intelligence information would be heard out as a matter of course by Indian kings. Consequently, the monarchs of India's southeast coast began to exert efforts to control seaports and divert any possible revenues from merchant trade in the Indian Ocean area to themselves and to the Chettiars. A succession of South Indian Chola and Pandyan monarchs invaded the island of Lanka where winds even wafted sampans (from the Cantonese for `boat') to ports such as Hambantota (Chinese forces occupied parts of the island for 30 years from 1408.) Economic historian W. I. Siriweera writes, "the Cholas were aware of Arab competitors in the South-East Asian trade and tried to strike at the root of this competition by bringing the Malabar coast [of southwest India] and Sri Lanka under their control. Rajaraja (985-1014), a Chola king, conquered Kerala and the Maldive islands, which got him involved in the lucrative trade with the Arabs on India's Western Malabar coast." King Rajaraja was among monarchs whose invasions in Sri Lanka destroyed the Anuradhapura kingdom. The ruin of reservoirs and canals (a strategic target of military sappers everywhere,) was one of the causes of the breakdown of the irrigated, rice-growing civilisation of Anuradhapura. Merchants of the locality of Sri Vijaya in Malaya conducted an extensive trade with China and India. The Cholas led a great raid on them in 1025 and left the Sri Vijayan kingdom crippled. Looked at through the perspective of hierarchy, one could infer that the devastation was caused by a clash between Brahmin-allied Indian clans and West Asian finance capital clans. History helps us say which finance clans ended up controlling Arab merchants. Yet, here is a striking mention from Lorna Dewaraja, (writing in `History of Ceylon', Vol. I, Part I, page 706,) where Al-Idrisi, a famed 12th Century Arab geographer, deals with a royal court in the island of Lanka: "Idrisi mentions a council of sixteen at the royal court, consisting of four Buddhists, four Muslims, four Christians and four Jews." The priests missing from the royal council are the Brahmins. In such assemblage, Jewish clans could grasp the levers of trade finance to control Buddhists, Christians and Muslims. Finance capital in the West Due to the taboo of early Christianity on moneylending, the West had become the province of Jewish financial clans. In Europe, by the 13th Century the money houses had greatly allied and organised themselves. They had begun collecting interest on state-guaranteed loans. No account of the rise of finance capital is complete without mentioning Venice. By 700 AD the city-state of Venice, developed into one of the world's great trading centres. In a move that reflected the increasing importance and growing independence of the population from its ostensible rulers in Christian Constantinople, Venetians elected in 696 AD their own head. A unique city, set among coastal lagoons, Venice benefited from its links by sea to the Orient; by land and the river to wealthy northern Italy. Venice traded in exotic goods, notably spices and silks, imported from the East and in salt, produced locally. Our account can take note of what William Shakespeare associated with `The Merchant of Venice.' Yet, the financial cables of cities such as Venice extended deeper through `court factors' (loan agents) who used, say, exotic gifts to enter royal courts. War mobilisation loans in particular presented an advantage to moneylenders because the monarchy's citizens repaid them, whether or not the monarch survived intrigue. In short, moneylenders such as those of Venice (or similar city-states such as Genoa) had made their way into a tempting insider position. After triggering discontent in neighbouring kingdoms in Europe, they could offer war loans to both parties for mobilising armies. Finance capital grew richer by leaps and bounds. Popes were forced to think of doing something about the discord that hit European kingdoms and the Vatican itself. You would hardly have heard about Alexander VI. To search for information on the Pope of 1492-1503 reveals a bad press. Here's a quote from the Encarta Encyclopaedia - "The positive aspects of his reign remain overshadowed by corruption and ambition." Alexander VI aroused wrath by deciding to reduce the influence of moneylenders by cordoning them off from the pliant Muslim, Christian and other merchants they hand-grew. Pope Alexander VII chose the method of dividing the market into Portuguese and Spanish Catholic zones of influence as soon as he could. After a year in office he issued an edict called the Bull[etin] of Demarcation. His Line of Demarcation ran due north and south about 483 km west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. Alexander VI placed all lands lying east of this line, including India, in the zone of influence of Catholic Portugal. Catholic Spain received all those to the west. In Asia, in consequence, following Lorenzo de Almeida, Alfonso de Albuquerque could practice an ambitious 16th Century policy. Aiming at complete control of all Indian Ocean traffic, he organised a chain of forts along coasts, the main one being Goa in India (the viceroy capital), in Hormuz (at the entrance to the Persian Gulf), and in Malacca in Southeast Asia. Between Indonesia and Africa, ships now carried silks, cottons and spices with Portuguese permission or were at peril. In time, Portugal went on to establish formal colonies and thereby wall off the influence of Venetian and kindred finance capital. That story led to the colonisation of the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka, begun in 1505. In sequestering the island, Portuguese conquistadores spared Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim places of worship, choosing for attack Jewish leaders and `heretical' Christian leaders. As a result, the Portuguese wrote off these congregations in Sri Lanka
but they remain in South India in Kerala beginning with the port city of
Cochin where the Internet shows the Mattancheri synagogue sits next to the
spice market to this day. |
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