How many Kris's are made of Indian steel?

Jens Nordlunde · 20th January 2008, 02:16 PM

As I don’t collect Kris’s I don’t consider myself qualified to take part in the discussion, but I think the text below must have, at least some interest to Kris collectors, and maybe raise some question marks.

Allan, James & Gilmour, Brian: Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection. Oxford University Press, 2000.

(page 115 and 116).In the 17th century, bothe East Indian Company and the Dutch East Indian Company were involved in trading iron from the Kingdom of Golconda to south-east Asia, and sometimes to western India, from where it would have been traded still further west. …………Bronson has established that is 1682, Masulipatam and Pulicat, the chief Dutch factory on the southern Coromandel Coast, shipped a total of 144.34 English tons of iron and steel to Indonesia, of which 49.43 tons were Masulipatam steel. The previous year the two ports had shipped 158.51 tons, including 15.01 tons of Masulipatam steel, to the same destination. Bronson concludes that the annual production of iron in India cannor have been far below that of Europe.

We know about Indian iron/steel export to Arabia, Africa and the Mediterranean in the second century AD, if not before, and there is reason to believe that the Indian also exported iron /steel to the SEA area in the early centuries.

How big was the iron/steel production in the SEA area, in the two years mentioned, and does these figures give us a rough idea of, how big a percentage of the Kris’s were made of Indian steel?

20th January 2008, 02:16 PM	#1
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,713	How many Kris's are made of Indian steel? As I don’t collect Kris’s I don’t consider myself qualified to take part in the discussion, but I think the text below must have, at least some interest to Kris collectors, and maybe raise some question marks. Allan, James & Gilmour, Brian: Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection. Oxford University Press, 2000. (page 115 and 116).In the 17th century, bothe East Indian Company and the Dutch East Indian Company were involved in trading iron from the Kingdom of Golconda to south-east Asia, and sometimes to western India, from where it would have been traded still further west. …………Bronson has established that is 1682, Masulipatam and Pulicat, the chief Dutch factory on the southern Coromandel Coast, shipped a total of 144.34 English tons of iron and steel to Indonesia, of which 49.43 tons were Masulipatam steel. The previous year the two ports had shipped 158.51 tons, including 15.01 tons of Masulipatam steel, to the same destination. Bronson concludes that the annual production of iron in India cannor have been far below that of Europe. We know about Indian iron/steel export to Arabia, Africa and the Mediterranean in the second century AD, if not before, and there is reason to believe that the Indian also exported iron /steel to the SEA area in the early centuries. How big was the iron/steel production in the SEA area, in the two years mentioned, and does these figures give us a rough idea of, how big a percentage of the Kris’s were made of Indian steel?