ABSTRACT
High volume, direct and sustained intercontinental trade between Asia, Africa and Europe first emerged in the Early Common Era, c. 200 bce–400 ce. It is in this period that we encounter Greek merchants travelling to eastern African coastal entrepôts of Menouthias, Azania and the ‘trading emporium’ of Rhapta, and Chinese travellers writing about Africans in South Asia (Casson 1989; Chittick 1980). Over the next 17 centuries, the port-cities of the coast emerged as important destinations for traders from South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa, where risk-taking entrepreneurs even in the seventh century ce ‘could realize profits of more than 700%’ on long-distance trading ventures (Dhavalikar 1996: 96; see Chami 1999; Kusimba 1999; Horton and Middleton 2000).
