At the base of the mainmast, full beneath the doubloon and the flame, the parsee was kneeling in Ahab's front, but with his head bowed away from him; while near by, from the arched and overhanging rigging, where they had just been engaged securing a spar, a number of the seamen, arrested by the glare, now cohered together, and hung pendulous, like a knot of numbed wasps from a drooping, orchard twig.
China is now Indiaâs top trading partnerâand one of its least liked. Some of China's mountain of imports into India. India and Chinaâtwo massive, neighboring Asian emerging economies, each home to over a billion peopleâare on the way to forming one of the worldâs largest trade relationships.
The web of trade across the Indian Ocean, driven by the monsoon winds. Click for larger image. Photo Credit: Kallie Szczepanski. The Indian Ocean trade routes connected Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa.From at least the third century BCE, long distance sea trade moved across a web of routes linking all of those areas as well as East Asia (particularly China).s a result, the Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean trade as pirates rather than traders. Using a combination of bravado and cannons, they seized port cities like Calicut on India's west coast and Macau, in southern China. The Portuguese began to rob and extort local producers and foreign merchant ships alike.