檀香是一种珍贵木材和优质香药，檀香贸易历史相当悠久。南印度较早形成檀香文化，该文化的传播催生了跨地区檀香贸易。本文着重考察英国殖民时期迈索尔地区檀香贸易的发展状况、原因和影响，分析迈索尔檀香贸易与其他檀香产地间的联系，并尝试科学地认识檀香生产过程中出现的市场竞争、资源管理以及生态困境。这是一个具有重要研究价值的课题，但迄今，国内外史学界专门讨论该课题的成果仍付之阙如。本文在综合应用未刊档案、时人报告、其他一手史料以及植物学相关资料的基础上，运用比较和联系的方法以及跨学科视角，充分考察该时期这项贸易的发展变迁，旨在补充国内外史学界对相关问题研究之不足。英国殖民之前，南印度檀香文化与檀香贸易的形成，与宗教文化传播和亚洲内部早期贸易有关。16和17世纪葡萄牙和荷兰等欧洲商人曾参与交易帝汶檀香。18世纪后，帝汶檀香资源枯竭，英国推进在南印度的殖民扩张并积极开展对华贸易，这些都为迈索尔檀香贸易的兴盛提供契机。日后，英国人开发迈索尔檀香资源，改变了此前印度檀香贸易程度不高、规模有限的情况。19世纪，该贸易由于内外原因经历了阶段性的发展波动。20世纪起，该贸易因遭遇多重挑战而转型，迈索尔建立官方檀香精油厂，但檀香资源危机也初露端倪。影响英国殖民时期迈索尔檀香贸易发展变化的原因主要有三点，包括帝国贸易网络的存在和殖民统治制度，太平洋岛屿和西澳等其他檀香产地的竞争和市场转向，以及殖民时代因环境变迁造成的生态困境。该贸易的发展变迁对英国殖民统治、迈索尔地方社会乃至檀香物种本身都产生了较大的影响。首先，迈索尔地区檀香贸易始终是英帝国在东方殖民贸易的重要组成部分，是英帝国扩张攫取迈索尔资源、发展殖民贸易的一种手段。其次，檀香贸易的发展对迈索尔现代化进程的起步或多或少产生了积极作用，但是也带来一些延续至今的问题。再者，该贸易的发展也不断推动着檀香这一物种的演化与改良，贸易的扩大造成檀香物种资源减少，但也推动着有关人群去研究和积累与檀香相关的植物知识与栽培技术。英国殖民时期迈索尔地区檀香贸易的发展变化，展现了殖民与被殖民、全球与地方、人类与自然之间的复杂关系。研究这段历史，不仅能帮助今人了解英帝国的殖民活动给印度地方带来的重大社会影响，也能促进今人认识帝国的存在为植物文化的传播和交流提供的更为广阔的空间，以及由此产生的前所未有的生态影响。
Sandalwood is a kind of precious wood, high-quality spice as well as medicine. The sandalwood trade has a long history. The sandalwood culture in Southern India took shape earlier. The spread of this culture stimulated the trans-regional sandalwood trade. This dissertation focuses on the development of the sandalwood trade and its impact in the Mysore region during the British colonial period. It analyzes the connections between the Mysore sandalwood trade and other sandalwood-producing areas. Besides, it also attempts to scientifically understand the challenges during the process, such as market competition, resource management, and ecological dilemma. This is a subject of important research value. However, it has not been discussed in depth by researchers both in China and abroad so far. Comprehensively based on the unpublished archives, contemporary reports, other primary resources, and some botany materials, this dissertation adopts comparative and connective methods and the interdisciplinary perspective. It fully investigates the development and change of this trade during this period. This aims to supplement the insufficiency of the research on this subject in domestic and abroad history academia. Before British colonization, the formation of sandalwood culture and sandalwood trade in Southern India was closely related to the spread of religious culture and early trade within Asia. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European merchants, such as Portuguese and Dutch merchants, participated in trading Timor sandalwood. From the eighteenth century, Timor sandalwood resources were exhausted, the British expanded its colonization in Southern India, and it also actively developed the trade with China. All of these provided an opportunity for the booming of the Mysore sandalwood trade. Since then, the British exploited the sandalwood resources in Mysore. This changed the previous situation where the sandalwood trade in India was limited in degree and scale. During the nineteenth century, the development of the sandalwood trade in the Mysore region experienced several periodical fluctuations because of some internal and external reasons. After the twentieth century, the trade began to transform due to multiple challenges. Mysore set up a state-owned sandalwood oil factory, but the sandalwood resource crisis also emerged gradually along with it.There are three main reasons for the development and change of Mysore sandalwood trade during the British colonial period, including the imperial trade network and British colonial rule, the competition from other sandalwood production areas, such as the Pacific islands and Western Australia, and the transformation of the global market, as well as the ecological dilemma caused by environmental change in the colonial era. The development and change of this trade had a great impact on the British colonial rule, Mysore local society, and even the sandalwood species itself. Firstly, the Mysore sandalwood trade was a crucial part of the British Empire’s colonial trade with the East. It acted as a method for the British Empire to exploit the resources from Mysore and develop the colonial trade. Secondly, although the development of the sandalwood trade had more or less positive effects on the beginning of Mysore modernization, it also brought some problems which continued to exist to this day. Furthermore, the development of the trade also continuously promoted the evolution and improvement of sandalwood species. As the expansion of the trade inevitably reduced the resources of sandalwood species, it promoted the relevant groups to study and accumulate knowledge and technology about the species. The development and change of sandalwood trade in Mysore during the British colonial period showed the complex relationships between the colonizer and the colonized, the global and the local, human beings and nature. Investigating this subject not only helps people today to learn the significant social impact brought by the British Empire’s colonial activities on Indian local society, but also enriches the understanding that empire could create the space for the spread and exchange of plant culture and also result in an unprecedented ecological impact at the same time.
