"Looks at the historical evolution of port-cirites from emporion to gateway and interrogates their nature over time. This volume studies specific port-cities such as Barbarikon, Chaul, Porto Novo, Madras, Nagasaki, and Sitangkai, and more generally the ports around the Erythaean sea, the Indian ocean and the Atlantic, Portuguese, Andhra, Bengal and Vietnamese coasts. Celebrates the hybridity and cosmopolitanism that port-cities offer and discusses the wider implications of cross-cultural competition, port-hinterland dynamics as well as themes, problems and textual evidence about port-cities and how they link to ports today."--Book Jacket.