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Family Firms in Three Regions

This chapter discusses two Surat merchants, Virji Vora and Mulla Abdul Ghafur, and their families, who are the best-documented and possibly the largest Gujarati merchants of their eras. It shows how family firms that did not rely on state support could trade over much of the span of the Indian Ocean. The chapter also reveals the vulnerability of family firms that did not rely on a wider mercantile network, state support, or corporate entity platform. Both the enterprises were based on the individual ownership and management of Virji Vora and Mulla Abdul Ghafur. They are not known to have been partners and did not separate business from family assets and affairs. The combined business activity of the two families spanned from 1619 to at least 1736.