The New Cambridge History of India covers the period from the beginning of the sixteenth century. In some respects it marks a radical change in the style of Cambridge Histories, but in others the editors feel that they are "working firmly within an established academic tradition.

During the summer of 1896, F.W. Maitland and Lord Acton between them evolved the idea for a comprehensive modern history. By the end of the year the Syndics of the University Press had committed themselves to the Cambridge Modern History, and Lord Acton had been put in charge of it. It was hoped that publication would begin in 1899 and be completed by 1904, but the first volume in fact came out in 1902 and the last in 1910, with additional volumes of tables and maps in 1911 and 1912.

The history of commercial traffic in the Indian Ocean goes back to at least the early centuries of the Christian era. Networks of trade covering different segments of the Ocean have a history of remarkable resilience without being resistant to innovation. In other words, without disrupting the rhythm of the overall flow, variables such as the share in total trade of different communities of merchants engaged in a given network, the goods carried, and the relative volume of trade carried on at the ports called at, were fully reflective of evolving situations. Over the centuries, India has played a key role in the successful functioning of these trading networks. This undoubtedly was related in part to her location at midpoint geographically, but it also had a good deal to do with her capacity to put on the market large quantities of relatively inexpensive and highly competitive manufactured goods in addition to a whole range of other goods. In return, she provided an important outlet for the specialized agricultural, mineral and other products offered by her trading partners. Trade thus satisfied different kinds of needs for India as compared with her major trading partners, and this by itself provided an excellent basis for a significant and growing level of trade. The key role of India can thus be conceptualized essentially as one of contributing significantly to the expansion of the basis of trade in the Indian Ocean.

The rise of a pre-modern world economy, facilitated by the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century, held important implications for the Indian subcontinent. The availability of an all-water route between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope, and of a growing amount of American silver for export to Asia, involved a substantial expansion in the volume and the value of Euro-Asian trade. The Portuguese monopoly of the all-water route was challenged at the beginning of the seventeenth century by the English and the Dutch East India companies, who eventually came to dominate this trade. The only other body of any consequence engaged in this enterprise was the French East India Company. The so-called minor companies — the Danish, the Ostend, the Swedish and others - never really accounted for more than an insignificant proportion of the total trade between the two continents. At least one of the corporate enterprises, namely the Dutch East India Company, also carried on a substantial amount of trade within Asia. Employees of corporate enterprises also engaged in intra-Asian trade in their private capacity. By far the most important category of these employees was that in the service of the English East India Company.