Jacques de Coutre has a Scoop on Intersectionality of Diamond Miners in Early 17th Century South India

In 1591 Jacques de Coutre went as a young man from Bruges to Lisbon and from there
with his elder brother to Goa, India. He travelled widely across Southeast Asia and India and returned
twice to the Iberian Peninsula via Persia and the Middle East. De Coutre was a successful diamond
trader and gave the king of Spain (who then was also king of Portugal) sound advice on trading in the
East. The present paper will outline how de Coutre performed as a cultural mediator between the Dutch
and the Portuguese, but also between Indian rulers and the Portuguese. He dealt in precious stones, but
also served as a diplomat. In doing so, he crossed many borders: he spoke several languages; he regularly
changed the social register of his language as he spoke to rulers as well as very poor diamond
workers in central Indian mines; he explored many different political systems; he compared cultural
practices. During his adventurous life he always crossed geographical and state borders which made
him a Habsburg world citizen as well as an inhabitant of Goa with a firm knowledge of India and Southeast
Asia. This paper will focus on India, as de Coutre’s written life story is one of the first extended
European reports on the cultural diversity of the Indian subcontinent and the role of cultural mediator
that he took up there as a migrant from Europe.