The international trade in equids was both valuable and strategic in the long nineteenth century (i.e. the late eighteenth century to 1914). Horses and mules were part of the sinews of war, essential for field artillery, cavalry, mounted infantry and the baggage train. Economic uses multiplied under the impact of the industrial revolution, notably for urban transport, rural feeder routes to railways, agriculture, and forestry. The impact of the internal combustion engine only began to be felt in the early twentieth century, particularly for urban transport. Moreover, many expanding leisure pursuits depended on horses, especially riding, hunting, racing and polo. This was a diversified trade, as mules and donkeys were not suitable for certain activities, and different breeds of horses were needed for varying purposes. It was also an expensive and specialised business, for live animals needed much care and attention on board.

The Cape to Siberia branch of this trade did not fit Eurocentric models of imperial interchange. This is not to deny any Western input into the movement of equids in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, for it flourished under the umbrella of the colonial peace. However, few horses came from ports in the West, or went there. This was a ‘South–South’ exchange, which flouted the tenets of dependency theory and similar models of colonial exploitation through trade. Indeed, from the very beginning of their maritime ventures, Europeans had learned that many forms of commerce, including the horse trade, were more profitable within Asian waters than with Europe.

Prior to the First World War, a very roughly estimated 30 million equids, or a little under a fifth of the world’s total, were scattered around the Indian and Western Pacific oceans, excluding the enormous herds of Inner Asia. Horses were mainly bred in relatively dry and temperate lands, conducive to for good muscle and bone formation. Breeding was thus concentrated in South Africa, the Ethiopian highlands, the northern end of the Persian Gulf, northwestern India, the Yunnan Plateau, the outer arc of the southeast Asian archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Manchuria.

The maritime trade in equids was more narrowly based and gradually became a largely British preserve. In the eighteenth century, the Persian Gulf and maritime southeast Asia were the chief exporters, with India as the main market.