Before and after the arrival of the Europeans. Previous to the European interference in the indigenous scheme of life, the island of Timor was inhabited by barbarian people that couldnt write but used iron and was already agricultural. Industry was limited to the fabrication of cotton cloths with which they covered themselves and the commerce reduced to the trade of wax and sandalwood for certain products that brought to Timor makasare, malays and javanese.
Much before the arrival of Portuguese and Dutch, Timor was part of the commercial nets politically centered east of Java, after in the Celebes, and linked by trade to China and India. In documents published during the Ming dynasty, in 1436, the commercial value of Timor is put in relief and described as a place where the mountains are covered by trees of sandalwood producing the country nothing else. One of the first Portuguese to visit the island, Duarte Barbosa, wrote in 1518 theres an abundance of sandalwood, white, to which the Muslims in India and Persia give great value and where much of it is used. Other products were exported such as honey, wax and slaves, but trade relied mainly on sandalwood.