Trade and trading centres of South West Bengal: 1753-1790

Abstract

The East India Company entered in Bengal through South West Bengal by following the footsteps of different indigenous and foreign invaders from the remote past. The East India Company as a commercial organisation became the full-phase state by acquiring power gradually in entire Bengal in the second half of the 18 th century. They gained different forms of power in different periods to control and regulate the affairs of certain areas. In that period the Company intended to dominate its supremacy through reformations. It affected the society, economy and politics of the then South West Bengal as well as entire Bengal. It has been pointed out, in my research work, how it affected trade and trading centres in South West Bengal. Also light has been flashed on the change of economy of South West Bengal in the context of the state.

Thus thesis attempts to set up the general framework of the Company’s internal trade in South West Bengal. In the eighteenth century the Indian Ocean linked the unknown regions of India through the European ships. Their arrival connected the hinterland of South-West Bengal with the larger world. A stable network was formed with the trade of various goods even in the internal trade. As an administrator, the Company attempted to control the regional landlords and also the petty traders. In this case it is seen that the Company had control the producers in different ways. Initially it was convinced that the producers would protect from the oppression by the local landlords but the condition of the producers got changed not so much. The Company emphasized the markets free from undue exactions and oppressions for their own benefit. The Company intended to execute the trading operated freely by the local traders in the regional fields. Productions and its consumption opened a new era in the field of trade over markets and its transaction got increased. It changed the production system and developed the communicative network of the then South West Bengal as well as entire Bengal. The Company’s attempted regulatory management system appeared to have met with partial success and evoked a mixed response.