Negotiated Physical Spaces and the Economic Landscapes in Early Colonial Bengal (C.1757-C.1857)
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Type
Article
Date
2019-03
Journal Title
Karatoya : North Bengal University journal of History
Journal Editor
Roy, Varun Kumar
Sarkar, Tahiti
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of North Bengal
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Roy, V. K. (2019). Negotiated Physical Spaces and the Economic Landscapes in Early Colonial Bengal (C.1757-C.1857). Karatoya : North Bengal University Journal of History, 12, 165–175. https://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/3962
Authors
Roy, Varun Kumar
Advisor
Editor
Abstract
Bernier has vividly described the wealth of Bengal about a century before British
conquest. According to him, Bengal mass-produced rice in such profusion that it not
only supplied its neighbors but many remote places. Bengal’s excess rice was
transported by sea to Masulipatam and the ports on the Coast of Coromandel, Maldives,
and Ceylon. Its sugar was exported to Golkonda, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia.
Of commodities of value, silk and cotton cloth exported as far as Lahore and Kabul
but also for all the neighboring kingdoms and Europe.2Verelst ascribed the prosperity
of Bengal before Plassey to the “cheapness and quality and the huge traffic of the
products manufactured. Besides the huge investments of the many European nations,
the Bengal raw silk, cloth, etc., to a vast amount was dispersed to the West and North
inland as far as Gujarat, Lahore, and even Ispahan.” 3 This research article tries to
address how Bengal which was once very developed in trade and commerce was total
ruined.economic degeneration of Bengal began since the days of Alivardi (if not
earlier, from MurshidQuli’s time) to hold that the oppression of the company’s servants
and gomastas were alone responsible for the decline of Bengal manufacturers and
industries and that this began closely after Plassey, is to see from only one side of a
coin.
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Book Title
Edition
Volume
ISBN No
Volume Number
12
Issue Number
ISSN No
2229-4880
eISSN No
Pages
Pages
165 - 175