Trade and Trading Items of Colonial Bengal: A survey of Imported and Exported Trade Items (1602-1757 A.D.)

Abstract

A region as geographical units is a historical construction whose boundary is defined and redefined by the contemporary political and culture condition. Our delineation of region depends on our perspective on the history. It is to be noted that, during the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, we know that the geographical limits of subha was often the exceeded area now presently covered by East Bengal or Bengladesh and the Indian state West Bengal. And also we noted that, during the contemporary time period, a flourishing textile industry, urbanization and trade with the western Gangetic plains, and also Indo- European maritime trade. We see that seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, Company established trade relations with Bengal only after it had been operating elsewhere in the subcontinent for a period of nearly three decades. But once a beginning had been made, the growth of the Company 's trade in the region was remarkable rapid. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, the Bengal trade played a crucial role in the Company's intra-Asian trade. Similarly, at a slightly later date, opium procured in Bihar accounted for a substantial proportion of the total Dutch imports into the Indonesian archipelago. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, as the composition of the exports to Europe underwent a drastic change in favors of textiles and silks manufactured in Bengal and elsewhere, the trade from this region assumed an altogether new significance. This paper we attempt to show about import and export trade items of Bengal from 1602 to 1757 A.D.