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Trade and Darbar Politics in the Bengal Subah, 1733–1757

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Kumkum Chatterjee
Kumkum Chatterjee
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
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Extract

The history of India's trade has attracted the attention of researchers for several decades now. But in the seventies and eighties our knowledge of the history of India's trading world has been especially enriched by a spate of literature on the subject. Among the issues that have received special attention from historians, the relationship between merchants and politics must be singled out as a theme that has recurred in the investigations and analyses of scholars. This issue of the connection between merchants and politics has yielded different conclusions depending on the regional and chronological dimensions of each study, as well as on the specific circumstances that molded the history of the regions that have figured in studies of Indian trade history.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , May 1992 , pp. 233 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 Older works on Indian trade history include: Furber, H., John Company at Work (Cambridge, Mass. 1951);Google ScholarRaychaudhuri, T., Jan Company in Coromandel 1605–1690 (S. Gravenhage, 1962);Google ScholarDasgupta, A., Malabar in Asian Trade 1740–1800 (Cambridge, 1967), etc.Google Scholar

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18 Gladwin, , Narrative of Transactions, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

19 For the configuration of political power at the level of the jagirdars, aimmadars and zamindars and for an analysis of their interaction with rural trade, see Banerjee, Kumkum ‘Indigenous Trade, Finance and Politics: A Study of Patna and its Hinterland 1757 to 1813’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Calcutta, 1987).Google Scholar

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27 Ibid..

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30 The best example of this is furnished by Hovhannes, a lone Armenian who came to India in 1683 to trade on behalf of a few Armenian merchants of Isfahan. See, Khachikian, Levon, ‘Ledger of the Merchant Hovhannes Joughayetsi’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 8, 3 (1966), pp. 153–86.Google Scholar

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40 Chaudhuri, Sushil, ‘Merchants, Companies, and Rulers’ (see fn. 5), pp. 97–103, provides more or less the same information about Khwaja Wajeed and Amirchand. The other merchants mentioned in my narrative, e.g. Meer Afzal, Meer Ashraf and other Patna merchants do not figure in Chaudhuri's discussion.Google Scholar

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48 Ibid.. Special Consultations: Answer of H. Cole to Complaint by Deepchand etc., undated.

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50 This was because of their involvement in the opium and saltpetre trades: BPC Range 1, vol. 19, cons of May 12, 1747 and Hill, vol. 2, p. 63.Google Scholar

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54 BPC Range 1, vol. 17, cons of 15 June 1745.Google Scholar

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57 Ibid., and Hill, vol. 1, p. 73,Google ScholarSinha, , Economic History of Bengal, vol. 1, p. 243.Google Scholar

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61 Ibid., vol. 11, cons of 13 November 1735.

62 Seir, vol. 2, p. 349 and Mohammed, Syed, ‘Old Muslim Inscriptions at Patna’, Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 16 (1930), pp. 355–77.Google Scholar

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67 Ibid., vol. 10, cons of 3 June 1734 and vol. 17, cons of 5 October 1744, also Patna Factory Records, IOR, vol. 2, cons of 4 September 1744.

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75 Ibid., vol. 14, cons of 24 April 1740.

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77 Bayly, C. A., ‘Indian Merchants in a Traditional Setting: Benaras 1780–1830’, in Dewey, C. and Hopkins, A. G. (eds), The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India (London, 1978), pp. 81–182,Google Scholar and Gillion, K., Ahmedabad: A Study in Indian Urban History (California, 1968), pp. 19–24.Google Scholar

78 For instance, the action of the Panta merchants against Humphreys Cole. BPC Range 1, vol. 17, special consultations.

79 Ibid., cons of 24 December 1744, Translation of Coja Momed Avazed's letter to T. Braddyl, undated.

80 Ibid., vol. 19, cons of 26 March 1747.

81 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 11 August 1744.

82 Ibid., vol. 19, cons of 28 February 1747.

83 Ibid..

84 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 24 December 1744, Translation of Coja Momed Avazed's letter to T. Braddyl, undated.

85 Ibid., cons of 30 November 1744.

86 Ibid., cons of 24 December 1744, Translation of Coja Momed Avazed's letter to T. Braddyl, undated.

87 Ibid., vol. 19, cons of 12 May 1747.

88 Ibid..

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91 Ibid., cons of 26 December 1744 and 8 January 1745.

92 Ibid., cons of 7 January 1745.

93 BPC Range 1, vol. 15, cons of 9 July 1742.Google Scholar

94 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 27 June 1743 and 25 July 1743.

95 Patna Factory Records, vol. 2, cons of 18 January 1745.Google Scholar

96 Ibid., cons of 4 March 1745.

97 BPC Range 1, vol. 19, cons of 12 May 1747.Google Scholar

98 Ibid..

99 Ibid..

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101 This feature has been discussed, but not in depth in Datta, K. K., Studies in the History of the Bengal Subah 1740–1770 (Calcutta, 1936), pp. 377–8Google Scholar and has been mentioned in passing in Chaudhuri, , The Trading World of Asia etc., p. 341.Google Scholar

102 EFI, vol. 1, p. 259.Google Scholar

103 Ibid., vol. 11, p. 69.

104 Ibid., vol. 11, pp. 395–6.

105 BPC Range I, vol. 10: cons of 27 September 1734.Google Scholar

106 Ibid., vol. 11, cons of 17 April 1735.

107 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 6 August 1745.

108 Patna Factory Records, vol. 2, cons of 28 October 1745.Google Scholar

109 Ibid., cons of 3 April 1747.

110 Ibid., cons of 16 May 1747.

111 Ibid., cons of 24 June 1747.

112 Ibid..

113 BPC Range 1, vol. 14, cons of 24 April 1740.Google Scholar

114 Ibid..

115 Ibid..

116 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

117 Ibid., vol. 17, special consultations.

118 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

119 Ibid., vol. 17, special consultations.

120 Ibid., cons of 24 December 1744, Translation of Coja Momed Avazed's letter to T. Braddyl, undated.

121 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 20 May 1745.

122 Ibid., cons of 8 January 1745.

123 Ibid., cons of 12 July 1745.

124 Patna Factory Records, vol. 2: cons of 23 September 1745.Google Scholar

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126 Ibid..

127 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 11 April 1743.

128 Ibid., vol. 23, cons of 25 January 1750.

129 Ibid., vol. 14, cons of 24 April 1740.

130 Patna Factory Records, vol. 2, cons of 15 November 1744.Google Scholar

131 Ibid..

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133 Ibid., vol. 17, cons of 20 May, 1745.

134 Ibid., cons of 25 July 1745.

135 Ibid., cons of 20 May 1745.

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140 Ibid., vol. 17: cons of 24 December 1744, Translation of Coja Momed Avazed's letter to T. Braddyl, undated.

141 Ibid., cons of 20 May 1745.

142 Ibid., cons of 6 August 1745 also Patna Factory Records, vol. 2, cons of 28 October 1745.

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161 Ibid., vol. 11, cons of 17 July 1736.

162 Ibid..

163 Ibid., vol. 12, cons 8 August 1737.

164 Ibid., cons of 29 August 1737.

165 Ibid., cons of 11 October 1737.

166 Ibid., cons of 21 December 1737.

167 Ibid., vol. 18, cons of 22 September 1746.

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172 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

173 Ibid..

174 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

175 However, there were exceptions. In 1740, the saltpetre merchants with the encouragement of the Dutch company used armed men to seize saltpetre kept in store for joint sharing between the English and Dutch companies. Ibid., vol. 14, cons of 24 April 1740.

176 Ibid., vol. 17, special consultations.

177 Ibid..

178 Sarkar, , History of Bengal, p. 451.Google Scholar

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182 BPC Range 1, vol. 14, cons of 24 April 1740.Google Scholar

183 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

184 Ibid., vol. 10, cons of 23 December 1734.

185 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 20 January 1744.

186 Patna Factory Records, vol. 2, cons of 25 March 1747.Google Scholar

187 BPC Range 1, vol. 17, special consultations.

188 Kasimbazar Factory Records, vol. 5, cons of 21 January 1736.Google Scholar

189 BPC Range 1, vol. 17, special consultations.

190 Seir: vol. 1, pp. 283–4, 370–2.Google Scholar

191 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 400, footnote 214.

192 BPC Range 1, vol. 15, cons of 19 April 1752.Google Scholar

193 Ibid., vol. 16, cons of 26 February 1743.

194 For the situation of some of Patna's merchants—especially big merchants of the type discussed in this paper—following the crisis of 1757, see Kumkum Banerjee, ‘Indigenous Trade, Finance and Politics’ (see fn. 72).