Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:49:22.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Conditions in Early Modern Bengal: A Contribution to the Divergence Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Tirthankar Roy
Tirthankar Roy*
Affiliation:
Reader, Economic History Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom. E-mail: t.roy@lse.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on relative levels of living in the early modern world by estimating the income and probable range of income growth in Bengal before European colonization. The exercise yields two conclusions, (a) average income in Bengal was significantly smaller than that in contemporary Western Europe, and (b) there is insufficient basis to infer either growth or decline in average income in the eighteenth century.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 179 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, R. C. “Real Wages in Europe and Asia: A First Look at the Long-Term Patterns.” In Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe, edited by Allen, R. C., Bengtsson, T. and Dribe, M.111–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, R. C. “India in the Great Divergence.” In The New Comparative Economic History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey G. Williamson, edited by Williamson, J. G., Hatton, T. J., O'Rourke, K. H. and Taylor, A. M., 9–32. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, A. “Recent Theories of Eighteenth-Century India.” Indian Historical Review 13 no. 1(1986–1987) 102–10.Google Scholar
Bagchi, A. K. “Deindustrialization in India in the Nineteenth Century: Some Theoretical Implications.” Journal of Development Studies 12, no. 2(1976): 135–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayly, C. A.Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983Google Scholar
Bayly, C. A. “Epilogue to the Indian Edition.” In Eighteenth Century in India, edited by Alavi, Seema, 165–98. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Bengal. Season and Crop Report of Bengal Calcutta Agricultural Department 1901Google Scholar
Beverly, H. “The Census of Bengal.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 37, no. 1(1874): 69–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bose, S.Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadberry, S., and Gupta, B. “The Early Modern Great Divergence: Wages, Prices, and Economic Development in Europe and Asia, 1500–1800.” The Economic History Review 59, no. 1(2006): 2–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudhuri, B. B.Peasant History of Late Precolonial and Colonial India New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2008Google Scholar
Chaudhury, S. “European Companies and the Bengal Textile Industry in the Eighteenth Century: The Pitfalls of Applying Quantitative Techniques.” Modern Asian Studies 27, no. 2(1993): 321–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudhury, S.From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth-Century Bengal Delhi: Manohar, 1995Google Scholar
Colebrooke, H. T.Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal Calcutta: Government Press, 1804Google Scholar
Datta, R.Society, Economy, and the Market: Commercialization in Rural Bengal c. 1760–1800 Delhi: Manohar, 2000Google Scholar
Deb Roy, R.“Population of the Province of Bengal, 1751–1801.” Available at http://www-census.ined.fr/epc2001_history/Authors/Rama/RamaRoy.htm, 2001.Google Scholar
Desai, A. V. “Population and Standards of Living in Akbar's Time.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 9 no. 1(1972): 43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Embree, A. T. “Grant, James.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Available at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63506, 2004.Google Scholar
Frank, A. G.ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghosal, H. R.Economic Transition in Bengal Presidency Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1966Google Scholar
Gombrich, R. “Colebrooke, Henry Thomas.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Available at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5866, 2004.Google Scholar
Granger, C. W. J., and Elliott, C. M. “A Fresh Look at Wheat Prices and Markets in the Eighteenth Century.” The Economic History Review 20, no. 3(1967): 257–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guha, S. “The Handloom Industry of Central India, 1825 – 1950.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 26, no. 4(1989): 297–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guha, S. “The Population History of South Asia from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries: An Exploration.” In Asian Population History, edited by Liu, Cuirong, Liu, Ts'ui-jung, Lee, James et al. , 63–78. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habib, I. “The Eighteenth Century in Indian Economic History.” In The Eighteenth Century in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution? Edited by Marshall, P. J.100–19. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Haider, N. “Prices and Wages in India, 1200–1800: Source Material, Historiography, and New Directions.” Paper presented in Towards a Global History of Prices and Wages, Utrecht, August 19–21, 2004.Google Scholar
Hamilton, WalterThe East India Gazetteer; containing Particular Descriptions of the Empire, Kingdoms, Principalities, Provinces, Cities, Towns, Districts, Fortresses, Harbours, Rivers, Lakes, & c. of Hindostan and the Adjacent Countries London: John Murray, 1815Google Scholar
Harley, C. Knick. “British Industrialization before 1841: Evidence of Slower Growth during the Industrial Revolution.” This Journal 42, no. 3 (1982): 267–89.Google Scholar
Heston, A. “The Standard of Living in Akbar's Time: A Comment.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 14 no. 4(1977): 391–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heston, A. “National Income.” In The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 2, 1750–1970, edited by Dharma, Kumar376–462. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Hickey, William Memoirs. 4 volumes. London, 1913–1925.Google Scholar
Hunter, W.Famine Aspects of Bengal Districts London: Trübner, 1874Google Scholar
India. The Imperial Gazetteer of India: Vol III Economic Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908Google Scholar
India Office Records (hereafter IOR). Mss Eur F331/35, 1767. Journal of a Circuit of the Midnapore and Jallesore Provinces, April-May.Google Scholar
India Office Records. IOR/H/392. George Smith, “Observations on the English Possessions in India, Their Government, Population, Cultivation, Produce, and Commerce.” 20th September, 1785.Google Scholar
India Office Records. IOR/H/434. Papers of George Smith, 1781–1791.Google Scholar
India Office Records. IOR Mss Eur F95. Miscellaneous papers of Robert Kyd, 1791.Google Scholar
Landes, D. S.The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, ThomasA Sketch of Some Late Arrangements and a View of the Rising Resources, in Bengal London: John Stockdale, 1792Google Scholar
Maddison, A. “A Comparison of Levels of GDP per capita in Developed and Developing Countries, 1700 – 1980.” This Journal 43, no. 1 (1983): 27–41.Google Scholar
Marshall, P. J.Bengal: The British Bridgehead Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987Google Scholar
Marshall, P. J. “Introduction.” In Eighteenth Century in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution? Edited by Marshall, P. J.1–30. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Mingay, G. “Agriculture and Rural Life.” In A Companion to Eighteenth-century Britain, edited by Dickinson, H. T., 141–57. London: Wiley Blackwell 2004.Google Scholar
Moosvi, S. “Note on Professor Alan Heston's ‘Standard of Living in Akbar's Time—A Comment’.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 14 no. 4(1977): 397–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narain, Brij. Indian Economic Life: Past and Present Lahore: Uttar Chand Kapur, 1929Google Scholar
Parthasarathi, P. “Rethinking Wages and Competitiveness in the Eighteenth Century: Britain and South India.” Past and Present 158 no. 1(1998): 79–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parthasarathi, P. “Agriculture, Labour, and the Standard of Living in Eighteenth-Century India.” In Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe, edited by Allen, R. C., Bengtsson, T. and Dribe, M.99–110. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Perlin, F. “Proto-industrialisation in Precolonial South Asia.” Past and Present 98, no. 1(1983): 30–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomeranz, K.The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomeranz, K. “Standards of Living in Eighteenth-Century China: Regional Differences, Temporal Trends, and Incomplete Evidence.” In Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe, edited by Allen, R. C., Bengtsson, T., and Dribe, M., 23–54. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prakash, Om “Bullion for Goods: International Trade and the Economy of Early Eighteenth-Century Bengal.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 13, no. 2(1976): 159–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prakash, Om “Trade and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Bengal.” In Eighteenth Century in India, edited by Alavi, Seema136–64. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Prakash, Om “The Great Divergence: Evidence from Eighteenth-Century India.” Seventh Global Economic History Network Conference at Istanbul, 2005.Google Scholar
Price, Joseph Five Letters from a Free Merchant in Bengal, to Warren Hastings. London, 1783.Google Scholar
Raychaudhuri, T., and Habib, I. eds., The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. I: c. 1200–1750Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983Google Scholar
Rickards, R.India, vol. I London: Smith Elder, 1829Google Scholar
Seton-Karr, W. S.Selections from Calcutta Gazettes, vol. 2 Calcutta: Military Orphan Press, 1865Google Scholar
Shakespear, A.Memoir on the Statistics of the North Western provinces of the Bengal Presidency Calcutta: Government Press, 1848Google Scholar
Sinha, N. K.The Economic History of Bengal, vol. 1 Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1962Google Scholar
Stein, B. “A Decade of Historical Efflorescence.” South Asia Research 10 (1990): 125–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Studer, R. “India and the Great Divergence: Assessing the Efficiency of Grain Markets in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century India.” This Journal 68, no. 4 (2008): 393–437.Google Scholar
The Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature, Vol. 12. London: Hurst Chance and Co. 1829.Google Scholar
Tripathi, A.Trade and Finance in the Bengal Presidency, 1793–1833 Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Parliamentary Papers. Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company Fourth Report, 1772.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company Seventh Report, 1772.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company Second Report, Appendix, 1810.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Papers relating to Revenues of India, and on Growth of Hemp and Cotton, 1812/13.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company Fifth Report, Appendix (Appendix 4, James Grant, “A Historical and Comparative Analysis of the Finances of Bengal; Chronologically arranged in different periods from the Mogul Conquest to the present time: Extracted from a political survey of the British Dominions and Tributary Dependencies in India”), 1812/13.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company Fifth Report, Appendix (Appendix 13, Minute of the Governor General in Council; dated the 7th December 1792. Extract Bengal Revenue Consultations; the 7th December 1792), 1812/13Google Scholar
United Kingdom. Select Committee, and Committee of Whole House of Commons, on Affairs of East India Company Minutes of Evidence (Trade and Shipping, and Renewal of Charter), 1812/13.Google Scholar