Merchants and Companies in Bengal : Kasimbazar and Jugdia in the Eighteenth Century

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Silk as symbol of substance. 2. Silk and Europe. 3. Kasimbazar silk. 4. The Dadni merchant of Western Bengal. 5. Commodities, prices and profit at Kasimbazar in the first half of the eighteenth century. 6. The Dadni merchant of Kasimbazar. 7. The merchants of Kasimbazar in business. 8. The rise of merchant families. 9. The coterie at Kasimbazar. 10. The world of finance at Kasimbazar. 11. The merchant's world at Kasimbazar. 12. The crisis. 13. The crash at Kasimbazar. 14. The parting of ways. 15. The departure. 16. The end of the eighteenth century world at Kasimbazar. 17. The Arakan connection and the east. 18. The east: the Dhaka region. 19. Trade in the 'Far East'-Jugdia and Lakhipur. 20. The market at Jugdia-textiles, merchants and companies. 21. The Mid century textile crisis at Jugdia. 22. The end of the economic world of the Mughal. 23. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

"Merchants and Companies in Bengal: Kasimbazar and Jugdia in the Eighteenth Century offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of the South Asian merchants as well as the organizations of the textile trade in Bengal in the first half of the eighteenth century. Heavily archived from French and English sources, this book tells the story of the silk merchants at Kasimbazar and the cotton traders at Jugdia prior to EEIC's takeover of Bengal. The fragility and instability of a mercantile economy, the commodification of goods and the role of capital -- both indigenous and external--are highlighted in this volume." (jacket)