The politics of commerce in eighteenth-century Bengal

A reappraisal

Bibliographic Data

ID8960971
AuthorsAnirban Karak (University of Chicago, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume61
Issue1
Pages33-66
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00194646231220704
OpenAlexW4390657618
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This article broaches a simple question: Was there a politics of commerce within Bengali society in the eighteenth century, or was such politics limited to disputes between the British East India Company (EIC) and the Bengal nawabs? I begin by discussing the literature on markets in eighteenth-century Bengal and argue that the relationship between commerce and politics has been too narrowly defined in this body of work. A one-sided focus on determining the impact of the early colonial state, coupled with an uncritical acceptance of Peter Marshall’s Namierite story about the origins of the British empire, has led historians to downplay ideological conflicts within the EIC and British society. To show why these divisions matter, I build on the recent work of James Vaughn and Spencer Leonard, who have shown that between 1750 and 1770, political and ideological conflicts in both Britain and Bengal had far-reaching effects on the character of the British empire. Through an extended discussion of a dispute over market access in 1778 in the city of Calcutta, I show that petty merchants and shopkeepers often opposed arbitrary impositions by regional elites. To fully understand the motivations behind such challenges, I argue that we need to seriously consider divisions within Bengali society as well: namely, the reproduction of caste hierarchies through differential access to markets (and land)

Archaeology · BENGAL · Bengali · Caste · Colonialism · Empire · Ideology · Imperial unit system · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy