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Copyright©CDRB, ISSN 0254-4199 6

ASIAN AFFAIRS

RISE AND DECLINE OF THEECONOMY OF BENGAL

SALAHUDDIN AHMAD

IntroductionFertile delta of Bengal attracted people from all directions. Over

time the wealth generation in the economy of Bengal developedsignificantly. As much as Agriculture developed with canal basedirrigation so did Industry with significant encouragement ofproduction based on industrial raw material and easy to extractminerals. Trade with the world made Bengal one of the wealthiestcountries of the world. Manouchi the personal physician ofAurangjeb, who spent 40 years in India, wrote about Bengal,“Bengal is most known in France among all parts of huge MughalEmpire. The huge wealth, which flows to Europe, is a proof of thiscountry’s fertility. In fact the productivity of this country in silk,cotton, sugar and indigo surpassed Egypt. Everything is in plentyhere. Here there is plenty of fruits fertile, food grain, Muslin, goldentextile and silk” (Majumdar, R.C.).

Worldwide trade brought in gold from far off land such as Romeand other lands leading to the improvement of living standard ofBengal substantially.

Lord Verelest, while discussing the condition of Bengal on theeve of Palassey’s war, states “ Farmers were well off and workerswere enthusiastic, Businessmen were wealthy and Bureaucrats weresatisfied”. (Sinha N.K.,1965).

Wealth of Bengal was described eloquently by Lord Clive. WhenClive entered the old capital of Bengal( Murshidabad,) the wrote“The city (Murshidabad) was as wealthy as London and populous.However the difference is that there are some citizens of this

(Murshidebad) who were infinitely greater wealthy that the citizensof London”.

This brought in greedy hyenas, which started gnawing at thegrowing economy of Bengal.Since the middle of 18th century declineof the economy of Bengal ensued with the severe onslaught by theBritish Colonialist.The following sections discuss the factorsaffecting the rise and decline of Bengal .

Section 1 discusses availability and utilization of mineralwealthin pre colonial bengal .section 2 analyzes development ofagriculture in pre colonial bengal. section 3 discusses growth ofcrafts and industries in bengal. section4 discusses trade,inlandand foreign , of trade,inland and foreign , of pre colonial bengalsection 5 discusses rise and decline of international trade of bengalbefore british colonialism

Availability and Utilization of MineralWealth in Bengal

Arthasastra of Kautiliya(1909 )points to the finding of Diamondin Paundrak and Tripur (Tripure) in Bengal. Jain Acharang statesthat possibily dimond was available in Bajrobhumi in Rar country.There is a mention in Ain-I Akbar of Diamond mines in Mandaranor Garo Mandaran. This was spread in the boundary of westernBihar up to Kokhra. Kauliya names a few types of mineral silvernamed Gaurik found in Gaur.

Bhabishya Purah mentions Iron mines in Jangal Khand in Rarcountry. Iron were melted by prehistoric method. Copper was foundin plenty in Jamshedpur and then in the west crossingChakradharpur. Periplus (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea Ed andTrans from the Greek Wilfred H. Schoff, London 1912 ) mentionspearl of Ganges. Even gold, not of good quality was available.

These minerals were easy to extract.As such these mineral wealthprovided the foundation of one of the richest countries in theworld.These attracted plunderers from all over the world.

CDRBpublication

Asian Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 3 : 5-26, July - September, 2005

Development of Agriculture in BengalThe beginnings of agriculture in Bengal, as in the rest of India,

have to be traced back to the pre-historic past {(Bulletin…Orient),(Chatterji,S.K.)}. Foundations of civilization of India, its village lifebased on Agriculture, is now generally held to have been laid byNishadas or Austric speaking people. The Austric Tribes broughtwith them a primitive system of Agriculture producing a varieties ofproducts. These Austric speaking people developed a large watertransportation system, initially using long Donga (Austric word) madeof sturdy tree stem. These, in turn, laid the foundation of wealthgeneration through trade. In the initial stage both settlement andagriculture followed the courses of the great river-systems of theprovince, which acted as powerful fertilizing agents of the soil intheir neighborhood. With the growth of population, however, (owingpartly perhaps to an increase in birth-rate, partly to immigration)there came about a steady increase in the cultivated area. One candiscern indication of this extension of cultivation in the copper-plateinscriptions of the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries. These instancessuggest the inference that the three centuries, to which theseinscriptions relate, witnessed a steady extension of cultivation andrural settlement. It is possible, though we have no positive evidenceto prove that this movement of agricultural extension commencedmuch earlier, and continued with intermittent force and varying ef-fect from century to century and from region to region. The pressureof a growing population, the growing desire of priests for materialprosperity, and the religious zeal of kings, all served in various waysto organize a widespread attack on some of the 'negative' lands of theprovince, which settlement and agriculture had at first avoided.

But whatever might have been the cause of this extension ofcultivation, there is no doubt that by the seventh century A.D. thebulk of the people had taken to it as the chief means of livelihood.The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang bears testimony to the fact that inall parts of the province the countryside was regularly andassiduously cultivated, and produced grains, flowers and fruits inabundance { Beal, S, ( ed & trans )(1911)}.

The description of Varendrl in the Ramacharita confirms thetestimony of the Chinese pilgrims. { R.C. Majumdar, R. G. Basak and

Nanigopal Basak (1939)}. And so do the copper-plate inscriptionsranging from the 8th to the 13th century, which, moreover, mentionthe cultivators, Kshetra-karah or karshakali, as an important classapart from the officials, Brahmanas and others, and in various waysconvey an idea of the important role they played in the economic lifeof the community.

Concerning agricultural practice, as it obtained in ancientBengal, it is not possible to draw any comprehensive picture. It seemscertain, however, that paddy (dhanya) was cultivated from a remoteantiquity as the staple food-crop of the people. The MahasthanBrahml inscription probably refers to a rice granary located atPudanagala (Pundranagara) (Epigraphia Indica).The Ramacharita (ibid)mentions "paddy plants of various kinds" grown in Varendri. Theinscriptions of the Sena kings mention "smooth fields growingexcellent paddy,” and" myriads of villages, consisting of landgrowing paddy in excessive quantities." (Inscriptions of Bengal,vol iii, by N.G.Majumdar). Kalidasa's Raghuvarhsa affords us a glimpseinto the method of rice cultivation. Describing Raghu's conquest ofthe Vangas, the poet remarks that Raghu uprooted and replantedthem like rice plants. Rice, as is well known, is sown in three differentways— broadcast, by drill, and by transplantation from a seed-bedwhere it has been broadcast sown. Of these the third method is, asa rule, the least risky and the most profitable. That it was knownand practiced in this province at least as early as the fifth centuryA.D. seems clear from the aforesaid statement of the great Sanskritpoet. The different processes of reaping and threshing also appear tohave been similar to those prevailing at present.

Another food-crop cultivated was probably sugar-cane. Theclassical author, Aelian,{quoted in McCrindle(1927 )} speaks of akind of honey expressed from reeds which grew among the Prasioi.Lucan (ibid) says that the Indians near the Ganges used to quaffsweet juices from tender reeds. Susruta (ibid) mentions a varietyof sugar-cane called Paundraka ; and most commentators ofSanskrit lexicon agree it was so named because it was grown inthe Paundra country (North Bengal). These statements, takentogether, naturally suggest the inference that certain species of

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RISE AND DECLINE ASIAN AFFAIRS

sugar-cane were cultivated in Bengal from very early times. It isnot improbable, as a writer has pointed out, that from the termPaundraka have been derived such modern vernacular names asPaundia , Paunda,Pundi etc.— a celebrated variety of sugar-canecultivated in almost all parts of India. Besides the above,contemporary records mention a variety of other crops grown indifferent parts of Bengal. These include malabathrum andspikenard, mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Ed andTrans from the Greek Wilfred H. Schoff, London 1912 ) among theexports of this province. These were obviously of excellent quality,and were grown on an extensive scale in the Eastern Himalayas.Another cultivated crop appears to have been mustard. TheVappaghoshavata Grant of Jayanaga (7th century A.D.) mentionsthe existence of a sarshapa-yanaka' (mustard-channel) in theAudambarika-vishaya of Karnasuvarna (Ain-I-Akbari). Further,epigraphic records, ranging from the eighth to the thirteenth century,tell us that betel-nut palm (guvaka) and cocoanut (Narikela) wereextensively grown. Betel-vines were also cultivated in the form ofplantations (barajas) and formed, under the Sena kings, a source ofrevenue to the state. Cotton was also cultivated to feed animportant industry of the province. Kautilya (Bk. n. Ch. 11)mentions karpasika or cotton fabrics manufactured in Vanga.According to the inscription of Vijayasena (v. 23), ordinary ruralfolk were familiar with seeds of cotton. The early Charya-padas alsorefer to cotton cultivation (BCD. 41). Referring to the people ofBengal, Marco Polo says, "They grow cotton, in which they derive agreat-trade" (Yule, Marco Polo, n. 115). Fruits like mango (amra),bread-fruit (panasa), pomgranate (dalimya), plantain, bassia latifolia( madhuka ), date ( kharjura ), citron ( vija ) and figs ( parkati ) werealso widely cultivated.

Barnier (1656-1668) writes on Agricultural system of Bengal inhis travel account

“ One can see numerous canals from Rajmahal to the sea. Thesehave been dug with hard labour for river traffic and irrigation”.

Chinese traveler Yuan Chwang gives a vivid description ofAgriculture in Bengal. He points to the generation of wealth throughAgriculture, Crops, fruits and flower were growth in plenty.

Growth of Crafts and Industries in Bengal

Periplus describes exported commodities malabathrum andgangetic spikenard, pearls and muslins of the finest sort calledGangetic. It is said that there were sold in mines near the markettown called Ganges. Schoff guesses gold came through Ernnaboasor presently “Son” river. Fame of Textiles of Bengal Muslin, spreadall over the world long before B.C. In fact Mummy has been foundwrapped with Muslin dated 2000 B.C. in Egypt.

Chinese traveler Chao-Ju-Kua ping stated about Kalo orBengal, that excellent swords were made there as well as cotton andother textiles. Towards end of 13th century (1290) Marco Polodiscusses about textiles industry of Gujrat, Kambe, Telungana,Malebar and Bengal. In the 15th century Chinese traveler Ma Huan(1405) came to Bengal. Saifuddin Hamza was then the king of Gaur.Wine was made from Cocoanut,,Rice,Palm and Kajang and wassold publicly.

Urban civilization was founded by long necked Dravidian lan-guage speaking people.Words with urban connotation such asUr,Pur,Kut etc. has come from Dravidian language.Skill in crafts,came from Dravidians.However,the Aryans internalized these andfacilitated the transfer of these techniques.

The most note worthy among the crafts and Industries wereTextiles, Sugar, Metal work, Stonework, Wood work and Pottery.

Textile ManufactureThe history of textile manufacture goes very far into history.There

were four varieties of textile commodity which were produced viz.kshauma, dukula patrorna and karpasika. Kshauma was linen butof a coarse variety, being mixed with cotton. Its chief seats ofmanufacture were Pundravardhana (North Bengal) and Benares.. Apure and finer form of linen was called dukula. It was of threevarieties ; the first, produced in Lower Bengal (Vangaka), waswhite and soft ; the second, produced* in North Bengal (Paundraka),was black and, " as soft as the surface of a gem ;" while the third,

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manufactured at Suvarnakudya in Kamarupa, had the " colour ofrising sun." Patrorna appears to have been wild silk. Amara definesit" as "a bleached or white kausheya" while the commentator saysthat it was a fibre produced by the saliva of a •worm "on the" leavesof certain trees:" The author adds that patrorna was producedin three regions, viz. Magadha, Pundra and Suvarnakudya. It issignificant that wild silk of the best quality is still produced inthese districts. Karpasika obviously meant cotton fabrics. Thesewere manufactured in various parts of India, but Vanga and otherregions, as Kautilya affirms,produced the best quality.It is thusevident that as early as the time of Kautilya Bengal had attained togreat eminence as a seat of textile manufacture. The records of thesucceeding ages tend to show that she retained this eminence downalmost to the beginning of the nineteenth century. It may be notedthat- the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written in the first centuryA.D., includes "muslins of the finest sorts" among the exports ofBengal. Referring to Ruhml (which Elliot identifies with Bengal), theArab merchant Sulaiman wrote in the ninth century A.D. that therewas "a stuff made in this country which is not to be found else-where ; so fine and delicate is this material that a dress made of itwas 3feet in breadth and about 29 feet in length and may be passedthrough, a signet-ring.' Sulaiman added that it was made of cotton,and that he was not speaking from hearsay, but had himself seen apiece of it. Marco Polo, who visited India in the thirteenth century,states that in his time Bengal still plied a lucrative trade in cottongoods. In the fifteenth century Ma Huan, the Chinese traveller,witnessed five or six varieties of textile goods being manufactured inBengal.

SugarAnother industry which seems to have made considerable

headway was sugar. Bengal was probably one of the earliest homes ofsugar-cane cultivation. Susruta (Majumdar,R.C.) mentions that thepaundraka cane (which grew in the Paundra country) were notedfor the large quantity of sugar which they yielded. In the thirteenthcentury Marco Polo noticed that sugar was one of the importantcommodities of export from Bengal. Early in the sixteenth century thePortuguese traveller, Barbosa, found Bengal competing with South

India in the suppiy of sugar to different parts of India. Ceylon, Arabiaand Persia.

SaltThe manufacture of salt by means of evaporation either from

infiltrated sea-water or from subsoil brine was also probably knownand practiced in certain areas. The Irda Plate of the tenthcentury A.D. records the grant of a village in the Danda-bhukti-mondaia of the Vardhamana-bukti along with its salt pits(lavanakarah). It is, therefore, permissible to infer that although themanufacture of salt was known and practised in certain places, atany rate from the tenth century onwards, it.had not developed intoany, considerable industry. The dampness of the climate and thelarge amount of fresh water discharged into the sea by the Gangesand the Brahmaputra might have, hampered the growth of anylarge-scale salt manufacture.

PotteryAmong other crafts, pottery appears to have been practiced on an

extensive scale. A large number of specimens of the pottery-used bythe monks of Paharpur, and dating back probably to the eighth orninth century A.D., have been recovered in recent years. Theseinclude large storage jars, spotted vases or lotas, cooking utensils,dishes, saucers, inkpots and lamps of various designs. The potter'sart is also exemplified by the immense variety of terracotta plaquesdiscovered at Mahasthan (Bogra), Savar (Dacca), Paharpur and otherplaces. Some contemporary inscriptions refer to potters(kumbhakara)1 and potter's . ditch (kumbhakara-garta).Context inwhich these are mentioned seems to show that pottery as anindustry-was conducted from rural settlements for the most part.

Metal-workAlong with pottery, metal-work of various kinds must have been

known, from very early times. No settled agricultural communitycould get on without blacksmiths, whose services were requiredin the manufacture and repair of agricultural implements ; andcontemporary evidence proves that apart from agriculturalimplements, the blacksmiths manufactured other articles of

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general use like water-vessels of iron, and weapons of war such asarrowheads, spear-heads and swords. Besides working in iron, themetalworkers' practiced the "art of bronze-casting with consider-able skill. This is shown by the discovery in different parts ofBengal of a large number of bronze or octo-alloy images, dating fromthe Gupta period onwards.

JewelleryJewellery, too, provided occupation to a considerable group of

metal-workers, for it was the fashion of the rich to use gold andsilver dishes and ornaments made of pearls and precious stonesand metals for personal adornment. The Deopara inscription ofVijayasena mentions "flowers made of precious stones, neck-laces, ear-rings, anklets, garlands and golden bracelets," worn bythe wives of the king's servants. The same epigraph speaks of templegirls "the charms of whose body were enhanced by (the wearing of)jewellery." The Naihati Plate of Vallalasena refers to necklaces ofpearls worn by ladies of royal blood. (Chakravarti,P.C.) TheRamacharita (in. 33-34) mentions "jewelled anklet-bells," "charm-ing ornaments set with diamonds, , pearls, emeralds, rubies andsapphires," and -"'necklaces with central gems and pure pearls ofround and big shape." The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri casually alludes tothe use of "golden and silver dishes" in the palace ofLakshmanasena.(Periplus).

Stone and Wood WorksTwo other categories of craftsmen were the workers in stone

and wood. The numerous pre-Muslim stone images discoveredin Bengal and the beautifully engraved inscriptions on stoneslabs bear eloquent testimony both to the volume and skill ofthe stone-carvers' profession. It has been suggested that theblack chlorite stone, out of which most of these images were carved,was probably obtained from the Rajmahal Hills and carried in boatsto the different centres of the sculptor's art in the province.Incidentally, this throws light on an important article of internal trade.Alongside stone-carving, wood-carving and carpentry also appearto have been practised on an extensive scale, although owing tothe perishable nature of wood only a few architectural specimens of

wood-carving of the pre-Muhammadan period have come down tous . It seems evident, however, that the wood-workers built housesand temples and also manufactured house-hold furniture, boats,ships, and wheeled carriages .

Ship BuildingThere is evidence that there was a successful ship building indus-

try in Bengal building boats,ships both for internal and foreign travelas well as ports.Mukherji gives an account of Indian ShippingIndustry in his book entitled “A History of Indian Shipping”(Mukherii,R. K,1912). We have several references to ships and dock-yards {Pargiter (1895)}.

Ivory-CarvingAnother important industry was ivory-carving. The Bhatera

Plate of Govinda-Kesava mentions an ivory-worker (dantakara) byname, while the Edilpur Plate of Kesavasena refers to "palanquinssupported by staffs made of elephant's tusk."

Minor ArtsAmong minor arts, crafts, professions and industries may be

mentioned those of scribes, florists, garland-makers, conchshell-workers, braziers, goldsmiths, painters, masons, oilmen, fishermen,washermen, barbers, butchers, distillers of wine etc. who formed somany distinct castes . As regards fishery, we get additional evidencefrom the land-grants, some of which refer to the right of fishing asincluded in the grant.

Concerning the, nature and organisation of industrial labour,we hardly know anything definite. There are certain statements,however,occurring here and there in the inscriptions, which suggestthe inference that the workers in various trades and industrieswere organized in some kind of corporate groups. There arereferences to the trade and craft-guilds in Bengal in the fifth andsixth centuries A.D.

Trade, Inland and Foreign of BengalThe high antiquity of Bengal's inland and foreign trade is proved

by the Jataka stories, the accounts of Strabo and Pliny, and the

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Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Two factors seem to have promotedthis early growth of commerce,—first, the qualitative andquantitative development of Bengal's industries, and secondly, theunrivalled facilities for movement afforded by the sea-coast andriver-systems of the "province.

Internal TradeThe chief routes of internal trade were probably the waterways

of the province, in proximity to which stood the principal towns.The role of the rivers in the economic geography of Bengal cannotbe over-estimated. They fertilized the soil by the silt which theycarried ; they eliminated, to a large extent, the need for artificialirrigation : and being navigable far inland throughout the year,they served as 'corridors' or 'natural routes' for long-distancetraffic. It is probable enough, although statistical data arelacking, that throughout the ancient and mediaeval periods theybore the greater part of the inland traffic of the province. Apartfrom the rivers, a certain amount of trade probably passed alongland-routes. The itineraries of Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang point tothe existence of such land-routes connecting some of theimportant cities of the province. The Chittagong Plate of Damodaramentions a public road (raja-patha) passing by the side of avillage. In recent years Mr. K. N. Dixit has discovered theremains of two ancient embanked roads in the neighbourhood ofDhanora.

Foreign TradeMajor ports were located on the coast from Sind to Ganga port

and Tamralipti There were twenty small / big sea ports. Romangold came to coastal India through ports of western India such asVirgi Kachcho Shurashtro, Kalyan etc. Land routes included .fromeastern coast of China, through desert of Central Asia, Afghanistan,Iran to Mediterranean.

Bengal's foreign trade may be traced back to at least four or fivecenturies before the birth of Christ. Strabo refers to the "ascent ofvessels from the sea by the Ganges to Pali-bothra,"(McCrindle) .Conversely, a number of Jataka stories mention merchants and

businessmen taking ships at Benares or lower down at Champa(modern Bhagalpur), and then either coasting to Ceylon oradventuring many days wthout sight of land to Suvanjabhumi.ThePeriplus of the_Erythraean Sea proves that Bengal maintained anactive overseas trade with South India and Ceylon in the firstcentury A.D. The commodities exported are said to have consisted ofmalabathrum, Gangetic spikenard, pearls, and muslins of thefinest sorts. They were all shipped from a 'market-town' called Gange(probably the same as Tamralipti), and carried in vessels describedin the Periplus as 'colandia.' Marco Polo mentions Sugar as majorexports from Bengal in 13th Century.Portuguese traveler Barbosatalks about competition between South India and Bengal in Sugartrade to Ceylone.Arab and Persia.Pliny points out in the firstcentury the amount of textiles which the western traders carriedwas worth about one lakh gold coin.(Pliny, 1st Century). Yuan Chwangalso describes the import of huge amount of valuablegoods,stones,ornaments etc. (Beal-Records, 200-201).Because ofwealth generation the Traders were powerful in thesociety.(Roy,1982).

In later centuries the overseas trade of Bengal seems to haveincreased both in volume and extent. This is probably the chiefreason of the phenomenal growth of Tamralipi "as a port of "first- ""rate importance. It is hardly necessary to stress the fact that in allperiods the city which controlled the mouth of the Ganges wascommercially the most important in Eastern India. There was asuccession of such dominant cities: Tamralipti down almost to theend of the-Hindu period; later, Saptagrama till the close of thesixteenth century ; then Hooghly, and finally Calcutta.

The fame of Tamralipti as an emporium of trade spread all overIndia and even far outside its boundaries. Hiuen Tsang notes that"wonderful articles of value and gems are collected here inabundance, and therefore the people of the country are in generalvery rich" (Beal-Records, 200-201). According to the Katha-sarit-sagara, Tamralipti was pre-eminently the home of rich merchants,who carried on overseas trade with such distant countries as Lankaand Suvarnadipa (ibid. 175), and used to propitiate the sea with

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jewels and other valuable articles to ensure safe voyages across(ibid. 72).

Taking Tamralipti as the centre, and radiating from it there arethree principal routes of overseas trade. The first led in asoutheasterly direction past the coast of Arakan to Burma andbeyond. Most of the early voyages from Tamralipti to Suvarnabhumiwere probably made along this route. But there was a second line ofoverseas trade with the Malaya Peninsula and the Far East. Shipscame along the coast up to Paloura, near modern Chicacole, andthen proceeded right across the Bay of Bengal. This was known toPtolemy in the second century A.D. By the seventh century shipssailed directly from Tamralipti to the Malay Peninsula. An interest-ing account of this route is preserved by I-tsing in his biography ofHiuen-tsang, who made a direct voyage from Keddah to Tamralipi.

The third line of trade led in a south-westerly direction past thecoasts of Kajinga and Coromandel to South India and Ceylon. Asalready said, use of this route is mentioned in the Jatakastories and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Pliny also refers toit adding that ‘the island of Ceylon was thought to be twenty days'sail "from the country of the Prasioi,". The distance cameafterwards to be reckoned at a seven days' sail, according to therate of speed of our ships.’ In the early years of the fifth centuryA.D., the Chinese pilgrim, Fa-hien, embarked at Tamralipti onboard a great merchant vessel and sailed to Ceylon en route toChina, the voyage taking "fourteen days and nights." From theitinerary of I-tsing we learn that in the latter part of the seventhcentury numerous other Chinese pilgrims traveled along thesame route in their voyages to and from India.

Besides the sea-routes, there seem to have been a numberof land-routes by which Bengal's foreign trade was carried.One of these was the route which connected Pundravardhana withKamarupa. It was along this route that Hiuen Tsang journeyedto the latter kingdom in the seventh century A.D. From veryancient times Kamarupa was noted for her textiles, sandal andagaru, and it seems likely that these were taken to the main centres

of business in Northern India along this highway of traffic. ButKamarupa was not the terminus of this route, for it seems to haveextended eastwards to South,China through the hills of Assam orManipur and Upper Burma. This is testified to by the famous re-port which Chang-kien. the Chinese ambassador to the Yue-chicountry, submitted in 126 B.C. When he was in Bactria he wassurprised to find silk and bamboo which came from the Chineseprovinces of Yunnan and Szechwan. On enquiry he was told ofthe rich and powerful country of India across which the caravanscarried these products from southern China to Afghanistan. Thisroute evidently continued in use till the ninth century A.D., and wasjoined by another from Annam. Kia Tan (785-805 A.D.) describesthe land-route from Tonkin to Kamarupa, which crossed theGanges to Kajangal, and finally reached Magadha, (Majumdar,R.C.Champa).

More celebrated and frequented, however, was the line of tradewhich led westwards from various points in Bengal and joined thenetwork of highways which converged at Benares. The Kaiha-sarit-sagara mentions merchants travelling from Pundravardana toPataliputra. I-tsing, who landed at Tamralipti in 673 A.D., says thatwhen he left the sea-port, "taking the road which goes straight tothe west," many hundreds of merchants accompanied him in bjgjourney to Bodh-Gaya. A rock inscription of a chief namedUdayamana, which has been assigned on paleographical groundsto the 8th century A.D., reveals that merchants from such distantplaces as Ayodhya used to frequent the port of Tamralipti forpurposes of trade. These western routes formed the principal meansof communication and also the grand military routes betweenBengal and Northern India.

A third line of overland trade seems to have led through thepasses of the Himalayas, past Sikkim and Chumbi Valley, to Tibetand China. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea bears testimony tothe fact that as early as the 1st century A.D. "raw silk, silk yarn andsilk cloth" came into Bengal from China and were re-exported to"Damirica by way of the river Ganges." It is not impossible thatmuch of this stuff came in along this line of trade. In later period

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this route became the great highway of Buddhist pilgrim-travelbetween Magadha and Tibet. Horses in large number appear to havebeen imported into Bengal along this track. Referring to a townvariously named as Karbattan, Kar-pattan or Karambatan, whichhas not yet been satisfactorily identified, but which was obviouslylocated somewhere at the foot of the Himalayan range, theTabaqat-i-Nasiri says :

"Every morning in the market of the city, about fifteen hundredhorses are sold. All the saddle horses which come into the territoryof Lakhnauti are brought from the country. Their roads pass throughthe ravines of the mountains, as is quite common in that part of thecountry. Between Kamrup and Tibet there are thirty-five mountainpasses through which horses are brought to Lakhnauti."

A fourth overland route ran southwards, along the Kalinga coast,to the South Indian peninsula.

Trade was well managed.There were customs-officers calledvyapara-karantfaya or vyaparantfya in the two grants of the time ofDharmaditya, and vyaparaya-viniyukta in the Grant of Gopachandra.These were, as Pargiter points out, obviously officials "charged withthe duty of looking after trade"{Pargiter (1895)}.

Rise and Decline of International Trade ofBengal Before British Colonialism

Living standard of Bengal started improving from the middle of1st century.The land of Bengal was turned into a golden land from4th and 5th Century. The main reason was the development of seatrade. Even before that the country had a business relationship witheastern Mediterranean countries. But the trade was mainly in thehands of the Arabs. But from 50 A.D. India and Rome got into directcontact. Gold continued to flow into India from Rome. Pliny stated ifthe flow of gold continues to be like this then there will be no goldleft in Roman Empire. However, Trade with Rome started to declinesince 475 A.D. through to half of 7th century. Since the advent ofIslam Arab trade started to rise from 606-7 A.D. Within 100 years

Arab merchant ships and navy almost covered India & Pacific oceanMediterranean and Red sea.

The Devastation of the Economy of Bengal byBritish Colonialism

Industrial revolution in England led to mass production of cheaptextiles. It could not compete with Indian textiles – Muslin, Calico.East India company, set up in 1600, lobbied to ban calico and puthigh tariff on Muslin. English expedition found route to India andultimately conquered Bengal in 1757.

East Indian company’s commercial activities led to damage ofindigenous industrial and trading activities. Such destructiveactivities included :- cutting of fingers of Nakod (Muslinproducers),particularly the British looted the factories of Armeniantraders at Sayedabad and imprisoned the factory workers.(Bolt ) .British Colonists did every thing possible to quash the growth oflocal Indian entrepreneurs. There was huge grabbing by employeesof East Indian company , of the products of local producer’s at cutthroat prices. “The English employees of East Indian company werebuying and selling betel nut, ghee, rice, fish, jute, garlic, sugar,tobacco etc. at only quarter price. They used to snatch thesecommodity at these prices”.( Dutt Rajani Pam, 1947).

Taxes were put on transport of industrial production of locallyowned industries. When such entrepreneurs tried to increase thespeed of local production British industries tried to quash theIndian industries As Earl of Shafts Bury points out “ We must bearin mind that India has the raw material and cheap labor, and if weallow the manufactures to work their operatives 16 or 17 hours andput them under no restrictions, we are giving them very unfairadvantage over the manufacturers of our country ( England ) andwe might be undersold in Machester itself by manufactured goodsimported from the East. (Bose,Sanat Kumar 1980). These stepsinitiated the decline of the Bengal’s Industrial sector

Lord Cornwalis developed a new land rent system in1793entitled Permanent settlement in which the tenure of land was

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delared secure.Lord Cornwalis stated in a speech(Tripathi,1956).“There is every ground to expect that the large capitals possessedby many of the natives will be applied to the purchase of landedproperty as the tenure is declared to be secure” From the beginningthe noveau Zamindars did not live in the villages nor did they in-vest money in land development.They employed middlemen whotortured farmers and imposed excess rent .According to clause 7imposed in 1799 zamindars were given the power to take away theland of the defaulting farmers.

Exploitation of the farmers by the absentee Zamindars and theirmiddle men initiated the decline of agricultural sector of Bengal(Government of Bengal ,1940) .This was accentuated by Indigocultivation.Kuthials of indigo kuthis led to inhuman exploitation ofthe farmers.In 1770 there was a huge famine and large number ofpeople died. Rbellians such as Sanyasi rebeller Titumir’s bambookiya, sipahi Rebelllians ( 1857 ) led to a conflagaration Whichaccentuated the decline of indigenous economy of Bengal.

The colonialists,did bring in technology and education.(such asTextile Mills,Railway,Telegraph, Jute mills,ChemicalIndustry,Printing industry, Leather Industry, Rice and wheatmill,Matches etc.).This was brought in at the expense of the existinggrowth process by a competing nation(England) who almost de-stroyed the indigenous agriculture ,industry and trade inBengal.World wide trade was routed to the mother country(England).

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