SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis aims at analysing the inter-connection between trade and finance in the Bengal Presidency between 1793 and 1833 - a period of transition from monopoly to free trade and of rapid growth of the British Empire in India. The introduction explains the original contribution of the thesis. The first Chapter gives an account of the vicissitudes of trade and finance between 1785 and 1793 which forced the Company to allow remittance of private fortunes through a definite portion of its tonnage. The second Chapter describes the breakdown of this arrangement under the impact of war in India and Europe. The private traders demanded cheaper freight and Wellesley, pressed by military exigencies, allowed private trade in Indian ships to secure cheap capital from England and to scotch clandestine trade through the foreigners. The old shipping interest defeated this plan. The third Chapter describes the effects of the Maratha War and stagnation of trade on the Company's home finance which led to the abolition of its India monopoly. The fourth Chapter deals with the effects of free trade speculations and Hastings's imperial and financial policies registered in the fall of exchange and exodus of capital. The fifth Chapter describes the financial policy which ended in a hectic indigo speculation, the Burma War which caused scarcity of capital, the trade depression which combined with them to destroy the agency houses inspite of Bentinck's efforts and the abolition of the China monopoly. The conclusion analyses the effects of the British impact on the -Indian economy. The thesis is based on manuscript official records of the Company, the private correspondence and papers of Dundas, Wellesley, David Scott, Bentinck, Ellenborough etc., the Palmer Papers, the Bengal Commercial Reports, the Bengal Financial Letters and Enclosures and the contemporary pamphlets, books, journals and vernacular newspapers.