Merchants, Politics and Society in Early Modern India: Bihar: 1733-1820 (Brill's Indological Library, Vol 10)

This monograph deals with the social and political context of commercial activity in early modern India - a period during which Eastern India (and Bihar) experienced the transition to British colonial rule. As a point of departure from existing scholarly literature that usually studies this transition in material terms, this volume uses an approach that takes into account the configuration of social relations and political connections within which, it argues, commercial activity was embedded. Using merchants and bankers as its subjects, this book deals with the structure of trade and banking, the position of merchants in the cultural order and the role of the state in perpetuating this order. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Illustrations Introduction I. The Setting: The Region, the Polity, the Commercial System and Cultural Antecedents II. Rural Trade: Structure, Working and Forms of Control III. The Politics of Big Business IV. Plassey and Its Aftermath V. Rural Trade and Early British Rule VI. Big Business in a New Environment VII. The Banking Business VIII. Business, Politics and Society Conclusion Appendices A. Detailed Breakdown of Sair Duties Collected by Maharaja Kalyan Singh from the Parganas Included in His Paruchina Mahal of Zilla Bihar Per Annum B. Cotton Piece-Goods Supplied by Patna Merchants to the English Company, 1774–1780 Select Glossary Select Bibliography Index This work provides important new perspectives on the social and political context of commercial activity in early modern India and the transition to British colonial rule.