Economic History of Bengal 3 PDF

Identifying the woes of the cotton textile industry in Bengal: tales of the nineteenth
century
Author(s): INDRAJIT RAY
Source: The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 62, No. 4 (NOVEMBER 2009), pp.
857-892
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Economic History Society
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Economie History Review, 62, 4 (2009), pp. 857-892
Identifying the woes of the cotton textile

industry in Bengal: tales of the
nineteenth century
By INDRAJIT RAY
This article seeks to answer three basic questions about the nineteenth-century
cotton textile industry in Bengal that still remain unresolved in the literature; namely,
when did the industry begin to decay, what was the extent of its decay during the
early nineteenth century, and what were the factors that led to this? In the absence of
data on production, this article seeks to settle the debate on the basis of the industry's
market performance and its consumption of raw materials. It contests the prevailing
hypothesis that the industry's perpetual decline started in the late eighteenth or the
early nineteenth century. Instead, it is argued that the decline started around the
mid-1820s. The pace of its decline was, however, slow though steady at the begin
ning, but reached crisis point by 1860, when around 563,000 workers lost their jobs.
Regarding the extent of its decay, this article concludes that the industry was
diminished by about 28 per cent by the mid-1800s. However, it survived in the
high-end and low-end domestic markets. Evidence is also gathered in favour of the
hypothesis that, although British discriminatory policies undoubtedly depressed
the industry's export outlet, its decay is better explained by technological innovations
in Great Britain.
The decline
discussed of Bengal's
in many cottoncontexts;
historiographical textileforindustry
example, as anin the nineteenth
illustration of century is
the technological triumph of Great Britain in the literature on the industrial
revolution,1 as an example of de-industrialization and 'dependency' in neo
marxian literature,2 and, indeed, in Indian historiography.3 But there is confusion
about the periodicity of the event. The decline started, according to some, in the
second half of the eighteenth century.4 The cut-off year is 1793, according to
Sinha;5 around 1800, according toTwomey;6 and 1813, according to Dutt.7 Farnie
writes, 'They [cotton weavers in Bengal] ceased to decline in number, apparently
after the crisis of the 1820s, and may well have swelled their ranks, though
1 See, for example, Mantoux, Industrial revolution, p. 238.

2 Brewer, Marxist theories of imperialism, pp. 49-56.
3 Dutt, Economic history of India, vol. 1, pp. 176-82.
4 See Sinha, Economic history of Bengal, vol. I. He notes, 'The theory of steady but continuous decline
of Bengal's weaving industry in the second half of the 18th century is not true of this quinquennium [1785-9]'
(p. 170).
5 He observes, '[I]n 1793 though the Indian handloom weavers were cursing their lot, they could never think
that the process of their wholesome extinction had begun' (ibid., p. 180).
6 According to Twomey, '[T]he re-exported part of Indian shipments to England continued to rise up into the
1790s, while the (relatively smaller) domestic English market was already falling by then due to accelerating home
production. By the turn of the century, English goods clearly dominated the world market' ('Employment', p. 39).
' Dutt, Economic history of India, vol. 1, pp. 204-5.
? Economie History Society 2009. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main
Street, Maiden, MA 02148, USA.
858 INDRAJIT RAY
probably not in proportion to the growth of population'.8 There is also debate

regarding the extent of the ruin suffered by the industry. Sinha, for instance,
considers the ruin to have been 'complete',9 whereas Iftikhar-ul-Awwal argues that
the industry survived on a diminishing scale throughout the nineteenth century.10
Competing hypotheses have also been advanced to explain why the industry
languished in the nineteenth century. In contrast to Dutt's supposition that dis
criminatory British textile policies led to its decay,11 Gadgill suggests that market
forces?like the decline in demand as a consequence of the fall of noble courts,
changes in preference under foreign domination, and the availability of cheap
machine-made products during the industrial revolution?are better explana
tions.12 This article seeks to settle these questions by analysing the industry's
market performance and its consumption of raw materials.
There are six sections in what follows. Section I briefly describes the state of the
industry prior to 1757 from the viewpoint of its marketability in overseas outlets.
Section II documents the export trend of cotton piece goods from this province
during the period 1757-1860 along with the direction of trade. It also analyses
the trend of imports in cotton textiles so that the domestic marketability of the
industry can be comprehended. Couched with these data and information, the
article proceeds to address three important issues that have been identified above;
namely, (a) the commencing period of the industry's decay; (b) the extent of decay
that it suffered during the first half of the nineteenth century; and (c) the factors
that led to the decay. Sections III, IV, and V study these respective issues. Major
conclusions are contained in section VI.
I
Cotton was cultivated in many districts of Bengal, with great variations both in
quality and yield. Because of its qualitative variations, Bengal's cotton texti
industry obtained raw materials locally for a wide range of cloths, ranging fro
coarser varieties for the use of poor people to the finest calicoes and muslins tha
were celebrated across the world. Some varieties of Bengal cotton, according to
Joseph Bebb, a resident of Dacca, were superior even to the cotton of Sura
although this was not the prevalent contemporary view, perhaps because of their
lack of exposure in international trade.13 The best crop was produced in an
around Dacca under the local nomenclature, phottee. 'The delicate fabrics
Dacca', according to the Board of Trade, 'were at all times manufacture
entirely from the cotton of that district, which is the finest of all the cotton
8 Farnie, English cotton industry, p. 102.

9 Sinha, Economic history of Bengal, vol. Ill, p. 4.
10 Iftikhar-ul-Awwal, Industrial development of Bengal, pp. 196-7.
11 Dutt, Economic history of India, vol. 1, pp. 179-80.
12 Gadgill, Industrial evolution of India, pp. 35-48.
13 West Bengal State Archives, Calcutta (hereafter WBSA), Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 25 Jun
1791. A government document notes, 'The bairati kupas, the finest variety, perhaps, of the Eastern cotton
[gossypicum herbaceum], is produced only in small quantity in the districts north-west of Dacca, and is nev
exported, I believe, as an article of commerce. Its favourite site seems to be the high banks of the Ganges, and it
tributaries' (Reports and documents, p. 158).
? Economie History Society 2009 Economie History Review, 62, 4 (2009)
BENGAL COTTON TEXTILE INDUSTRY 859
produced in India, and is probably the finest in the world5.14 The phottee was
harvested twice a year, in April and in September, similar to other varieties in
Bengal, and was used only after a year had passed, so that the threads did not
swell after being woven into fabrics. The quality of this crop varied from place
to place. While the best quality was obtained in the eastern neighbourhood of
Dacca in and around Sonargaon, the seat of the most celebrated muslins, the
quality deteriorated in the south-east, and further west and north-west. This
cotton was, however, used in weaving fine muslins like mulmuls, allabalies,
dooreasj terrindams, tanjibs, serbetties, and nyansooks.15 Other finer cottons
included the barrabunga of Malda and the nurma of both Malda and Burdwan,
which were also woven into fine muslins such as nyansooks, mulmuls, serbetties,
and doodras. The kaur of Radhnagar was another cotton variety, famous for its
softness and strength, which meant that it was suited for the production of finer
textiles. Coarser varieties included, for example, the birreta of Malda and
Haripal, and the muhree and the bhogee of Burdwan and Radhnagar (the latter
was cropped in Haripal as well). These were woven into guzzees, gurrah, dimities,
and coarser muslins. Bengal's range of cotton varieties was thus sufficiently
diverse to cater for various segments of her textile industry.16
'From the days of Chandergupta Mauriya (fourth century BC)', writes Bal
Krishna, on the strength of Kautilya's authority, 'the textile industry was the
mainstay of Bengal'.17 The industry's survival into the seventeenth century is
demonstrated by the travelogues of contemporary Europeans, like the Dutchman
J. H. Linchosten at the end of the sixteenth century, and the Frenchmen F. Bernier
and F. Pyrard in the seventeenth century.18 Contemporary workmanship in Bengal
was described as so skilful 'down to the smallest stitches, that nothing prettier is to
be seen anywhere'.19 Pyrard commented that Bengal textiles were 'so fine that it is
difficult to say whether a person so attired be clothed or nude'.20 Because of
inadequate production data, however, this article will analyse the industry's per
formance before 1757 on the basis of trade statistics, which are related mainly to
the English East India Company, as it was the arbiter of this industry for the
following hundred years. The Dutch trade will only be addressed briefly. However,
this is not intended to belittle the role of other European traders and Indian
merchants in the trade. In fact, the Portuguese traders pioneered the long-distance
trade by bringing Bengal textiles at the Golconda port of Masulipatam and other
coastal markets along the Coromandel, whence, as Arasaratnam notes, 'Bengal
textiles were re-exported to South East Asia and to the Persian Gulf by a variety
of Coromandel merchants'.21 The Dutch, who succeeded the Portuguese,
advanced this trade by venturing directly to Asian markets from their factory at
14 'Memorandum on the present state of the culture and trade of cotton in the East Indies', Letter from the
Secretary, Court of Directors, to the Secretary, Indian Board, 5 Sept. 1826, Reports and documents, no. 57,
pp. 117-32.
15 For a brief discussion on different varieties of cotton, see 'Minute of a Committee of Correspondence',
30 Jan. 1829, Reports and documents, no. 63, pp. 152-70, esp. pp. 153-62.
16 On the production system in the Bengal cotton textile industry, see Hussain, 'Alienation of weavers', p. 342.
17 Krishna, Commercial relations, p. 29.
18 For a brief discussion of this issue, see Raychaudhuri, 'Non-agricultural production', pp. 268-73.
19 Pyrard, Voyage, vol. 1, p. 329.
20 Ibid., p. 329.
21 Arasaratnam, Maritime India, p. 158.
860 INDRAJIT RAY
Hugh, and subsequently to Europe.22 With regard to domestic traders, there are
many secondary sources that show how they carried out maritime trade in cotto
during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, sometimes in cooperation with con
temporary European traders, and sometimes in competition with them.23
In its early years, the English East India Company was not interested in India.
Instead, it targeted the spice trade from the Indonesian archipelago, but later turned
to India because Indonesian spices could be procured only in exchange for Indian
cotton textiles.24 Opening a factory at Surat, where there was a great market for
Indian textiles, the company procured Indian piece goods, partly in order to
exchange them for Indonesian spices, and partly for direct sale in Europe. This
business was subsequently interrupted because of the increase in textile prices at
Surat, possibly as a result of the Deccan war, and also at Coromandel, where calicoe
had caught the company's attention by that time. In a letter to the factory in Surat,
the company's Court of Directors wrote, c[C]allicoes in general were in tymes past
a maine support of that Indian trade . . . Since they have declyned in goodness and
increased so much in their prises, they are nowe become here att a stand at their
use . . . and other countrie cloathing, being better made and cheaper, succeeds in
callicoes roome'.25 In order to continue Indian business under those circumstances
the company paid attention to the procurement of textiles from Bengal. In fact, for
some time Sir Thomas Roe, an English diplomat who was the first among th
English to recognize Bengal's exportable merchandises, had been arguing in favour
of setting up a factory in Bengal, and also in favour of the sale of English woollen
in Bengal. When his colleagues at Surat disagreed with him, he observed, c[T]hat
Bengale should be poor I see no reason; it feeds this country with wheat and rice; i
sends sugar to all India; it hath the finest cloth and pintadoes, mask, civitt and amber
. . . \26 The argument was strengthened by the continuing price increases a
Coromandel, evidently in the range of 50-100 per cent, although Bengal textiles
continued to be 'wondrous cheap', and could be traded profitably in Europe as well
as in the Persian Gulf and south-east Asia.27 The company's first factory in Benga
was set up at Hugh in 1651.
The company's trade from Hugh was initially unimpressive: only 8,000 pieces
were exported in 1658, and 15-18,000 pieces in each of the following three years.28
With the abatement of the financial crisis in 1664, it grew rapidly and reache
123,000 pieces in 1678-9. Along with Hugh, Dacca supplied the bulk of the
company's merchandise in this period; it supplied, for example, 15,000 pieces in
1664, compared to 29,000 pieces in aggregate from Bengal.29 In light of the better
quality and abundance of the local produce, the company set up its second factory
in Dacca in the late 1660s. Subsequently it also became interested in Malda, wher
fabrics made of cotton mixed with silk were manufactured. This was known as
22 Prakash, Dutch East India Company, pp. 37-40, 60-1.

23 Chaudhuri, From prosperity to decline, pp. 128-30. See also his 'European companies', pp. 321-2, in which he
estimates that the total value of textile exports by Asian merchants in that period was S.Rs2-3 million yearly from
Malda alone.
24 Chaudhuri, From prosperity to decline, pp. 27-8.
25 Quoted in Krishna, Commercial relations, p. 93.
26 Quoted in Chaudhuri, Trade and commercial organisation, p. 13.
27 Ibid., p. 23.
28 Krishna, Commercial relations, app. A, p. 301.
29 Chaudhuri, Trade and commercial organisation, pp. 44-5.
Maldahi cloth, and British consumers evidently preferred it. A Court of Directors'
letter to the Hugli factory in 1677 states, c[T]he [Malda] goods of which you sent
us musters are very well liked here and therefore we have ordered a large quantity
thereof to be provided . . . '.30 With three factories in operation from 1680, the
company's export business from Bengal grew rapidly. From 123,000 pieces in
1678-9, it grew to 207,000 pieces in 1680-1, and 718,000 pieces in 1683.31 For
the period 1678-83 as a whole, the average growth rate was 96.75 per cent per
annum. The trade, however, fell thereafter following the company's hostilities with
the Mughal administration. It was reduced to 175,000 pieces in 1686-7 and
397,000 pieces in 1688.
This success in the British market was due to the growing popularity of oriental
style in contemporary British society. The East India Company had promoted this
trend by tacitly using the image of King Charles II as the 'brand ambassador'.
There is evidence that during 1660-83, it gifted around ?324,150 worth of various
Indian fabrics to the King who, 'in return, was pleased to be seen in an oriental
style waistcoat, confirming the desirability of Indian fabrics to all aspirants of
fashion'.32 These fabrics became so popular in Britain that a contemporary pam
phleteer wrote that they had 'crept into our houses, our closets and bedchambers;
curtains, cushions, chairs, and at last beds themselves were nothing but callicoes
and Indian stuffs'.33 This trend met with considerable protest from British textile
interests,34 who had already obtained some protection from Queen Elizabeth I.35
On this occasion, Parliament imposed a duty of 10 per cent ad valorem on Indian
calicoes and muslins in 1685.36 This duty was officially intended to finance the
war with France, and hence was a temporary measure, intended to last for five
years. However, in 1690, instead of being annulled, it was actually increased to
20 per cent, and perpetuated later on as 'the old impost'.
These protections had virtually no long-run impact on the trade. Data compiled
by Chaudhuri show that the export of Bengal piece goods by the East India
Company increased from ?9,339 in 1692-3 to ?70,490 in 1695-6, and further to
?144,441 in 1699-1700.37 India's export of white calicoes alone, according to
Krishna, was 247,214 pieces in 1698, but 853,034 pieces in 1699, and 951,109
30 Quoted in ibid., p. 50.

32 Lemire, Fashion's favourite, p. 15.
33 Quoted in Douglas, 'Cotton textiles in England', p. 29.
34 For many years, the English woollen industry had enjoyed state protection against foreign competition,
especially the competition from Holland. According to Wilson, 'Cloth production', p. 221, the 'English Govern
ment could do little directly to reduce the cost of loan capital to the entrepreneurs, however much Restoration
publicists might propose and counter-propose. They could, on the other hand, manipulate economic conditions
to a debateable extent through protective tariffs, subsidies and raw material controls. In a situation where 'natural'
advantages and disadvantages were pretty evenly distributed, the kind of intervention urged by writers from Mun
to Downing may well have had an important influence on the pattern of cloth production in both Holland and
England'.
35 O'Brien, Griffiths, and Hunt, 'Political components', p. 398, note, 'The first act designed to narrow the
market for cotton cloth appeared in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, precisely when textile imports
from Asia (silks as well as cottons) increased at an unprecedented rate . . . Representatives of the woollen (and
silk) industries concentrated, however, on trying their position in the home market, their largest and most easily
defended market. The beginning of concern can be detected not long after the Restoration when Parliament
responded with a symbolic Burial Act of 1666, renewed in 1678'.
37 Chaudhuri, Trade and commercial organisation, app. B, tab. 5, pp. 257-8.
862 INDRAJIT RAY
pieces in 1700.38 These data confirm that 'the old impost' could not restrict the
import of Bengal piece goods into Great Britain. While describing the failure of
duties to impact on the fashion for Bengal textiles, a pamphleteer writing in 1696
noted, ' [F] ashion is truly termed a witch; the dearer and scarcer any commodity,
the more the mode; 30s. a yard for muslins: and only the shadow of a commodity,
then procured'.39 Having failed to reduce the flow by tariff, Parliament sanctioned
statutory prohibition of certain imports in 1700. By an act of that year (11 & 12
Wm. Ill, c. 10), the import of all painted, dyed, and stained calicoes from India was
prohibited from 29 September 1701, cso as none of the said goods should be worn
or used, in either apparel or furniture, in England on forfeiture thereof, and also of
?200 penalty on the persons having or selling any of them'.40 However, provision
was made in the act for importing those products for re-export. In accordance with
another act of 1700 (11 & 13 Wm. Ill, c.3), for the interim period from 26 March
1700 until 28 September 1701, products imported for re-export were to attract an
ad valorem duty of 15 per cent. Notwithstanding the transient nature of its original
enactment, this sanction was continued for muslins by various acts of Parliament,
and made perpetual in 1714. The white calicoes that were not affected by these
acts were made subject to a 15 per cent duty by another act of 1703.
These protections depressed the trade only temporarily. The value of textile
exports from Bengal was ?41,760 per annum during the period 1702-7 (with the
exception of 1703-4),41 as against ?196,950 in 1700-1; but its previous momen
tum was regained within a decade. It rose to ?203,196 in 1710-11 and ?297,500
in 1719-20. Parliament, therefore, intervened again because of ensuing public
unrest.42 By an act of 1720 (7 Geo. 1, c.7), they 'absolutely prohibited the wear and
use of. . . calicoes painted, stained, or dyed in India, under the penalty of ?5 for
each offence on the wearer, and of ?20 on the seller'.43 But this act also failed to
yield the desired outcomes.44 Table 1 supports this conclusion.
Imports of two prohibited textiles from India, stained calicoes and sooseys, grew
rapidly during the period 1720-44. Compared to the quinquennial average for
1715-19, Britain's import of stained calicoes increased until 1744 at an average
rate of 23.86 per cent per annum, and that of sooseys, woven mainly at Hugh and
Balasore, at 16.46 per cent per annum.45 Both of these series, however, depressed
during 1745-54 on account of the contemporary political environment in Bengal.
The English East India Company thus firmly established Bengal textiles in
Europe?a task that the Dutch East India Company had pioneered. Going hand in
hand with the Dutch Company during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, the English Company took a definite lead in the trade from the 1720s.
According to Prakash, it ordered 463,000 pieces of cotton textiles (including
mixed goods; that is, fabric made from cotton mixed with silk) in 1720, and
38 Krishna, Commercial relations, app. C, pp. 308-9.

39 Quoted in ibid., p. 258.
41 Chaudhuri, Trade and commercial organisation, app. B, tab. 5, pp. 257-8.
42 Mantoux describes it thus: 'Trouble broke out in several places. The weavers, exasperated by continued
unemployment, began to attack in the streets people dressed in cotton material, tearing and burning their cloths.
Houses were even broken into and sacked' (Industrial revolution, p. 200).
44 For a brief review of these acts, see Smelser, Social change in the industrial revolution, p. 53.
45 See also Krishna, Commercial relations, app. C, p. 308-9.
Table 1. Imports of prohibited textiles into Great

Britain (annual average number of pieces)
Period Stained calicoes Sooseys
1715-19 43,108 8,115*
1720-4 134,280 11,031
1725-9** 169,816 13,417
1730-4 164,624 12,267
1735-9 221,209 19,795
1740-4 300,280 41,516
1745-9 252,869 23,143
1750-4 189,554 10,702
Notes: * Excluding 1715; ** excluding 1728 (as the figures for these years were
unreliable).
Source: Compiled from Krishna, Commercial relations, pp. 309-10.
622,000 pieces in 1733, in comparison to the orders of 317,000 and 238,000

pieces respectively by the Dutch Company.46 The difference increased in the
following decades.Their respective businesses were 747,000 and 353,000 pieces in
1740, and 788,000 and 281,000 pieces in 1750.
Two facets of the Dutch trade should be emphasized in this context. First, the
Dutch Company had been extensively involved in intra-Asian trade, especially
with the Indonesian archipelago, Japan, and Persia, since 1690. Data compiled by
Chaudhuri show that the company annually exported more than 215,000 pieces
within Asia during 1730-5.47 Batavia accounted for about 54 per cent of this
trade. The shares of Japan and Persia stood respectively at 21.42 per cent and
6.07 per cent.The trade became depressed thereafter, falling to 129,000 pieces per
annum during 1740-5, and 86,000 pieces per annum during 1750-5. It should be
noted that Bengal's intra-Asian trade in cotton textiles continued through the
mid-nineteenth century, with varying degrees of prosperity.
Secondly, the Dutch Company encountered much less state intervention than
its English counterpart. From 1643 onwards, there were indeed several attempts
by domestic silk interests, especially from the provinces of Haarlem and Amster
dam, to acquire a ban on the import of Eastern textiles.48 In 1694-5, the repre
sentatives of Haarlem in the States-General even decided to oppose the renewal of
the company's charter on the issue of the ban. Later, a compromise was reached,
with the result that it became mandatory for equal amounts of cotton yarn and
piece goods to be imported. The Company did not, however, import any signifi
cant amount of cotton yarn, using various excuses such as poor quality and higher
prices. The Dutch tariff policy on textiles was indeed so soft that even England
re-exported textiles to Holland.
Bengal's cotton textiles were thus severely discriminated against in the interna
tional market because of the consolidation of their trade under the aegis of the
English East India Company. However, before 1757, the industry was able to
overcome these hurdles, and occupy a place of prominence on the global map of
the textile trade.
46 Chaudhuri, From prosperity to decline, p. 184.

47 Ibid., p. 197.
48 Prakash, Dutch East India Company, pp. 206-7.
864 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 2. Exports of cotton piece-goods from Calcutta port (in pieces)

5-year moving 5-year moving
Year Total export average (in 'OOOs) Year Total export average (in 'OOOs)
1795- 6 2,372,957 1813- 14 1,083,517 2,680

1796- 7 2,395,655 1814- 15 3,583,732 2,952
1797- 8 2,656,220 3,215 1815- 16 4,595,380 3,625
1798- 9 3,049,359 3,390 1816- 17 4,474,706 4,052
1799-1800 5,602,961 3,799 1817- 18 4,389,022 3,836
1800- 1 3,244,620 4,086 1818- 19 3,217,615 3,501
1801- 2 4,442,460 4,063 1819- 20 2,503,197 3,062
1802- 3 4,091,280 3,555 1820- 1 2,920,593 2,677
1803- 4 2,936,340 3,394 1821- 2 2,278,432 2,839
1804- 5 3,060,310 3,069 1822- 3 2,466,186 2,931
1805- 6 2,442,770 2,529 1823- 4 4,026,241 2,760
1806- 7 2,812,700 2,477 1824- 5 2,963,377 2,679
1807- 8 1,392,571 2,534 1825- 6 2,069,329 2,539
1808- 9 2,676,845 2,548 1826- 7 1,864,688 2,064
1809- 10 3,344,000 2,609 1827- 8 1,773,385 1,569
1810- 11 2,516,251 2,535 1828- 9 1,499,667
1811- 12 3,115,313 2,216 1829- 30 636,282
1812- 13 1,023,783 2,265
Source: S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II, app. 31, pp. 841-916, esp. pp. 883-7.
II
The post-1757 period brought further prosperity to Bengal's cotton textile indus
try, as a result of foreign demand. From an annual level of 390,390 pieces during
1750-1 to 1754-5,49 the company's export of cotton textiles rose to 839,905
pieces in 1793.50 This represents a growth rate of 115 per cent. Even if the export
of the Dutch Company is considered for the previous period, the aggregate comes
to 658,948 pieces, so that a growth rate of more than 27 per cent is implied.51 The
industry seems to have prospered further in the 1790s. Table 2 shows that the level
of exports was 182 per cent higher in 1795 than in 1793. For the period 1793-9
as a whole, an annual growth rate of 94.52 per cent prevailed.
Both demand- and supply-side factors contributed to this prosperity. On the
supply side, the business network that the East India Company developed in
Bengal in its early years of dominance provided definite stimuli to the industry. By
1793, it had a trading network across as many as 17 districts, so that procurement
was maximized and business was diversified. Table 3 details the company's
network of trade, as it stood in 1793, and shows the extent of diversity in its textile
trade in Bengal. Prices computed from these data confirm that the best textiles
were procured from Dacca and Keerpoy, where the average price was over S.Rs
(Sicca Rupees) 20 per piece. Other textiles may be classified into four price
categories: (1) S.Rs8.80-10.70 for the textiles of Commercooly, Cossimbazar,
Hurriul, Haripal, and Malda; (2) S.Rs7-8 for those of Midnapore, Santipore,
Galagore, and Benaras; (3) S.Rs4.20-6.40 for those of Mundalhat, Sonamookhi,
Luckipore, and Patna; and (4) the lowest prices for Rangpore and Chittagaon.The
table also reveals that the company's trade in this period was concentrated on

50 WBSA, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 7 July 1793.
Table 3. Investment list of the East India Company for cotton piece goods, 1793
Estimated Estimated
Value average price Value average price
Places Pieces (in S.Rs) (in S.Rs I piece) Places Pieces (in S.Rs) (in S.Rs/piece)
Luckipore 156,900 839,273 5.35 Sonamooky 59,800 323,454 5.41

Dacca 40,500 829,224 20.47 Cossimbazar 29,340 291,022 9.92
Malda 65,700 583,303 8.88 Hurriaul 29,400 271,887 9.25
Golagore 71,700 529,601 7.39 Mundalghat 31,800 202,407 6.36
Keerpoy 26,000 529,601 20.37 Chittagaon 45,500 155,384 3.41
Haripal 52,950 470,631 8.89 Midnapore 14,450 114,104 7.90
Benaras 63,100 448,866 7.11 Rangpore 38,000 108,260 2.85
Patna 96,850 414,287 4.28 Commercolly 3,500 37,307 10.66
Santipore 53,700 405,152 7.54 Total 879,190 6,553,763 7.45
Source: WBSA, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 29 Nov. 1792.
coarser textiles. In 1793, it invested S.Rs3.28 million in the fabrics in the

S.Rs4.20-6.40 and S.Rs7-8 price ranges, whereas the fabrics of the price range
S.Rs8.80-10.70 attracted S.Rsl.65 million. Its investment in the best-quality
fabrics that Dacca and Keerpoy manufactured was only S.Rsl.36 million.
Secondly, there were certain changes in British policies that stimulated private
trading in this period. In the first place, ships built in the East Indies (Bengal ships
included) were declared eligible for enrolment in the British register under the Act
of 1794.52 They were also permitted for employment in British trade by a tempo
rary amendment of the Navigation Act in 1795 for the duration of the French War
and 18 months thereafter. Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of India, extended
this facility twice by administrative orders in 1798-9 and 1799-1800 before it was
made permanent in the Navigation Act of 1801-2. This new policy eased the
availability of shipping tonnage in Calcutta, and, at the same time, reduced freights
in the Calcutta-London sector. The British 'free' traders, who obtained only a
limited amount of space on the East India Company ships, and that too at
exorbitant freights, greatly benefited from this reform. Secondly, the Warehousing
Act came into force in Britain in 1799, allowing warehousing of Bengal's cotton
piece goods, subject to 'small duties' on importation. Additional duties were to be
paid in case those were cleared for domestic consumption. While analysing the
importance of these policy changes, a government source notes, 'This great
increase in the Export of Piece goods to London, is partly to be attributed to the
indulgence granted by this Government to Bengal chartered ships in 1798-99, but
principally to the Warehousing Act, passed by the British Legislature in 1799'.53
Because of these new facilities, private traders could participate in Bengal's textile
trade on a large scale. Table 4 shows that during the period 1796-7 to 1798-9, the
private traders annually exported S.Rs3.37 million worth of Bengal textiles to
England, and S.Rs 18.95 million to 'foreign' Europe and America, aggregating to
S.Rs22.32 million. Increasing by more than 140 per cent during the following
three years, the aggregate value became S.Rs53.85 million per annum. In this
respect, Brown, writing about Bengal trade in 1802-3, noted that 'The Export of
52 For details about the changes in the British Navigation Act and their effects on Bengal trade, see Ray,
'Shipbuilding in Bengal5, p. 84.
53 Report of external commerce (RR 1812-13, VIII), p. 3.
866 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 4. Exports of cotton piece goods on private account (in S.Rs)

Year London Foreign Europe and America
1796-7, 1797-8, 1798-9 (annual average) 3,366,990 18,949,426

1799-1800, 1800-1, 1801-2 (annual average) 11,088,934 42,759,648
1803- 4 4,872,016 N.A.
1804- 5 1,228,637 N.A.
1805- 6 331,582 N.A.
1810-11 1,977,861 N.A.
Source: Extracts from the reports of the reporter (P.P. 1812-13, VIII).
Piece Goods is greater than was ever before known in Private Trade'.54 Many
foreign ships were also employed for this purpose. One contemporary observer
wrote that 'Every foreign ship importing bullion into Calcutta brings this bullion
principally for the purpose of exchanging it for the piece-goods'.55 Thanks to
burgeoning private export, cotton textiles worth about one million pounds sterling
were reportedly available on call from local merchants at Calcutta.56
On the demand side, in the global market there was a definite tilt in favour of
Bengal textiles. Consumers in the USA, as in continental Europe, increasingly
acknowledged that Bengal textiles were 'better adapted to the climate than Irish
linens', with the result that Bengal's textile market expanded there.57 According to
a reporter writing about external commerce, 'The exports have been gradually
increasing since 1792, owing to the preference given in America to goods manu
factured from cotton ... It is supposed, that a very considerable part of the Piece
Goods laden during the last season, will be reshipped from America to France and
other ports which may appear equally favourable for their disposal'.58 While the
market for Bengal textiles was thus expanding in America, and via America, in the
Continent, demand was also brisk in England, and this occurred despite Britain's
overall trade depression in the wake of ongoing French hostilities. The Court of
Directors observed in 1800, 'Considering the depressed state of Affairs in Europe
our sales and particularly of Piece goods have equalled every expectation that could
be reasonably formed'.59 In another letter of 1802, the Court commented, 'The
quality of last year's import of Bengal Piece goods was in most instances highly
approved . . . [T]hey have been sold at satisfactory rates'.60 Bengal's export demand
thus grew in the 1790s, both in consolidating and diversifying the market. Table 6,
which documents textile demand by country, shows that during the second half of
the 1790s Europe and America were the main buyers of Bengal textiles, with Asian
countries lagging behind. During this period, European countries annually
imported 1.40 million pieces and America 987,000 pieces, whereas the annual
import of Asian countries was 825,000 pieces on average. In Europe, Bengal textiles
54 Extract from Brown's report on external trade, 1802-3, in Extracts from the reports of the reporter,
(P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 18.
55 'Summary report on the cotton trade of India', 30 April 1802, Reports and documents, no. 15, p. 24.
56 Extract from Brown's report on external trade, 1802-03 (P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 17.
57 Report of external commerce (P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 3.
58 Ibid., p. 3.
59 WBSA, Court of Directors' commercial letter, 7 May 1800, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial),
9 Dec. 1800.
60 WBSA, Court of Directors' general letter, 30 June 1802, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 11 Feb.
1803.
found the largest market in Portugal, followed by Denmark, the United Kingdom,
and Germany, in decreasing order. Among Asian countries, the largest quantity was
consigned to the Gulf, while Penang, Manila, Pegue, and Sumatra followed.
Depression arrived for the first time in this trade in 1803-4. The year witnessed
a striking fall in exports, and this trend continued (see table 2). Five-year moving
averages of total exports from Bengal, as shown in the last column of table 2,
indicate that the series nosedived relentlessly during this period. Annual exports on
private accounts, shown as S.Rsl 1.09 million per annum for 1799-1800 to 1801-2
in table 4, declined by about 97 per cent and stood at only S.Rs332,000 in 1805-6.
Prices decreased, but this did not increase demand. Larkings's report on external
trade confirms, cTwo years experience has clearly proved, that the low prices of
cotton piece goods did not increase the consumption in 1805'.61 The same report
records that prices fell by 30 per cent in 1805-6.62The sources, however, identify two
factors for this setback. First, as the Napoleonic War entered its final phase, France
effectively banned the import of goods manufactured in Great Britain and its
colonies, disrupting the trade between England and the Continent.63 Because of this
'continental blockade', Bengal textiles could not find outlets from Great Britain,
and, consequently, grew in stock. The stock at London amounted to 31,000 bales
(or 3,410,000 pieces) in 1805.64 Secondly, for the first time the industrial revolution
in Great Britain began to marginalize Bengal cotton textiles in the international
market. There was reportedly a mushroom growth of cotton mills in England, and
also in France, where cotton threads were spun, and muslins and calicoes were
woven with high-productivity machines. As those machine-made products were
offered at lower prices, the textiles from Bengal lost their competitive edge. An
observer noted, ?[T]he weavers [in England] have succeeded in imitating with so
much exactness the fabrics of Bengal (particularly our coarse and middling assort
ments of muslins) that there is every reason to believe, our trade in muslins of this
description, whether for the home or foreign markets, must inevitably dwindle to
nothing'.65 From its peak of 4.09 million pieces in 1800-1, as table 2 shows, the
moving average fell to 2.22 million pieces in 1811-12.
This long-lasting depression ended only after the cessation of the French hos
tilities. There was a revival in the series in 1814-15, and it remained buoyant for
three consecutive years. The moving averages in table 2 indicate that there is a
slight downward tilt in the series after 1818-19, decelerating at a compound rate
of less than 2 per cent per annum during the period 1819-25. A distinct decline is
apparent thereafter. Whether the export level underwent a further revival will be
discussed later on. We only note here that the industry's revival in 1814-15 (that
is, just after the cessation of the French hostilities) suggests that the depression that
occurred in Bengal's textile trade during 1803-13 should not be explained as a
fall-out of the industrial revolution in Great Britain. The Anglo-French war pro
vides a more plausible explanation.
61 Extracts from Larkings's report on external trade, 1804-5, in Extracts from the reports of the reporter
(P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 22.
62 Extracts from Larkings's report on external trade, 1807-8, in Extracts from the reports of the reporter
(P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 28.
63 Extracts from Larkings's report on external trade, 1804-5 (P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 22.
64 Ibid., p. 18.
65 Ibid., p. 23.
868 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 5. Cotton piece goods brought into the

Calcutta port from the interior of the province
Year Pieces Year Pieces
1812- 13 4,000,954 1821-2 3,934,953

1813- 14 2,779,579 1822-3 3,977,034
1814- 15 3,451,685 1823-4 3,781,144
1815- 16 5,588,766 1824-5 2,440,833
1816- 17 7,868,791 1825-6 3,431,109
1817- 18 5,797,979 1826-7 2,627,231
1818- 19 4,175,171 1827-8 1,872,318
1819- 20 4,622,433 1828-9 1,698,803
1820- 1 3,586,330 1829-30 1,334,395
Source: S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. 2,
app. 34, no. 1, pp. 926-7.
There is another source that provides data over the period 18

on the arrival of cotton piece goods at the Calcutta port from t
province of Bengal. In addition to being exported abroad, th
were surely meant for the coastal trade in India as well. Table 5 d
which behaves similarly to the previous one. Trade is seen to be
in the previous series, during the culmination of the French
reviving during 1814-25, and again depressed thereafter. This
declines at a slower rate of 15.28 per cent per annum during th
compared to 17.31 per cent per annum in the previous one, poss
inclusion of domestic coastal trade.
Table 6 presents annual five-year averages of Bengal's exp
country during the period 1795-1830 (shown in appendix 2).Thi
the following conclusions. Firstly, the period of depression wa
and America, with average annual rates of decline being 7.55 an
respectively in 1815-29, in contrast to 1.23 per cent in Asia
asymmetric incidences of depression, Asia became the largest m
absorbing 68.38 per cent of Bengal's exports, compared to 32.80
prior to this. Secondly, the traditional markets in Asia, such as t
Penang, continued to be the main consumers even in the lat
Chinese market, though modest, grew steadily from 1815-16. O
Manila were severely depressed. Thirdly, the American mark
support to Bengal textiles during the crucial years of 1800-9, de
during the early 1820s, and became dormant afterwards. Lastly
a greater than 50 per cent drop in intakes during the late 1820
continued to have a large market share in Bengal textiles. In 18
second-largest market in Europe and the sixth-largest in the wo
The British market, however, underwent a compositional chang
Table 7 shows that in 1814 the trade was dominated by white c
past the British dyeing industry used to print. Exports of this
substantially in 1815-19, causing the aggregate export to be high
ing setbacks in the exports of muslin and coloured calicoes. Wh
white calicoes from Bengal also declined in the following p
market became almost extinct. During 1836-9, it annually im
pieces on average from Bengal.
? Economic History Society 2009 Economic History Review, 62, 4 (2009
Year UK America Denmark Portugal Brazil Java Mauritius Manila China Penang Sumatra Pegu Arabia and Persia
ge annual exports of cotton textiles from Bengal, by country (in '000 pieces)
1805-9 83 1,417 0 323 0 13 13 169 59 172 28 12 249
1810-14 170 492 0 177 400 113 113 203 34 166 78 27 332 1820-4 239 133 8 391 218 137 137 128 76 242 29 6 582
1825-9 117 14 5 144 186 88 88 57 99 231 8 34 318
1815-19 198 827 36 853 540 84 84 203 32 118 71 16 541
1795-9 193 987 218 830 0 0 0 171 2 292 40 62 258
1800-4 1,029 1,220 117 654 0 24 24 71 57 263 30 31 173
Source: Calculated from app. 2.
870 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 7. Exports from Bengal to London on private account, by commodity (in pieces)
Period Muslin White calicoes Coloured calicoes Romals Total
1814 2,610 60,077 6,145 68,832

1815-19 (annual average) 2,235 81,612 3,988 969 88,804
1820-4 (annual average) 514 15,031 1,437 804 17,786
1825-9 (annual average) 2,316 26,043 2,406 7,044 37,809
1830-3 (annual average) 3,911 375 4,286
1836-9 (annual average) 1,189 1,360 1,094 450 4,093
Source: Papers submitted by R. M. Martin, S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), apps. 65 and 66, pp. 626-8.
Bengal's cotton textiles also stagnated elsewhere in the global market around the
mid-nineteenth century, so that its aggregate export dwindled. The annual export
level, as reported in appendix 3, was 244,000 pieces in 1859-60, compared to
5.60 million pieces during 1799-1800. In other words, Bengal retained only
around 4 per cent of its former export level. The loss was even greater in terms of
monetary value; this stood at S.Rs665,000 in 1858-9, which is only 1.56 per cent
of its 1799-1801 level.66 Greater erosion in value signifies debasement in the prices
of Bengal cotton textiles during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Alongside the erosion of exports, the industry started to lose its domestic market
to competition from imported textiles. In 1780, Bengal received samples of clothes
from Manchester for the first time, 'as well as those of Halifax and Norwich',
through the captains of the East India Company's ships. Such practices were
indulged by the Court of Directors, in spite of their concern for the well-being of
native weavers. They recommended that British piece-goods should be sold in
Bengal 'without interfering with or proving injurious to the interest of the native
manufacturers, whom we [the Court of Directors] conceive ourselves likewise
bound to protect to the utmost of our power'.67 Nevertheless, the company
explored the market at the request of Henry Dundas, the Secretary of State at the
Board of Control, who wished 'to make their territories more advantageous to
British manufacturing interests',68 and later expressed his satisfaction when the
company was successful.69 Early import data for Bengal are not, however, readily
available. Data compiled by Dutt show that Britain's exports east of the Cape of
Good Hope during 1794-1813 show a gain in momentum in 1797.70 In that year,
the value of exports rose to ?2,510 from ?156 three years earlier. It then steadily
increased to ?108,824 in 1813. According to a similar series, as reported by
Wright, British exports increased from 1,304 yards in 1793 to 15,006 yards in
1797, and further to 282,392 yards in 1812.71 Although this shows considerable
growth in the British cotton textile industry, two qualifications should be noted.
Firstly, British textile exports seem insignificant in comparison to Bengal's exports
during the same period. Bengal's textile export level was 4.75 times greater than
that of Great Britain in 1813. Secondly, since the series refer to the entire region
east of the Cape of Good Hope, Bengal's in-take should be much less than the
66 Report on the external commerce of Bengal (1859-60).

67 Quoted in Wright, East Indian economic problems, p. 192.
68 Ibid., p. 192.
69 Ibid., p. 216.
70 Dutt, Economic history of India, vol. 1, p. 176.
71 Wright, East Indian economic problems, p. 240.
Table 8. Imports of cotton goods into Calcutta on

private account (in ?)
Year Value Year Value
1813- 14 91,835 1822-3 2,577,279

1814- 15 43,346 1823-4 3,716,278
1815- 16 261,846 1824-5 4,627,765
1816- 17 313,102 1825-6 3,665,461
1817- 18 1,120,909 1826-7 3,804,022
1818- 19 2,655,192 1827-8 4,930,139
1819- 20 1,585,890 1828-9 ?
1820- 1 2,555,908 1829-30 5,061,861
1821- 2 4,681,870 1830-1 5,818,247
Source: S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II,
app. 4, pp. 504-90, esp. p. 516.
Table 9. Imports of cotton piece goods into India (in Rs

Year Value Year Value Year Value
1833- 4 6,584,211 1839-40 16,469,602 1845-6 27,027,195

1834- 5 7,544,640 1840-1 23,730,568 1846-7 28,543,595
1835- 6 8,976,239 1841-2 21,231,786 1847-8 21,125,787
1836- 7 11,275,986 1842-3 23,099,466 1848-9 21,362,263
1837- 8 11,558,425 1843-4 27,421,866 1849-50 33,151,733
1838- 9 13,695,047 1844-5 32,607,129 1850-1 35,819,958
Source: Quantity and value of calicoes (P.P. 1852-3, XCIX), pp. 4-5.
series would suggest. Even in 1813-14, Bengal imported on

cotton textiles on the private account (see table 8).
Imports grew by leaps and bounds from 1817-18. From ?31
they grew to ?2.55 million in 1820-1 and ?5.82 million in 18
changes accompanied this growth. Earlier, checked and dyed
over the white and plain varieties. They accounted for 605,0
yards in 1814, and 9.71 million yards and 9.42 million y
tively.72 The former, however, stagnated at 12.41 million y
years, but the latter increased to 30.41 million yards in 18
yards in 1835. Presumably because of rural consumers' ap
colours and designs, plain textiles were increasingly imported,
after being dyed locally.73
Imports since 1833-4 are reported in table 9. They represen
a whole where, as the contemporary figures indicate, the Cal
more than 65 per cent.74 From this series it appears that th
textiles in India decelerated over the years. It grew annually at
1830s, but this had decreased to 10.13 per cent by the 1840s
Bengal imports, as documented in table 10, show that a g
8 per cent prevailed in the 1850s.
72 Paper submitted by R. M. Martin, S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII),
74 Quantity and value of calicoes (P.P. 1852-3, XCIX), paper no. 645, pp. 2-3.
? Economie History Society 2009 Economie History Review
872 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 10. Imports of cotton goods into Bengal, 1851-60 (in S.Rs)
Year UK North America Others Total
1851- 2 30,380,141 420,574 238,544 31,039,199

1852- 3 19,603,548 415,947 143,495 20,162,990
1853- 4 23,637,906 290,464 339,355 24,267,725
1854- 5 30,243,475 288,949 408,601 30,941,025
1855- 6 31,454,509 198,609 457,515 32,110,633
1856- 7 30,900,254 348,881 466,152 31,715,287
1857- 8 28,075,059 236,012 332,422 28,643,493
1858- 9 44,466,753 526,708 1,060,463 46,053,924
1859- 60 57,405,881 472,647 859,089 58,737,617
1860- 1 53,002,820 210,977 825,636 54,039,433
Source: Report on the external commerce of Bengal (1852-3, 1854-5, 1856-7, 1858-9, 1859-60).
Most of the consignments imported by Bengal came from Great Britain, which
supplied more than 97 per cent in the 1850s. North America was also a regular
supplier, but its share was less than 1 per cent in this period.
III
In the absence of year-wise production data, we analyse the demand for Bengal
cotton in overseas and domestic markets in order to pinpoint the beginning of the
industry's decline, as well as to ascertain the impact of this decline on employment
opportunities during the first half of the nineteenth century. Bengal's export series
for 1795-1859 is constructed on the basis of available data with the following
adjustments: (1) the series for 1795-182975 is given in two units: pieces for some
years and bales for some other years (a conversion rate of 1 bale =110 pieces is
adopted here, following Moreland,76 to present the entire series in numbers of
pieces); (2) India's export series for 1833-4877 is adjusted by a factor of 0.85 since,
as noted earlier, Bengal's cotton export generally constituted more than 85 per cent
of India's aggregate cotton export; these adjustments yield 178,000 pieces for
1851 and 224,000 pieces for 1852, as against the actual values of 173,000
and 236,000 pieces for the respective years;78 (3) the series for 1795-1829 is
extrapolated to 1832-3 by the compound rate of change prevailing between
1829-30 and 1833-4; and (4) the value series for 1853-6079 is converted into a
75 S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II, app. 31, pp. 841-916.
76 Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb, p. 340.
77 Quantity and value of calicoes (P.P. 1852-53, XCIX), pp. 4-5.
79 Report on the external commerce of Bengal (1854-5, 1856-7, 1858-9, 1859-60) provides the following valu
of export from Bengal:
Year Value (in S.Rs)

1853- 4 371,792
1854- 5 570,929
1855- 6 489,789
1856- 7 695,730
1857- 8 674,981
1858- 9 665,949
1859- 60 470,936
wm-r~-~ :- - .. ' - . ^ - j ~*Expo?

21,000 - *w**?fltt
20,000- j
19,000- j
18,000- J
0,000- J
16,000- I
15,000- ?
14,000 - }% \
jkM0r'. ; ': . ? ill
I^-;:. im
l^iyjQo- fill
pij^r :-. PI I
I ,ft000- v. * ^ I *
^^^^
Figure 1. Trends of exports and imports in Bengal, 1795-1859
quantity series on the basis of an average price of S.Rsl .93 per piece which prevailed
during the 1850s.80 The resultant series for 1795-1859 is shown in appendix 3.
Figure 1 represents the series.
Looking at the entire period from 1795 to 1830, we see an unusually bad
sustained period centred around 1810. This period coincided with the intensive
phase of the Anglo-French wars, when France successfully imposed the 'European
blockade'. As the hostilities ceased, we see an apparent recovery to more typical
conditions, continuing until the mid-1820s.The series fell below its 1795 level only
in 1825. From 2.96 million pieces in 1824, the export became 2.69 million pieces
in 1825 and 0.64 million pieces in 1829. It stagnated at between 250,000 and
350,000 pieces during 1832-59. We therefore conclude that Bengal's export
market for cotton textiles started to decay after 1825.
This setback in the export trade alone could not, however, usher in an equivalent
decline in the Bengal cotton industry as a whole, as it was not entirely export
based. The decline of the domestic market was an equally important factor.

874 INDRAJIT RAY
Analysis of Bengal's import trade during this period sheds light on the extent of the
industry's losses in the domestic market.
Figure 1 shows the trends in Bengal's imports of cotton textiles. It is based on
time series for 1813-59 in terms of pieces. The series is constructed as follows. We
first construct the series in terms of rupee value. Data sets for 1813-30 and
1851-9 are readily available (tables 8 and 10 respectively). For 1833-50, import
figures for India (table 9) are adjusted by a factor of 0.65, in light of the corre
sponding share of the Calcutta port in the country-level import of cotton textiles.81
Bengal's import data for 1851-9, however, also incorporate imports from India's
other provinces, such as Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon. The resulting bias seems,
however, not to be significant as the aggregate share of these provinces was less
than 1 per cent during this period. The series is then converted into numbers of
pieces, using Cuenca Esteban's price series for British cotton textiles.82 This price
series, available up to 1831, is extrapolated to 1860 using Sandberg's price index
for British cotton textile exports.83 Lastly, the missing data for 1824, 1831, and
1832 are interpolated by using the compound rate of change. The resultant time
series is shown in appendix 3.
Foreign textiles made their presence felt in Bengal only in 1817. In that year, the
province imported 141,000 pieces, as against 34,000 pieces in the previous year.
Figure 1, however, shows that although import levels grew modestly until 1839,
the rate of growth was accelerated thereafter. While in 1839 the import level was
2.95 million pieces, it became 5.06 million pieces in 1840 and 20.47 million pieces
in 1859. Fitted trends of the series for two separate periods, 1813-39 and 1840-59
(not presented), show that the slope coefficient was only 93.2662 in the former
period, but as high as 662.6499 in the latter.
Since imports are indicative of the depth of the domestic market, the import
export statistics suggest that the overseas outlet was less significant to the industry
than its domestic counterpart.84 Bengal's export level rose to 5.60 million pieces in
1799-1800, whereas at its height imports exceeded 20 million pieces in 1859.
Ignoring the growth of the domestic market in the meantime, this signifies that
exports constituted around 20 per cent of the industry's market, even under the
heroic assumption that imported goods had entirely invaded the domestic market
by 1859. Total disappearance of the export trade could thus only have upset the
industry by one-fifth at the most. The weight of evidence is thus against the
prevailing hypothesis that 'In Bengal the hand-loom weavers apparently suffered
less from the threat of alien competition than from the exclusion of their products
from the markets of Europe'.85 This sort of conjecture holds good only for places
like Dacca where weavers concentrated exclusively on finer textiles. They had
81 This is derived from the quantities and values of imports, as available in various issues of Report on external
commerce of Bengal (1850-1, 1852-3, 1854-5, 1856-7, 1858-9, 1859-60).
82 Cuenca Esteban, 'British textile prices', pp. 71-3. Cuenca Esteban's methodology has, however, been
challenged by Harley, who believes that '[A]lthough cotton textile prices declined dramatically relative to other
prices, Cuenca greatly exaggerated the scale of the fall' ('Cotton textile prices', p. 49). Our estimated volume of
import indeed suffers from an upward bias to the extent of the downward bias in Cuenca Esteban's estimates. For
Cuenca Esteban's view on Harley's observation, see his 'Further evidence of falling prices', esp. p. 147, and
'Factor costs, market prices, and Indian calicos', esp. pp. 749-53.
83 Sandberg, 'Movements', p. 10.
84 The author is indebted to an anonymous referee of this journal for suggesting this point.
already lost the demand of the noble courts for their products; the fall of the
European market removed the last plank of their support. For the industry in
general, however, available import-export statistics indicate that foreign competi
tion in the domestic market better explains the downfall.
Import statistics have some limitations. For one thing, there is no additional
information to confirm that all imported textiles were sold in the markets to which
Bengal catered. They might have been dispatched by land to other provinces of the
country. In fact, Farnie observes, 'The exact influence of that commercial revolu
tion [following the industrial revolution in Great Britain] upon her [Bengal's]
native crafts remains a highly contentious issue in the absence of adequate con
temporary evidence'.86 Secondly, as Morris points out, Bengal's domestic market
might have expanded during that period such that imported products catered
mainly to the additional market.87 In that case, growing import levels caused the
industry only to stagnate. While the import statistics suffer from these limitations,
there is some evidence in support of the hypothesis that certain segments of the
domestic market remained beyond the ambit of imported articles. In the case of
finer textiles, for example, Bengal retained its reputation for excellence. According
to a source dating from 1804-5, 'Our finer assortments of muslins the manufac
tures of Europe can never attempt to imitate with any probability of success'.88
While corroborating this view, a Commons Committee of 1834 noted, Tower
looms have not hitherto been found generally applicable to the production of fine
cloths, or what are called fancy goods. The demand for these fluctuates consider
ably, and is at times greater than can be readily supplied'.89 Because of its com
parative strength, Britain's handloom sector survived through 1834. There is
evidence that the supply of weavers in that period fell short of what was needed to
meet the demand for handloom textiles in Great Britain.90 Macgregor observed,
'While the number of power-looms has been multiplying so fast [in Great Britain],
the hand-looms employed in the cotton manufacture are believed not to have
diminished between 1820 and 1834, but rather to have increased'.91 Since Brit
ain's handloom textiles could withstand competition from power-looms, it would
be naive to argue that Bengal's handloom textile industry declined.92 In fact, the
industry had an added advantage in that it designed and dyed the products
according to local taste. British textiles, on the other hand, were unable to satisfy
Indian consumers, who appreciated simple designs and the subdued harmony of
86 Ibid., p. 99.
8/ Morris, 'Towards a reinterpretation', pp. 612-13.
88 Extracts from Larkings's report on external trade, 1804-5 (P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 23.
89 Quoted in Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, pp. 508-9.
90 A witness before the Commons' Committee on Hand-loom Weavers (1834) revealed that he was ready to go
nine miles in either direction of his establishment to get weavers. See Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, p. 509.
91 Ibid., p. 508.
92 Mechanized weaving could not compete with the handlooms in the fancy textile sector even in 1840. In that
year, Martin observed, 'In England, I believe, the finest species of muslins are woven by the hand-loom weavers'
(S.C. on East India produce, (P.P. 1840, VIII), Q.3,910).The question that England confronted around that time
was whether the English domestic handloom sector should be protected from the competition of Bengal weavers.
On this subject, Martin pointed out, 'If it [the viability of the domestic handloom sector] is only to be retained
at the expense of injustice to India, my answer is that, England ought to act with justice, no matter what the result
may be. That she has no right to destroy the people of a country which she has conquered for the benefit of
herself, for the mere sake of upholding any isolated portion of the community at home' (ibid., Q.3,919).
? Economie History Society 2009 Economie History Reviezv, 62, 4 (2009)
876 INDRAJIT RAY
colour appropriate to the brilliant sunlight.93 Of the British colours, only 'Turkey
red5 was appreciated in this market. Farnie adds, 'The hand-loom weavers were
. . . sustained by the strength and inelasticity of feminine demand, particularly fine
and fully finished fabrics. They designed their products to meet the exact needs of
their customers in the most conservative of the markets and profited by the sheer
incapacity of Britain to rival in quality the muslins of Bengal'.94
Bengal textiles also dominated the domestic low-price market. This was largely
due to low per capita money income in Bengal associated with the 'decided
objection' of local people to the use of British textiles.95 During the hot and dry
summer season, when agricultural work was suspended, farmers wove at home,
and there was a captive village market for them. As Medlicott wrote in 1862,
c[T]he Bengali cultivator prefers (even although it costs him more) the cloth made
from the produce of his field, spun in his house, and woven in his village to all
others; that which ranks next in his estimation being manufactured by the neigh
bouring weaver from imported yarn; while its greatest cheapness is his sole induce
ment ever to use the manufacture of Europe'.96 These comments suggest that
imported textiles could not significantly penetrate the vast low-price market of
Bengal.
We now seek to assess, decade by decade, the impact of changes in the quantity
of imports and exports on employment figures for the industry.97 Annual average
changes per decade are first calculated for both of the series since 1810, from
appendix 3. From these figures we estimate, by using norms of average output per
loom, the number of looms that might be required to produce the decreased
amount of exported textiles and the increased amount of imported textiles. Since
the imported textiles were predominantly inferior in quality, we consider that each
loom yielded 80 such cloth pieces annually, a figure that Prakash has employed for
Bengal's ordinary calicoes.98 In the case of exportable textiles, the norm is calcu
lated at the weighted average of cloth-wise output per loom; namely, 15 pieces for
muslins, 36 pieces for fine calicoes, and 80 pieces for ordinary calicoes.99 The
proportions of these varieties in Bengal's export trade during 1836-9 (that is, 1.19,
1.09, and 1.36), are employed as their respective weights (see table 7). The
weighted average comes to 45.57 pieces per loom per year. In order to derive
employment opportunities provided by the operation of these looms, we note that
in the early 1940s, cotton spinning, sizing, and weaving using 113,969 looms
accounted for the employment of 151,484 full-time workers, 50,495 part-time
workers, and 151,551 assistants.100 These data yield the average employment per
loom at 1.33, 0.44, and 1 for the respective categories of workers. Table 11
estimates the trade-induced curtailment of employment in this province.
93 Wynter, Curiosities of toil, pp. i, 155, 160.

95 Evidence of Thomas Bracken, S.C on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. 1, Q. 1,818,
p. 152.
96 Medlicott, Cotton handbook for Bengal, p. 46.
97 The author is indebted to an anonymous referee of this journal for suggesting this point.
98 Prakash, Dutch East India Company, p. 243. Prakash's estimation of employment generation in Bengal has
been criticized by Chaudhuri, 'European companies', pp. 323-40, but his criticism concerns the method of
estimating by square yards, not by number of pieces. See Prakash, 'On estimating the employment implications',
pp. 345-6. The present study, however, uses the method of estimating by number of pieces.
99 Prakash, Dutch East India Company, p. 243.
100 Report of the fact-finding committee, pp. 30, 35, 37.
Table 11. Fall in employment in the Bengal cotton textile industry, 1810-59
Fall in employment
Rise in import Fall in export Requirement -??
Period ('000 pieces) ('000 pieces) of looms Full-time Part-time Assistant Totat
1810-19 103? (-) 6C 1,156 1,537 509 1,156 2,948
1820-9 624 800 25,355 33,722 11,156 25,355 64,655
1830-9 1,103 1,944 56,448 75,076 24,837 56,448 143,943
1840-9 4,722 169 62,733 83,435 27,602 62,733 159,969
1850-9 6,218 (-)117 75,158 99,960 33,070 75,158 191,653
Total 293,730 97,174 220,850 563,168
Notes: a Two part-time workers are treated as one full-time worker.
b Import prior to 1810 is considered to be zero.
c This is in comparison to the average annual export during the period 1800-9.
(-) indicates a rise in exports.
It is apparent from the estimated loss of employment that the industry began to
decay in the third decade of the nineteenth century. The pace of decline was rather
slow at the beginning, with about 65,000 workers losing their jobs in the 1820s.
This testifies to the resistance of the industry against competition from machine
made textiles from England. The loss of employment increased, however, to
144,000 in the 1830s, 160,000 in the 1840s, and 192,000 in the 1850s, devastating
the industry. In aggregate, about 563,000 workers lost their traditional livelihoods
during the period 1810-59.
A downward bias, however, prevails in these estimations because of the use of
the 1940s data in the norms. Spinning in Bengal had declined by then as a result
of competition from imported yarns and also yarns spun at domestic mills. Around
that time hand-spun yarns met only 14 per cent of requirements in the handloom
sector, as against the share of domestic mill-spun yarns at 78 per cent and that of
imported yarns at 8 per cent.101 Our norms thus underestimate the loss of employ
ment in spinning. Prakash's norm?five to six workers per loom (as against 2.77 in
this study)?implies an additional loss of employment by an equal amount.102 We,
however, stick to our norms in view of the greater reliability of aggregate data, and
also in order to under- rather than overestimate.
Twomey, however, estimates the decline of textile employment in Bengal at
244,000 during 1790-1830, as against our estimated decline of only 67,600
during the same period.103 In spite of using similar methodology, his estimation
involves an upward bias, possibly because of Prakash's norms, but more impor
tantly, as a result of using fragmentary export series. As a result of lack of data, he
cannot directly estimate the loss of employment in Bengal, but calculates it
indirectly from the country-wise estimated figure, employing certain crucial
assumptions. In general, his estimate procedure suffers from neglecting the adverse
effect of the import trade on employment, as well as from dubious treatment of silk
textiles.104
101 Ibid., p. 106.

102 prakash, Dutch East India Company, p. 24.
103 Twomey, 'Employment', pp. 48-50.
104 pQr employment issues in the Bengal silk industry, see Ray, 'Silk industry', pp. 355-6.
878 INDRAJIT RAY
IV
We are still in the dark concerning the extent of the industry's decline dur
first half of the nineteenth century. Additional information on the industr
market or its employment level prior to the decline could have shed light
question. In the absence of such data, we turn to estimating the industry
raw materials; here the domestic production of cotton, as well as its imp
export, needs to be taken into account.
In 1786, James Grant of the English Company estimated Bengal's d
production of cotton wool at 100,000 maunds.105 It evidently rose t
156,000 maunds in 1791, a figure that the Board of Trade in Bengal estim
the basis of data and information provided to them by district officials on
tion, export, import, and utilization of cotton in their respective districts
latter is, however, considered here to be the representative level of cotton
tion for late eighteenth-century Bengal, since its reliability is ensured b
disaggregate nature of estimation. Similar district-wise data are availa
Medlicott for 1861.107 A comparison of these sources suggests a fall in pr
of about 29 per cent during the period 1791-1861, from 156,000 ma
110,000 maunds. Only a few specific areas, like Dacca, faced total exti
Medlicott, a contemporary author wrote, c[T]here is no reason to supp
diminution of the Cotton crop relatively to the aggregate area of cultivati
taken place within the last forty-five or fifty years: all the records to which I
had access relating to this period, have described the Cotton cultivation a
on for local purposes only'.108 This contradicts the claims in the literatur
cotton cultivation was almost abandoned in Bengal during the first half o
nineteenth century.109
Domestic production was, however, greatly supplemented by import
other provinces. During the first half of the eighteenth century, Bengal i
cotton from western India, especially from the places lying between Sura
Burhanpur (commonly known as the Surat cotton).110 From the middl
eighteenth century, imports from Surat gradually decreased, giving way to
from Mirzapore,111 where a great market developed, selling cotton fr
Deccan, the Doab, and cthe various parts of the Mahratha country'.112
estimated total imports at about 50,000 maunds per annum, which repres
one-third of Bengal's total requirements.113 Evidently this figure increase
105 Firminger, ed., Affairs of the East India Company, vol. II, p. 272.
106 WBSA, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 25 June 1791. This document is also available a
from the reports of the collectors and commercial agents, made to the Bengal Board of Trade, 1789-
state of the cultivation and trade in cotton', in Reports and documents, pp. 301-71.
107 Medlicott, Cotton handbook for Bengal, pp. 160-1.
108 Ibid., p. 45.
109 Medlicott also contradicts this wishful thinking. He believes that '[T]he effect [of the fall in texti
has been often greatly exaggerated' {Cotton handbook for Bengal, p. 44).
110 In Oct. 1755, for example, there was a consignment of 1,045 bales of cotton (about 9,500 m
25 bales = 227 maunds 11 seers); ibid., p. 41.
111 Reports and documents, p. 369.
112 'Memorandum on the present state of the culture and trade of cotton in the East Indies', letter
Secretary of the Court of Directors to the Secretary of the Indian Board, 5 Sept. 1826, in Reports and do
no. 57, pp. 117-32, esp. 122.
113 Firminger, ed., Affairs of the East India Company, vol. II, p. 272.
? Economie History Society 2009 Economic History Review, 62, 4 (2009
rising to 189,600 maunds in 1788-9 and 393,600 maunds in 1795-6.114 For about
a decade thereafter, the annual average stood at 450,000 maunds, of which about
270,000 maunds came from the Doab and 180,000 maunds from the Deccan.
Notwithstanding the expanding domestic output, the share of imports in domestic
use is reported at above 85 per cent around 1800,115 as against only 33 per cent
barely 15 years before. If, however, the import level exceeded 450,000 maunds in
any year, prices fell sharply, ensuring that the re-export business was profitable.
According to a government source, cIf the import does not exceed 450,000
maunds, the price will be so high as not to admit of an export from Bengal by sea
of any considerable quantity; but the reverse is the case when the import is
600,000 maunds, as will be seen by the export of the present season'.116
The nature of the cotton import trade did not change much during the first half
of the nineteenth century. While analysing this trade, Royle, a mid-nineteenth
century authority, wrote, ' [M]uch of the cotton which was used both in Bengal and
Benaras, was obtained from Mirzapore ... to which it had been brought both
from the south-west, or Central India, and from the north-west. The same trade
follows in the present day the same course'.117 While the annual import from the
Doab remained at around the previous level of 270,000 maunds, the Collector of
Mirzapore revealed that imports from the Deccan stood at 351,810 maunds in
1845-6; 256,754 maunds in 1846-7; and 180,196 maunds in 1847-8, giving an
annual average of 263,000 maunds.118 Bengal's average annual imports thus come
to 533,000 maunds for the mid-nineteenth century, as against 450,000 maunds in
the late eighteenth century. Even if we consider the figure of 1847-8 for imports
from the Deccan alone, the estimate is 450,000 maunds, the same as it was earlier.
The export trade was also quite buoyant during the first half of the nineteenth
century. Against the wishes of the Board of Trade in Bengal,119 the export trade was
started in the late 1780s, initially as a medium of annual 'remittance' to England,
but subsequently also to China for financing the Anglo-Chinese trade in tea.120
Tables 12 and 13 present data on these trades.
Table 12 underscores the fact that the trade to England gained momentum
from the early 1800s, reached Rs2.87 million per annum during 1805-14,
Rs4.57 million during 1815-28, and then fell gradually. A rising trend is also
noticed in table 13. Trade grew from 34,000 maunds in 1811-12 to 114,000
maunds in 1819-20, and further to 172,000 maunds in 1827-8.The series moved
downwards thereafter.
114 Extract from Mr Brown's report of the import and export trade of Calcutta by sea, 1802-3, in Extracts from
the report of the reporter (P.P. 1812-13, VIII), p. 4.
113 Report of the import and export of Calcutta by sea, from 1 June 1799 to 31 May 1800, in Reports and
documents, no. 9, p. 17. This proportion of import continued for a long time. See 'Memorandum on the present
state of the culture and trade of cotton in the East Indies', letter from the Secretary of the Court of Directors to
the Secretary of the Indian Board, 5 Sept. 1826, in Reports and documents, no. 57, pp. 117-32, esp. pp. 122-4.
116 'Summary report on the cotton trade of India', 30 April 1802, in Reports and documents, no. 15, pp. 21-5,
esp. p. 23.
117 Royle, On the culture and commerce, p. 42.
118 Referred to in ibid., p. 42.
119 WBSA, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 14 July 1788. The Board observed, 'It would be an act
of extreme hardship not to say injustice and cruelty to this country to throw its poor manufactures out of employ
by depriving them of the material on which their labour and subsistence depend'.
120 For details of Bengal's cotton trade with China, see Sinha, Economic history of Bengal, vol. Ill, pp. 14-7.
880 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 12. Shipment of cotton from the port of Calcutta (excluding those to China)
(in'000 S.Rs)
Year Export Year Export Year Export Year Export
1795- 6 147 1805- 6 3,044 1815- 16 3,821 1825- 6 3,228
1796- 7 136 1806- 7 1,927 1816- 17 7,689 1826- 7 3,057
1797- 8 108 1807- 8 2,608 1817- 18 N.A. 1827- 8 4,160
1798- 9 427 1808- 9 2,809 1818- 19 11,013 1828- 9 3,262
1799- 1800 91 1809- 10 3,935 1819- 20 8,976 1829- 30 2,693
1800- 1 26 1810- 11 1,502 1820- 1 2,834 1830- 1 623
1801- 2 15 1811- 12 1,592 1821- 2 4,411 1831- 2 547
1802- 3 619 1812- 13 2,690 1822- 3 3,424 1832- 3 156
1803- 4 313 1813- 14 3,992 1823- 4 1,244 1833- 4 228
1804- 5 1,901 1814- 15 4,561 1824- 5 2,347 1834- 5 3,126
Source: Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, p. 464.
Table 13. Shipment of cotton to China from the port of Calcutta (in maunds)
Year Quantity Year Quantity Year Quantity
1811- 12 34,024 1819- 20 114,404 1826- 7 90,776
1812- 13 43,268 1820- 1 80,604 1827- 8 172,456
1813- 14 7,340 1821- 2 32,000 1828- 9 84,696
1814- 15 19,648 1822- 3 100,672 1829- 30 107,836
1816- 17 18,524 1823- 4 83,076 1830- 1 73,280
1817- 18 22,396 1824- 5 73,876 1831- 2 110,928
1818- 19 37,380 1825- 6 128,580
Note: The figures are given in bales in the source; these have been converted into maunds at 1 bale = 4 maunds.1:
Source: Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, p. 463.
Table 14. Exports of cotton from Bengal^ 1796-1854

(in maunds)
Period Annual average
1796-1805 40,661
1806-15 171,573
1816-25 349,305
1826-34 176,398
1835-44 236,236
1845-54 169,602
Source: Medlicott, Cotton handbook for
The export series of tables 12

crops of western India and M
cutta.122 Medlicott, howev
1796-1854. Table 14 presents
previous trends, this series als
a whole, the average export is
In order to account for the in
imported twists and yarn also.
121 Ibid., p. 16.

122 See Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, p.
? Economie History Society 2
Table 15. Imports of cotton twists and yarns into Bengal (in ?)
Year Value Year Value Year Value
1823- 4" 12,300 1830-1* 2,917,969 1854- 5^ 764,844

1824- 5* 81,145 1836-76 780,466 1855- 6^ 900,295
1825- 6* 141,305 1848- 9^ 682,355 1856- 7^ 812,258
1826- 7* 809,052 1849- 50^ 798,742 1857- 8^ 623,075
1827- 8* 1,842,110 1851- 2^ 970,355 1858- 9^ 919,672
1828- 9 N.A. 1852- 3** 671,794 1859- 60^ 1,103,676
1829- 30* 1,437,126 1853- 4rf 840,399 1860- ld 1,039,429
Source: a R. M. Martin, S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), Q.3,894, p. 276.
b S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II, app. 4, pp. 504-90, esp. p. 516.
c S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), app. 47, pp. 601-4.
d Various issues of Report on external commerce of Bengal.
testifies to the vitality of the industry. Though introduced as late as 1823-4, British
twists and yarn made steady inroads in Bengal and soon reached the value of ?3
million in 1830-1. Imports of these goods fluctuated between ?700,000 and
?900,000 in the following three decades (see table 15).
Imported raw materials definitely supported the industry at a critical stage.
According to Royle, 'In the present day [1851] Bengal imports yarns from Europe,
instead of cotton from central India, and is perhaps by this means enabled to keep
up a manufacture which might otherwise have been entirely destroyed'.123 The
imported materials were much cheaper than those locally available. For coarse
varieties like number 40, the cost price per pound was 2 s. 6 d. for mill-spun yarn
and 3 s. 7 d. for local yarn. For higher counts like number 150, the respective cost
prices were 9 s. and 25 s. 6 d.124 By using these low-cost, mill-spun yarns from
Manchester, Bengal's weaving industry retained its competitive edge against
Britain for the time being. But this caused a great debate between the spinners of
Manchester and the weavers of Lancashire as their interests collided. Farnie
reports, 'The export of yarn to those weavers [in Bengal] was deplored in Lan
cashire in 1823 as an ill-omen for the future prosperity of the English cotton
industry since it might enable them to survive the competition of Lancashire
cloth . . . [and] to drive the steam-looms of England out of existence'.125 These
divergent interests united only in the 1840s, when power-loom weaving spread in
England. The increase in yarn imports to Bengal, however, confirms that the
weaving industry there was still ongoing during the first half of the nineteenth
century.
Table 16 gives an insight into the industry's relative consumption of raw mate
rials during the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries.The fall in consump
tion of raw cotton is thus estimated at about 13-28 per cent. The upper limit of
estimation appears to be more reasonable on the following grounds: if we suppose
that the level of employment was curtailed by the same proportion in this period,
the estimated loss of employment signifies that total employment in the industry
was about two million around the close of the eighteenth century. This estimation
seems to be in line with Prakash's estimation that there were one million textile
123 Royle, On the culture and commerce, p. 40.

124 S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), app. 52.
882 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 16. Consumption of cotton wool in Bengal (in '000 maunds)

Cotton equivalence
Period Production Import of imported yarn Export Net import Consumption
Late eighteenth century 156 450 0 41 409 565

Mid-nineteenth century 110 450-533 18 170 298-381 408-91
Table 17. Cotton prices in different districts of

Bengal (pence per pound)
District 1836 1848 1859
Murshidabad 4.80 3.20 7.75

Jessore ? 3.00 7.27
Burdwan 4.00 3.63 5.74
Midnapore 4.80 4.39 6.98
Mymensing ? 3.00 6.00
Calcutta 3.65 3.00 5.18
Source: Medlicott, Cotton handbook for Bengal, p. 159.
workers in Bengal in the early eighteenth century

from Bengal increased by about 200 per cent d
780,000 pieces127 to 2.3 million pieces. On the ot
in raw cotton consumption implies that the size of
4.33 million around 1800. This represents a mor
employment during the eighteenth century, whic
of the three-fold expansion of the export trade an
volume) of the domestic market. In any case, h
gained in terms of growth during the preceding ce
the first half of the nineteenth century. In contr
million people to the workforce during the eig
textile workers were retrenched during the follow
A study of cotton price movements in Bengal is i
reveals that the average price of cotton in Dacca
in 1790 and 1.27 pence in 1831.128 This fall in
industry's decline there, as reported in the lite
average price per pound rose from 2.33 pence i
Price statistics, as documented in table 17, show
costlier in Bengal during the period 1836-59. Fro
1836, its price range for different districts incr
In general, a price rise of more than 40 per cent
these price statistics it can be inferred that the co
emanating from the local cotton textile industry
Bengal. Since the supply of cotton fell by an esti
industry's decline should not be estimated at mo
126 Prakash, 'On estimating the employment implications', p. 343.

128 Medlicott, Cotton handbook for Bengal, p. 159.
129 Sinha, The economic history of Bengal, vol. Ill, p. 4.
? Economie History Society 2009 Economie Hist
V
Economic historians identify two alternative factors in
cotton textile industry in the nineteenth century: a) proh
Britain; and b) technological innovations during the indust
Britain. Indeed, we cannot deny the role of'the visible han
behind the long-term rise of British industries', and its c
impact on Bengal's textile industry.130 Since the late 1790s
had been seeking to oust Bengal cotton textiles from Eng
begun after the commercial crisis of 1788. In 1789, t
discussed whether the Company should import cotton in
by then Great Britain had adequate production capacity for
In 1793, the manufacturers of Lancashire and Lanark subm
loss that would be accrued to the Company for the propo
in Indian piece-goods should be compensated to the Co
ment.132 A less radical proposal was to allow a fixed amou
purpose of re-export only. All of these submissions were b
cheap labour in Bengal, which the Company's Chairma
'narrow and inhumane'.133 He argued that if the Compan
trading Bengal textiles in Europe, other trading houses wo
'unless the Indian manufacturers were to be annihilat
would] not merely be abhorrent but also impolitic'.134 It b
contemporary wave of laissez faire doctrine in England,
when viewed in the light of the toast made by Mancheste
establishment of the commercial treaty with France in 1
of free trade, wise government and constitutional revenu
smuggling, peculation and excise laws'.135
Under pressure from textile interests, however, the Brit
tariffs on Indian textiles three times during 1797-9,
1802-19.136 The duty on Bengal white calicoes was increa
27 per cent to 59 per cent in 1803, and from 71.5 per
valorem in 1813. Table 18 reports the revisions in Britain's
textiles during the period 1812-26.
The plain and white calicoes, as well as dimities, that had
Britain's imports since the late eighteenth century attrac
about ?71 ad valorem in 1812, raised to about ?85 in
apparent that such a rate of protection was unnecessary,
during the period 1814-25. Flowered muslins and calic
prohibitive tariffs during the second decade. The ad valore
1812, ?44 in 1813, and continued at ?37 10 s. in 1814-2
(that is, those cotton textiles that could not be sold for u
attracted a warehouse duty of ?3 6 s. 8 d. in 1812, and ?5
130 O'Brien et al., 'Political components', p. 413.

131 Wright, East Indian economic problems, p. 193.
132 Bowden, Industrial society in England, p. 185.
133 Redford, ed., Manchester merchants and foreign trade, pp. 108-9.
134 Referred to in Wright, East Indian economic problems, p. 197.
135 Bowden, Industrial society in England, p. 185.
? Economie History Society 2009 Economie History Rev
884 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 18. Import duties on Indian cotton textiles in Great Britain

1812 1813 1814 1819 1826
Commodities ?$d?sd?s?s ?
Flowered/stitched muslins
6 27
8 32 9 2 32 10 37 10 10
or calicoes (for every
?100 of the value)
Additional duties on the
? 10
? 11 17 6
above articles
Plain/white calicoes or 68 6 8 81 2 11 62 10 67 10 10
dimities (for every ?100
of the value)
Additional duties on the 3 6 8 3 19 2
above articles
Duty imposed on cotton ? ? ? ? ? 10
goods whose wear and
use was prohibited in
Great Britain
Warehousing duty 3 6 8 3 19 2
Articles of manufacture of 27 6 8 32 9 2 32 10 50 ? 20
cotton, wholly or partly
made up, not otherwise
charged with duty (for
every ?100 of the value)
Source: S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 183
addition to the duties paid for Bengal te

namely, 3.5 per cent after manufacture,
Calcutta port by sea, and 3 per cent on
These tariffs impaired the competiti
Britain. In 1813, for example, the Bengal
a c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight) pri
was offered on sale at 11 s.138 after an ad v
They were highly competitive against th
yards and I 3 of 37 yards (both three times
were then sold at 44 s. 8 d. and 44 s. 6 d.
put on sale at 8 s. 2 d., with an even lowe
of almost one shilling less. This represent
yards. These could not compete with B
which were priced at between 14 s. 2
slightly higher rates in 1823. Even in the
cotton mills, Bengal textiles could have
there were no tariffs on them, since ther
the baftas at c.i.f. rates and British long clo
promoted Britain's textile interests at th
Farnie writes, 'The commercial conquest
. . . was however no mere response to the
expansion of market opportunities: it wa
137 'Report on the private trade between Europe, Americ

(RR 1812-13, VIII), p. 4.
138 Trade between India and China (RR 1829, XXIII), t
? Economie History Society 2009 Econo
political structure of trade and it was buttressed by the maintenance of a political

balance of power in favour of British industry5.139
However, two things should be noted in this context. First, although the British
tariff policy depressed Bengal's cotton textile exports to that country until the
mid-1820s, it did not seem to be a factor after 1826, when the tariff rates were
drastically curtailed. The British policy cannot, therefore, explain the industry's
decline in Bengal that started in the mid-1820s and continued through 1860.
Secondly, there was no discriminatory British bounty policy to promote the import
of her cotton textiles into India, which, as we have pointed out above, actually
devastated the industry. Moreover, unlike the case of Bengal's salt industry140 or
her indigo dye manufacturing,141 the cotton textile industry was never subject to
severe policy discrimination in Bengal.
The industry's decline is best explained, therefore, by contemporary techno
logical innovations in England, which enhanced labour productivity and econo
mized the cost of production. The industrial revolution that started in Great
Britain around 1760 took more than 60 years to achieve higher efficiency for
British cotton textiles relative to Bengal. The first wave of mechanization in
1760-1800, including the invention of the saw-gin in 1802, mainly benefited the
spinning branch of the industry. Though this development hurt spinning interests
in Bengal to some extent,142 there was a percolation effect on the weaving branch
of the industry in the form of cheap imports of cotton twists and yarn. Britain's
weaving costs did not fall appreciably in the early 1800s in the wake of mechani
zation.143 Whatever reduction took place in the cost of labour during this period
was due to the fast multiplication of handloom weavers.144 However, it cannot be
denied that the steam-loom enhanced the productivity of weavers in Great Britain.
Until the second decade of the 1800s, a handloom artisan wove two pieces of
9-8th shirting per week, each 24 yards long, while a steam-loom weaver could
weave seven such pieces in 1823.145 But there were hardly 2,400 power-looms in
Great Britain in 1813. In 1820, there were 12,150 such looms in England and
2,000 in Scotland.146 Around that time there were between 240,000 and 250,000
handloom units in Great Britain, which did not receive any threat of extinction in
the 1820s.147 Only from the second half of the 1830s is it possible to find the
backwash effect of the power-loom sector. According to Farnie, c[T]he spread of

140 Ray, 'Imperial policy', pp. 197-203.
141 Ray, 'Indigo dye industry', pp. 218-24.
142 For details of the adverse effect of imported twists and yarn on local spinners, see the evidence of R. M.
Martin, S.C on East India produce (RR 1840, VIII), QQ.3,892-943, pp. 276-80. He opines, 'The importation of
yarn diminishes somewhat of the evil by their weaving that yarn. They suffer perhaps to a less extent than they
would if they had bought the manufacture ready made, but whatever throws out of operation some individuals,
be they few, or be they many, engaged in the manufacture of an article, is an injury to those individuals'
(ibid., Q.3,892).
143 According to Griffiths, Hunt, and O'Brien, '[W]eaving techniques remained substantially unaltered up to
and beyond 1800' ('Inventive activity', p. 894).
145 Macgregor, Commercial tariffs, p. 506.
146 Ibid., p. 507.
147 Britain's handloom sector, indeed, achieved a high rate of growth from around 1815. Brown observes,
Although considerable diversity still characterized handloom weaving in 1815, it appears that high earnings had
led most weavers to abandon part-time farming and relocate to Bolton and to handloom villages located in
northeastern Lancashire' ('Condition of England', p. 594).
<?) Economic History Society 2009 Economic History Review, 62, 4 (2009)
886 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 19. Gain in comparative advantage for British yarn, 1812?30 (pence per mile of
thread, or about two hanks)
Cost advantages of
English price Indian price English yarn (%)
Number 1812 1830 1812 and 1830 1812 1830 Gain
49 lX X 2% 30 65 35
60 1% X 2% 50 73 23
80 lXe X 2% 53 73 20
100 1% % 3 58 73 15
120 lXe % 3% 64 75 11
150 1% 1 4X6 63 75 12
200 2X IX 5X 56 68 12
250 3X 2X 8 58 66 8
Source: S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), a
the power-loom in the 1830s, and

wave of cost-cutting mechanisatio
tive power in relation to the hand-
context that Gloucester Cotton M
an investment of ?200,000, kept
order to use all of its steam powe
profitable'.149
Before the 1830s, however, Ben
competition in Great Britain, as
market prices. They must have l
British Parliament was able to red
internal resistance. It has been n
neck-and-neck with British prod
situation had been changing rapid
spinning, the cost of raw materia
weavers could now successfully co
sents data relating to the gain in c
1812-30.
Compared to the Indian varieties, English yarns thus became cheaper by 8-35
per cent over the period 1813-30. As larger gains were evidently associated with
lower counts, it is surely to be expected that the coarser textiles became more
competitive in the market. These data contradict the prevailing belief expressed in
the literature that 'English exports first displaced the higher part of the Indian
trade, as the price differential between mechanically spun and hand spun yarn
increased with the fineness of the yarn'.150 Perhaps this perception arises from the
consideration of their absolute price differentials in a given year, rather than their
percentage changes over the years. Contemporary opinions in favour of our
findings have already been cited.151 It was indeed the mass production of coarser

149 Evidence of Henry Gouger, SC on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), QQ.l,965-75, p. 116.
150 Twomey, 'Employment', p. 39.
151 See above, nn. 88 and 89.
Table 20. Constituents of yarn costs in Great Britain and India

Britain India
Cotton Labour Total Cotton Labour Total

Hanks spun - - - - - -
Number per day per spindle sdsdsdsds d s d
40 200 161 ? 26?3 34 37
60 175 2 ? 1 6 3 6 ? 372 5 872 6 ?
80 1 50 2 2 2 2 4 4 ? 472 8 1 072 9 ?
100 140 2 4 2 10 5 2 ? 5 11 11 12 4
120 125 2 6 3 6 6 ? ? 5 16 ? 16 5
150 100 2 10 6 6 9 ? ? 6 25 ? 25 6
200 75 3 4 16 8 20 ? ? 6 44 7 41 1
250 50 4 ? 31 ? 35 ? ? 8 83 4 84 ?
Source: S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, V
textiles in Great Britain that je

period. If, however, we seek t
labour component immediate
became so cheap in the wake o
for Britain's higher raw cotton
For every count of yarn in 18
overcompensated for the high
gives 840 yards per pound for
yarn). Compared to India, Brita
3 d. for the 40 counts, 1 s. 8V
counts, but the labour compone
d. respectively. Such economie
enabling British weavers to un
latter's competitive edge, whic
machine-made textiles in Grea
certain English and Bengal fab
Both the 6/4 cambric and the
50 per cent cheaper during t
undergoing a further reductio
prices, Bengal textiles like I
indicates, if they were priced a
50 per cent less than their c.i.f
With her very out-of-date tec
afford such price reductions.
Britain's technological progres
the domestic market, where Be
allied costs. Further technolo
similar success in Bengal, becau
152 Asher has found that British techn

strong labour-saving bias in the Hicksian se
USA; Asher, 'Industrial efficiency', p. 440
C Economic History Society 2
888 INDRAJIT RAY
Table 21. Comparative prices of British and Bengal cotton textiles in Great Britain
English cloth Bengal cloth
614 cambrics 9/8 shirtings IB/E HB/EB

(12 yards) (12 yards) (12 yards) (12 yar
Year Year
1813 20 14 1813 11 10
1828 1828 (probable price, if any) 3 3
1829 NA. 1829-32 (probable price, if any) 3 3
1830 5V2
1831 5V2
1832 5V2
Source: Trade and finance of India and trade of China: further returns (P.P. 1833, XXV), p. 3.
of conveyance, whereas Bengal textiles were not.153 The amount of time

further technological developments perhaps explains the time lag between
technological triumphs in Europe and Bengal.
VI
This study thus clears up certain confusions surrounding the decline of Ben
cotton textile industry during the first half of the nineteenth century. Base
contemporary data and information, it contests the hypothesis that the indu
perpetual decline commenced during the second half of the eighteenth centu
specifically in 1793. It also argues that the hypothesis that dates the start o
decline to the early 1810s is not tenable, as this period was a phase of depre
in the wake of the Napoleonic war, after which Bengal regained its position
overseas market. We conclude that the phase of perpetual decline began
mid-1820s because of setbacks to the industry both in the overseas and dom
markets. The pace of decline was rather slow, though steady, with a lo
employment of 65,000 in the 1820s, 144,000 in the 1830s, and 160,000 i
1840s. The situation had reached crisis point by 1860, when 563,000 worker
aggregate lost their traditional livelihoods.
The industry, however, survived in some segments of the domestic ma
While imported articles could never challenge artistic products woven on
looms at the high end of the market, local textiles predominated in the low-
market because consumer choice and preferences were in their favour. In ord
assess the extent of ruin that the industry suffered, this study employs the
try's raw material consumption levels as a yardstick. In this respect, it is found t
the net import of cotton wool into Bengal fell by 27 per cent and its
production by another 29 per cent during the first half of the nineteenth cen
so that the industry seems to have declined by about 28 per cent from
153 Cuenca Esteban, indeed, considers that the urge to explore the overseas market induced technol
progress in the British cotton textile industry at this stage: '[T]he cotton industry can indeed be portra
classical example of import substitution, with . . . overseas demand in general, providing the opportunity an
stimulus for technological innovation as the industry reached the limits of growth within a protected d
market' ('Rising share', p. 900).
viewpoint. If we surmise that employment opportunities were reduced by an equal

percentage, the estimated reduction of employment indicates that by the end of the
eighteenth century the industry employed around two million workers. This seems
to be in agreement with Prakash's estimate that in the early eighteenth century
there were about one million textile workers in Bengal.
With regard to the explanation for the industry's decline, this study synthesizes
the views of the so-called 'nationalist' historians who identify British commercial
policies as the contributory factor, and the others who believe that broader market
forces were responsible. There is no room for doubt that Britain's discriminatory
tariff policy had a negative impact on the export market for Bengal's cotton textiles
until the mid-1820s. The British Parliament increased tariff rates on Indian textiles
12 times between 1797 and 1819 in order to ensure the viability of home-made
fabrics in Great Britain. In the absence of any tariffs, Bengal might have continued
to be competitive into the early 1820s. But those prohibitive tariffs were annulled
in 1826, so that Britain's commercial policies cannot explain the industry's down
fall that started in the mid-1820s and perpetuated through 1860. Moreover, the
British policy was in no way responsible for the massive inflow of British cotton
textiles into India that actually devastated the industry in Bengal. By 1826,
however, technological innovations in Great Britain secured comparative advan
tages for British textiles in certain lines of production. Because of continuous
reductions in the raw material costs and improved weaving technologies, British
fabrics swept the market at home and abroad, including the domestic market of
Bengal. The British industry gained further competitive strength with the spread of
weaving machinery in the 1830s and its improvement in the 1840s, causing
catastrophe to the Bengal industry. This study thus concludes that technological
innovations in Great Britain led to the decline of Bengal's cotton textile industry
during the first half of the nineteenth century.
University of North Bengal?Commerce
Date submitted 4 May 2005

Revised version submitted 27 June 2007
Accepted 4 October 2007
DOI: 10.1111/j. 1468-0289.2009.00444.x
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APPENDIX 1: SOURCES OF DATA

(1) S.C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II, app. 31,
pp. 841-916, esp. pp. 883-7, for country-wise and aggregate exports of cotton textiles
from Bengal, 1795-1830.
(2) Quantity and value of calicoes (P.P. 1852-3, XCIX), pp. 2-3, for aggregate exports of
cotton textiles from India, 1833-50.
(3) Various issues of Report on the external commerce of Bengal for aggregate exports of
cotton textiles from Bengal, 1850-60 (1850-1, 1852-3, 1854-5, 1856-7, 1858-9,
1959-60).
(4) <S. C. on the affairs of the East India Company (P.P. 1831-2, X), pt. II, app. 4, pp. 504-90,
esp. p. 516, for imports of cotton goods into Bengal, 1813-30.
(5) Quantity and value of calicoes (P.P. 1852-3, XCIX), pp. 4-5, for imports of cotton goods
into India, 1833-50.
(6) Various issues of Report on the external commerce of Bengal for aggregate imports of
cotton textiles into Bengal, 1851-60 (1852-3, 1854-5, 1856-7, 1858-9, 1859-60).
APPENDIX 2: EXPORTS OF COTTON TEXTILES FROM

BENGAL, 1795-1830 (NO. OF PIECES)
Year UK America Denmark Portugal Brazil Java Mauritius
1795- 6 886,954 192,779 527,068
1796- 7 664,528 467,343 281,107
1797- 8 1,045,209 181,414 828,191
1798- 9 369,697 835,670 8,965 326,895
1799- 1800 595,079 1,499,630 239,653 2,190,393
1800- 1 697,510 1,205,380 128,150 624,580
1801- 2 629,870 1,130,800 313,390 489,830
1802- 3 501,390 1,457,280 92,290 707,410 26,180 111,430
1803- 4 1,059,410 745,800 25,410 666,930 10,560
1804- 5 255,750 1,561,010 26,180 482,320 440
1805- 6 71,610 1,165,010 330,220 41,250
1806- 7 178,860 1,638,890 458,370 27,610 16,720
1807- 8 26,070 155,320 575,080 6,380
1808- 9 11,440 1,821,710
1809- 10 128,370 2,306,700 253,770
1810- 11 105,050 703,230 556,930 34,870 51,150
1811- 12 161,810 374,220 990,000 99,660 212,630
1812- 13 61,270 136,070 183,920
1813- 14 101,090 221,430 121,550 41,580 63,910
1814- 15 422,620 1,381,490 665,610 329,670 46,310 52,800
1815- 16 298,210 1,764,400 1,123,320 658,790 132,110 22,110
1816- 17 209,440 651,310 1,648,570 566,610 32,670 189,750
1817- 18 73,260 996,380 160,710 632,390 623,370 77,110 33,880
G Economic History Society 2009 Economic History Review, 62, 4 (2009)
892 INDRAJIT RAY
APPENDIX 2: Continued
Year UK America DenmarkPortugal Brazil Java Mauritius
1818- 19 59,960 630,410 3,080 596,530 444,180 29,810 78,540

1819- 20 350,460 95,150 16,500 264,990 405,790 146,850 95,370
1820- 1 234,300 150,040 4,620 724,020 215,160 300,310 134,420
1821- 2 183,480 116,710 165,660 47,520 169,840 167,860
1822- 3 148,940 46,530 12,320 931,150 86,130 220,660 94,710
1823- 4 253,586 158,730 463,720 343,458 260,184
1824- 5 374,104 191,950 20,508 135,520 272,818 78,279 29,551
1825- 6 249,125 25,850 2,196 251,645 25,379 271,140 113,070
1826- 7 107,080 15,180 222,484 245,829 239,988 138,142
1827- 8 131,614 28,380 148,776 262,391 292,238 94,878
1828- 9 82,456 78,092 395,235 33,519 45,177
1829- 30 13,043 20,045 29,203 50,357
APPENDIX 3: TOTAL EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF COTTON

TEXTILES IN BENGAL, 1795-1859 ('000 PIECES)
Year Export Import Year Export Import
1795- 6 2,373 1828- 9 1,499 1,191

1796- 7 2,396 1829- 30 636 1,228
1797- 8 2,656 1830- 1 502 1,426
1798- 9 3,049 1831- 2 396 1,320
1799- 1800 5,603 1832- 3 312 1,222
1800- 1 3,245 1833- 4 246 1,132
1801- 2 4,442 1834- 5 223 1,242
1802- 3 4,091 1835- 6 249 1,354
1803- 4 2,936 1836- 7 313 1,729
1804- 5 3,060 1837- 8 352 2,297
1805- 6 2,443 1838- 9 173 2,508
1806- 7 2,813 1839- 40 296 2,949
1807- 8 1,393 1840- 1 298 5,057
1808- 9 2,677 1841- 2 118 4,525
1809- 10 3,344 1842- 3 104 5,666
1810- 11 2,516 1843- 4 88 6,577
1811- 12 3,115 1844- 5 54 7,763
1812- 13 1,024 1845- 6 182 6,757
1813- 14 1,084 1846- 7 223 7,862
1814- 15 3,584 4 1847- 8 156 5,471
1815- 16 4,595 26 1848- 9 97 6,669
1816- 17 4,475 34 1849- 50 51 9,169
1817- 18 4,389 141 1850- 1 97 8,691
1818- 19 3,218 309 1851- 2 178 12,077
1819- 20 2,503 198 1852- 3 224 8,264
1820- 1 2,921 351 1853- 4 192 9,443
1821- 2 2,278 686 1854- 5 296 13,055
1822- 3 2,466 416 1855- 6 254 14,271
1823- 4 4,026 632 1856- 7 360 13,270
1824- 5 2,963 805 1857- 8 350 10,454
1825- 6 2,069 637 1858- 9 345 17,713
1826- 7 1,865 767 1859- 60 244 20,466
1827- 8 1,773 1,020
? Economic History Society 2009 Economic History Review, 62, 4 (2009)

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Identifying the woes of the cotton textile industry in Bengal: tales of the nineteenth

Identifying the woes of the cotton textile

1 See, for example, Mantoux, Industrial revolution, p. 238.

probably not in proportion to the growth of population'.8 There is also debate

8 Farnie, English cotton industry, p. 102.

22 Prakash, Dutch East India Company, pp. 37-40, 60-1.

30 Quoted in ibid., p. 50.

38 Krishna, Commercial relations, app. C, pp. 308-9.

Table 1. Imports of prohibited textiles into Great

622,000 pieces in 1733, in comparison to the orders of 317,000 and 238,000

46 Chaudhuri, From prosperity to decline, p. 184.

Table 2. Exports of cotton piece-goods from Calcutta port (in pieces)

1795- 6 2,372,957 1813- 14 1,083,517 2,680

49 Chaudhuri, From prosperity to decline, p. 188.

Luckipore 156,900 839,273 5.35 Sonamooky 59,800 323,454 5.41

Source: WBSA, Proceedings of Board of Trade (commercial), 29 Nov. 1792.

coarser textiles. In 1793, it invested S.Rs3.28 million in the fabrics in the

Table 4. Exports of cotton piece goods on private account (in S.Rs)

1796-7, 1797-8, 1798-9 (annual average) 3,366,990 18,949,426

Table 5. Cotton piece goods brought into the

1812- 13 4,000,954 1821-2 3,934,953

There is another source that provides data over the period 18

1825-9 117 14 5 144 186 88 88 57 99 231 8 34 318

1815-19 198 827 36 853 540 84 84 203 32 118 71 16 541

1795-9 193 987 218 830 0 0 0 171 2 292 40 62 258

1800-4 1,029 1,220 117 654 0 24 24 71 57 263 30 31 173

Source: Calculated from app. 2.

1814 2,610 60,077 6,145 68,832

66 Report on the external commerce of Bengal (1859-60).

Table 8. Imports of cotton goods into Calcutta on

1813- 14 91,835 1822-3 2,577,279

Table 9. Imports of cotton piece goods into India (in Rs

1833- 4 6,584,211 1839-40 16,469,602 1845-6 27,027,195

series would suggest. Even in 1813-14, Bengal imported on

1851- 2 30,380,141 420,574 238,544 31,039,199

Year Value (in S.Rs)

wm-r~-~ :- - .. ' - . ^ - j ~*Expo?

80 Report on the external commerce of Bengal (1852-3).

93 Wynter, Curiosities of toil, pp. i, 155, 160.

101 Ibid., p. 106.

Table 14. Exports of cotton from Bengal^ 1796-1854

The export series of tables 12

121 Ibid., p. 16.

1823- 4" 12,300 1830-1* 2,917,969 1854- 5^ 764,844

123 Royle, On the culture and commerce, p. 40.

Table 16. Consumption of cotton wool in Bengal (in '000 maunds)

Late eighteenth century 156 450 0 41 409 565

Table 17. Cotton prices in different districts of

Murshidabad 4.80 3.20 7.75

Source: Medlicott, Cotton handbook for Bengal, p. 159.

workers in Bengal in the early eighteenth century

126 Prakash, 'On estimating the employment implications', p. 343.

130 O'Brien et al., 'Political components', p. 413.

Table 18. Import duties on Indian cotton textiles in Great Britain

addition to the duties paid for Bengal te

137 'Report on the private trade between Europe, Americ

political structure of trade and it was buttressed by the maintenance of a political

139 Farnie, English cotton industry, p. 96.

Source: S.C. on East India produce (P.P. 1840, VIII), a

the power-loom in the 1830s, and

148 Farnie, English cotton industry, p. 83.

Table 20. Constituents of yarn costs in Great Britain and India

Cotton Labour Total Cotton Labour Total