Conti, Nicolo de a Venetian traveller who has left behind a reliable description about India (and Bengal). Born of a noble family in Venice, Nicolo de Conti had gone to Damascus as a trader in his youth in 1429. From there he travelled further east (date not mentioned), went overland to Persia and took a dhow (ship) to go to Malabar. From there, he came to the Vijayanagar kingdom. He then sailed, along with his wife and two children, to the Islands of Ceylon, Sumatra and Java. Then he reached the south of China and returned through the Red Sea along the Coast of Ethiopia. He crossed the desert and reached Cairo, where his wife and two children died from causes not very clear.
Nicolo became a Muslim to save his life and reached Venice in 1444. He got absolution from the Pope Eugene IV on condition of relating his adventure to the Secretary of the Pope. The latter wrote it in Latin. It appears that it was printed at Lisbon in Portuguese, from which the Italian version was made. The original Latin version surfaced at Paris in 1723, from which the first English translation was made.
Conti's account of Vijayanagar is of paramount importance. From Vijayanagar he moved towards the Coromandel Coast to reach a maritime city, called by him Malepur (Meilapur) in the coast of Bay of Bengal. Here he saw the beautiful Church in which the body of St. Thomas lay buried. The Nestorian Christians were the residents and worshipped there. Conti then moved to a city, called Cabila by him, where pearls were found. He also mentioned palmyra tree with long leaves. Conti next reached Ceylon, where he found the cinnamon trees. Leaving Ceylon, he moved on to Sumatra, a rich emporium and a city that was of six miles in circumference. There he remained for one year. Then Conti reached the Andaman Islands after twenty days of sailing. Here he found the inhabitants as cannibals. Both men and women wore earrings of precious stones and used cotton and silk dresses that reached the knee. Polygamy was current. They lived in low houses. They were all idolaters. The Island produced pepper, camphor and gold. In one part of the Island, human flesh was eaten and heads of the enemies were considered valuable property.
Sailing through the stormy seas, Conti entered the Ganges River, where he found a large and wealthy city, called by him Cernova. He found the river extremely large, in some places exceeding fifteen miles. On both banks, he saw bamboo trees along with villas, plantations and gardens. Sailing for three months up the Ganges and leaving four big cities on the route, Conti reached a very big city, called by Maarazia, where he found plenty of aloe-wood, gold, silver precious stones and pearls. From there he moved towards the eastern mountains and returned to the city of Cernova. From there he proceeded to the city of Buffetania. From here he took the ship to reach the city of Arakan. One may identify Cernova with sonargaon and Buffetania with chittagong. He then moved through the mountains to reach the Irrawadi River in Myanmar on which he had left a detailed account.
Niccolo then had gone to Peking, called by him Kambala and had seen the Great Wall of China. After going through Pegu he arrived at Quilon, a big city of twelve miles in circumference. Here he saw the python among other snakes. Then he came to Cochin and proceeded to Calicut, a city of eight miles in circumference. It had pepper, ginger and cinnamon in abundance. He had noticed polyandry and wrote in details about it, mentioning that that the inheritance goes to the grand children. After visiting Cambay, he went to the Island of Socotra and then sailed to Jedda in the Red Sea. From there he reached Venice.
This remarkable account in the middle of the fifteenth century shows an opulent India (and Bengal) with different social customs and manners. The identifications of some of the places mentioned creates problems, but Major's suggestion of the identification of Maarazia with Mathura and Buffetania with Burdwan may not be certain.
[Aniruddha Ray]
Bibliography RH Major (ed.), India in the Fifteenth Century, New Delhi, 1994 reprint of 1857 ed; EF Oaten, European Travellers in India, Lucknow, 1973, reprint of 1909 ed.
Dutch, The discovery of the oceanic communication opened up direct maritime trade between Europe and Asia, and the portuguese set the trend in an extensive and direct spice trade from Asia to Europe in the sixteenth century. Attracted by the vast market in Europe and the huge profits of the spice trade, the English and the Dutch East India Companies were formed in the early seventeenth century (the English Company in 1600 and the Dutch Company in 1602) with the primary objective of carrying on trade in Asia. By the middle of the seventeenth century the Portuguese were overshadowed by the Dutch and the English who began their Bengal trade from around the middle of the seventeenth century after establishing their factories in hughli.
The companies went to the so-called Spice Islands in the eastern archipelago to buy spices with silver obtained from the 'New World'. But to their great surprise they found that it was not silver which was in demand in these islands but coarse and cheap Indian calicoes. So they turned to India in search of textiles which could be exchanged for spices in the Indonesian archipelago. First their attention was drawn to the Coromandel Coast which produced large quantities of cheap and coarse textiles greatly in demand in the Spice Islands. But soon war, famine and political instability rendered the Coromandel trade risky, uncertain and expensive, and so the companies eventually turned their attention to Bengal.
Bengal offered certain unique advantages to the companies. It was the largest producer of coarse and cheap calicoes - much cheaper and of much better quality than those available in the market. Secondly, Bengal silk was a highly lucrative and profitable commodity for the companies as there was a growing demand for it in Europe replacing Italian and Persian silk because of its comparative cheapness and good quality. Moreover a third lucrative item for the companies' trade was saltpetre which was in high demand in Europe and which could also be profitably used as ballast for Europe-bound ships.
The Dutch came to Bengal in 1630 and settled in Pipli. They obtained trading rights from the Mughal government on condition that they would pay 3% custom duties on exports. After the departure of the Portuguese from Hughli in 1632, the Dutch obtained a new parwana from the Subahdar azam khan in 1634 to establish a factory at Hughli. However, it was not until sometime between 1645 and 1647 that the company established the factory at Hughli. The Westzanen was the first Dutch ship to arrive there. The rate of the customs duty was not properly defined in the parwana and that led to frequent disputes. A farman of November 1642 exempted the Dutch from paying transit duties on the Pipli-Agra route that went through Bengal. The English factory was established at Hughli in 1651.
Between 1633 and 1638, the Dutch opened factories in Orissa and Patna but these were closed soon after. Peter Sterthemins was the first Director of Bengal, who transferred the Hughli factory to chinsura and the Company took lease of the villages of Chinsura, Baranagar and Bazar Mirzapur at an annual rent of Rs 1574 only, the rent of Baranagar being the highest (Rs 793). The dominance of the Chinsura factory soon became evident and the Pipli factory was abandoned in 1675, although Balasore remained the anchoring point of the bigger ships. The Dutch opened a factory at dhaka in the early 1650s at the place where the mitford hospital now stands and they had a garden house at Tejgaon.
aurangzeb, in his early years, had exempted the Dutch from payment of transit duties throughout Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and had fixed the customs duties at 4% at Hughli and 3% at Pipli and Balasore. Such discrimination was responsible for frequent quarrels with the government. The Dutch had always tried to evade tax. This was also a cause for dispute. In 1671, Hughli Factors had informed Batavia, the eastern headquarters of the Dutch company, that they had evaded the payment of at least 25% of the customs duties for the last sixteen years. This was finally detected and the Dutch had to pay one and a half lakh rupees. Batavia encouraged the Hughli Factors to make such evasions whenever possible. In 1678, the Dutch procured a nishan from Prince muhammed azam for payment of 4% at Hughli. In 1679, this was reduced to 3.5% and in 1709, by the farman of Shah Alam, it was further reduced to 2.5%. This was confirmed by the farman of 1712 by the emperor Jahandar Shah, who also exempted the Dutch from paying transit duties throughout the Mughal Empire.
From around the 1670s the trade of the companies in Bengal became significant, with a boost in the export of raw silk from Bengal. But it was actually the big boom in the export of Bengal textiles from around the early 1680s that revolutionized the pattern of the Asiatic trade of the companies. This was in fact in response to a revolution in consumer taste in England and Europe where suddenly Indian textiles, especially the textiles from Bengal, became a fashion and consequently there followed an unprecedented demand for Bengal textiles. As a result Bengal became the most dominant partner in the Asiatic trade of the companies and from around the 1680s till the mid-eighteenth century, the Dutch and the English East India Companies played a significant role in Bengal's maritime and international trade.
In the case of the Dutch, though their export to Europe began to decline in the 1720s, it picked up from the early 1730s. In 1730, Nawab Shujauddin gave the Dutch a parwana confirming old privileges. In 1748, alivardi khan gave them the privilege that customs should be collected from the Dutch private merchants at the same rate as that of the company (2.5%) instead of the 3.5% they had been paying so long. Nawab sirajuddaula sent parwanas to the Dutch, French and the Danes to join him against the English. The Dutch had remained neutral. The nawab, after censuring them, besieged their factory and demanded thirty lakh rupees, which was reduced to four lakhs through the mediation of Khwaja Wajid and Raja Durlabhram. Finally the Dutch agreed to pay four lakh rupees in lieu of free trade for the company. After the capture of chandarnagore by the English, the Dutch gave refuge to its French inhabitants despite the protest of Clive.
The importance of Bengal trade in the Asiatic trade of the companies can be seen from the fact that Bengal's share in the average annual value of Asian commodities exported to Holland by the Dutch company was around 40 per cent in the early eighteenth century. Again, more than 50 per cent of the total value of the Dutch textile export from Asia was in the form of Bengal textiles. Thus Bengal became the most important theatre of the Dutch company's activities not only in India but in the whole of Asia. No different was the case with the English east india company. The English factors regarded Bengal as 'the flower in the Company's garden' and the 'choicest jewel'.
The raison d'EAtre of the Dutch company's operations in Bengal was the procurement of export goods for other parts of Asia as well as for Europe. The role of the precious metals and goods imported into the region from Europe and other parts of Asia was chiefly to provide the purchasing power needed to buy the export goods. Most of these imports were precious metals because, given the structure of relative prices, the local demand for imported goods was comparatively small. Most of the Dutch imports into Bengal were in the form of silver from Europe, though a certain amount of precious metals imported by the Dutch was obtained within Asia. This included silver and gold from Japan and silver from Pegu, Arakan and Persia.
The goods the Dutch company imported into Bengal were practically all of Asian origin except a small amount of ordinary metals like lead, iron etc and some woollens from Europe. An important constituent in the imports from Asian countries was pepper and other spices. Pepper was procured mainly from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. The other spices, especially clove, nutmeg and mace, were obtained in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. The principal items exported by the company from the region were textiles, raw silk and saltpetre. Comparatively minor items, mainly for export to Asian markets, included provisions such as sugar, rice, wheat, clarified butter and mustard oil, opium, wax, borax, sea-shells (cauris), gunny bags etc. Though in the beginning raw silk played a crucial role first in the company's intra-Asian trade and subsequently in the trade with Europe, it was textiles which dominated the exports of the European companies from Bengal in the late seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century.
In the second half of the seventeenth century the Dutch trade was much ahead of the English. The same was the case in the first two decades of the eighteenth century, as will be evident from the tables below:
Table 1 Value of the English and Dutch Exports from Bengal 1701-1720
Years
Average Annual English Exports to Europe (in Florins)
Average Annual Dutch Exports to Europe (in Florins)
Average Annual Dutch Exports to Europe & Asia (in Florins)
1701-1710
1,382,595
2,315,384
3,274,369
1710-1720
2,666,764
2,650,607
3,616,242
Source & note English Exports calculated from K.N.Chaudhuri, Trading World, p.509 with one-year lag. Dutch Exports computed from Om Prakash, Dutch Company, p.70. L = 12 florins, 1 Rupee = 1.5 florin.
It was around the second decade of the eighteenth century that the English trade from Bengal picked up and almost equalled the value of the Dutch exports, though the total Dutch trade, including the trade to their other Asian factories, was still higher than that of the English. The English company's exports to Europe increased substantially from the early 1730s and reached their peak in the first quinquennial period of the 1740s. However they declined marginally in the first quinquennial period of the 1750s but the decline was not really very marked or sharp, compared to the average annual value of the English exports from Bengal in the period from 1730 to 1755, which was around L 440,000 or a little over Rs 3.5 million. It may be pointed out here that the decline in the English exports in the early 1750s was compensated by the increase in Dutch exports to Europe during the same period and as such, so far as Bengal's export trade to Europe as a whole is concerned, there was hardly any noticeable change in the position in the first half of the 1750s as compared to the earlier period.
The average annual value of the Dutch export to Europe increased steadily throughout the period from the early 1730s to the middle of the 1750s. The growth of the Dutch export to Europe was more remarkable in the early 1750s when the English trade declined, though not considerably. The interesting point to note is that the Dutch trade, which was much behind the English trade in the early 1730s nearly equalled the latter in the early 1750s. However in this computation the Dutch exports included the value of their exports to their Asian settlements, which was on a steady decline from the 1730s. The average annual value of the Dutch exports to Europe was around L 284,775 or Rs 2.3 million while the average annual value inclusive of exports to Asian markets stood at around L 373,342 or Rs 3 million in the first five years of the 1750s. The following table will give an indication of the comparative position of the average annual value of the English and Dutch exports from Bengal in the first quinquennial periods from 1730 to 1755:
Table 2 Quinquennial Total and Average Annual Value of the English and Dutch Exports, 1730-1755 [in florins]
Years
English
Dutch
Average Annual Value of Total Exports to Asia and Europe
Average Annual Value of Exports to Europe
Average Annual Value of Exports to Europe
1730-31-1734/35
5,082,453
2,020,460
3,489,567
1740/41-1744/45
5,764,284
2,390,558
3,475,770
1750/51-1754/55
4,879,785
3,417,306
4,480,104
Source & note Dutch exports compiled and computed from export invoices in the Dutch Company's records at the Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague. The figures for English exports calculated with one-year lag from K.N.Chaudhuri, Trading World, 509-10. The rate of conversion is L 1 = f 12
In this connection it is significant to note that the Dutch exports from Bengal which were so important a part of their trade in the late seventeenth and early decades of the eighteenth century show a steady decline in the period 1730-1755. On the contrary the value of exports to Europe was steadily increasing in the years from 1730 to 1745 and was marked by a substantial increase in the early 1750s. However in the first quinquennial periods of the decades from 1730 to 1755, the value of the Dutch exports to Batavia showed a steady increase, though the Dutch intra-Asiatic trade declined as a whole. The percentage share of the average annual value of the Dutch export from Bengal to Batavia in the total value of Dutch exports from the province to the different parts of Asia was 64.83 in the early 1730s, increasing to 77.02 in the first half of the 1740s and to 89.92 in the 1750s. But the export to two other important Dutch markets for Bengal goods namely, Japan and Persia showed a gradual decline. The Dutch export to other centres in Asia was almost negligible in the period from 1730-1755.
Thus a few interesting features of the export trade by the English and the Dutch companies emerge from the above analysis. The Dutch had a definite lead over the English in the first decade of the eighteenth century while they were almost equal in the second. From around the early 1720s, the Dutch fell behind the English but were picking up from the 1730s. The average annual value of the exports by the English reached the high mark in the first quinquennial period of the 1740s but it declined marginally in the first five years of the 1750s. On the other hand, the value of the Dutch exports, including exports to Asia, nearly equalled that of the English in the early 1750s. And considering the total value of exports by the two companies, there was hardly any decline from 1730 to 1755. The decline in the value of English exports in the early 1750s was made up for, as far as Bengal's export trade was concerned, by the increase in that of the Dutch during these years. So far as the Dutch intra-Asiatic trade was concerned, there was a gradual decline throughout the period, though the percentage share of Batavia in the total value increased steadily.
Here it should be noted that though it was held for long that the Europeans were the major partners in Bengal's export trade, it has been shown recently that the exports of the Asian merchants from Bengal even in the mid-eighteenth century were much higher than that of the Europeans. Textile export by Asian merchants can be computed at around Rs 9 to 10 million a year while the total export of Bengal textiles by the Europeans hardly exceeded Rs 5 or 6 million at the most. The Asian lead in silk export is much more spectacular. While the total value of silk exported by the Asian merchants is estimated at around Rs 5.5 million on an average during the period from 1749 to 1753 and Rs 4.1 million in the next five years, the average annual value of the European export of silk was only around Rs 0.98 million over the same period. In other words, the Asian share of the silk export from Bengal was 4 to 5 times more than the European share of the same in the pre-Palashi period. Most of the other European companies' trade shrank considerably after Palashi as the British pursued a policy of wiping out their European and Asian rivals, and whatever remained of the latter's trade was financed by private British individual's, who in return received bills of exchange in Europe.
It is surprising that the Dutch remained almost onlookers when the British were plotting the conquest of Bengal. After Palashi, however, they made abortive attempts to recover the lost ground. In this respect they got an ally in the person of mir jafar, the nawab. On 20th November 1759, the English seized the Dutch factory at Baranagar while the Dutch landed troops on the 22nd on the Sankrael Reach. The English won the naval battle on the 24th and the Dutch attack on the English position at Chandarnagore was beaten back. On the 25th, the English defeated the Dutch at Badera, located between Chandarnagore and Chinsura. Through the intervention of Miran, the Dutch were given back their privileges by a convention signed on 5 December 1759. The battle of Badera effectively put an end to Dutch power in India.
When shah alam II invaded Bengal, the Dutch formulated a plan to drive the English out. But Mir Jafar's successor mir qasim forced the Dutch to demolish the outer work of their fort, Fort Gustavas, at Chinsura and to pay 50,000 florins. The nawab then demanded Rs 50 lakh as compensation from the Dutch and seized their factory at kasimbazar. The Dutch paid half the amount and with English help could draw up a convention with the nawab on 23 August 1760, whose terms were very harsh on the Dutch.
Despite the English help given twice to the Dutch, the friction between them continued till the authorities in London ordered the English in Bengal not to treat the Dutch severely. The victory in the battle of buxar, 1764 and the acquisition of the Diwani in 1765 by the English further reduced the political position of the Dutch.
Their commercial position was also reduced as seen in the fall in their export of cotton piece goods from 79,000 pieces in 1758 to 47,000 pieces in 1764. The reason of the Dutch dependence on cotton piece goods was that after 1757 the English practically monopolised the saltpetre and opium trade.
One of the reasons of the soft English attitude towards the Dutch was that the English officials used to send money home by purchasing Dutch bills of exchange. This helped the Dutch in Bengal to increase their investment in raw silk and cotton pieces, whose investment in the seventies of the eighteenth century was nearly forty lakh rupees in which import of bullion was not necessary, reflecting the prosperity of English private trade. However, with the coming of lord cornwallis as Governor General, British private trade declined and with that the Dutch trade came to a virtual stop in the 1790s.
True, the Dutch did not get the necessary encouragement and support from the Heeren Seventeen (Board of Directors) in Amsterdam. But it is true at the same time that the Dutch officials in Bengal were rather not much interested in conquest. After the battle of Palashi, there was a frantic effort by Mir Jafar and Khwaja Wajid to dislodge the British, and the two joined hands with the Dutch whom they tried to persuade to invade Bengal and act as counterpoise to the British. But the gamble failed miserably and the Dutch were gradually eliminated from the trading world of Bengal. [Aniruddha Ray and Sushil Chaudhury]
Bibliography KN Chaudhuri, The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company, Cambridge, 1978; Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, Princeton, 1985; S Chaudhury, From Prosperity to Decline - Eighteenth Century Bengal, New Delhi, 1995; Om Prakash, European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India, Cambridge, 1998; S Chaudhury, The Prelude to Empire-Plassey Revolution of 1757, New Delhi, 2000.
English, The came to Bengal in the mid-seventeenth century. The English east india company, founded by a Royal charter of 31 December 1600, had in its initial stage contacts with the western and eastern coast of south India. They reached the Orissa coast and started factories at Hariharpur and Balasore in 1633. A farman of Emperor shahjahan (1650) had exempted them from the payment of transit tax (rahdari). By the beginning of 1651, the English were able to establish a factory at Hughli, perhaps due to the able support given by Doctor Gabriel Boughton, then in high favour with the Subahdar shah shuja, who by a nishan of 1651 permitted them to trade freely. The nishan allowed free trade in lieu of an annual payment of Rs. 3000/-. Shah Shuja confirmed it in 1656 and the confirmation was reiterated by mir jumla in 1660 and by shaista khan in 1672. Prince Muhammad Azam (azim-us-shan) later confirmed it although there was no imperial farman to that effect. Behind such a facade of concessions and confirmations lay an acute tussle between the officials of the company and the succeeding Subahdars.
Meanwhile the English had begun to penetrate into the interior of Bengal. James Hart appeared to have been in Dhaka in 1658, perhaps as an agent of the company. At that time the company did not establish any factory in Dhaka. It appears that a factory was established in Dhaka in early 1669 and it was enlarged under Harvey in the late seventies and early eighties of the century. The factory was initially located at Tejgaon, from where it was shifted to the city in 1735.
Trouble between the English and the Mughals continued throughout the seventeenth century on the issue of payment of customs duties from which the English were asking for exemption on the basis of the farman. At home also, the company met with difficulties as their monopoly privilege was being severely criticised. By the end of the seventeenth century, the English company's operations had moved from the western to the eastern coast, and Bengal became their most important field. By the early eighteenth century, the area of operations of the company included the Arab world, Persian and Mughal empires, Southeast Asian kingdoms and the Chinese Empire. Despite a boom, the profits were carted away by the private trade of the company merchants and the wrangling with the customs officials, for which a large sum of money had to be spent. The Bengal factory was separated from Madras and efforts were made to suppress private trade. The Mughal officials, it may be mentioned, did not seriously impede the trade of the company in Bengal. The court of directors finally resolved to start a war against the Mughals. In early 1686, Job charnock, Factor at kasimbazar, fled to Hughli where he found the horsemen of Shaista Khan seizing the factory and imprisoning some English soldiers. Charnock fled to Sutanuttee, a village 26 miles down the Bhagirathi.
Charnock sent his demands through the merchant Baramal to the nawab, and these included permission for the construction of a fort, establishment of a mint and customs-free trade. While negotiations were going on, a new fleet under Captain Heath arrived. Heath and Charnock attacked Balasore and sailed to chittagong to seize the port, in alliance with the king of arakan. But the latter thought it prudent not to incur the wrath of the Mughals and the English design fell through. On 16 August 1687, Shaista Khan had asked the English to come to Hughli. Charnock came back to Sutanuttee and withdrew for the second time on 8 November 1688. By the end of 1689, the Mughal emperor changed his stand towards the English as they had submitted in western India. On 23 April 1690, he ordered the new Nawab ibrahim khan that the repentant English company should be allowed to return to 'trade as formerly'. In February 1691, Ibrahim Khan, on the basis of the order of the emperor, sent a parwana to the English granting exemption from customs duties in lieu of an annual payment of Rs. 3000/-. Heath and Charnock, having failed to take Chittagong, came back to Sutanuttee in August 1690, to find their earlier structures destroyed. Even then Charnock decided to stay there disobeying the order of Madras to go to Hughli. The Subahdar had already offered them a place, perhaps Uluberia, two miles below Hughli. On 10 January 1693 Charnock died.
Taking advantage of the outbreak of the revolt of shobha singh and rahim khan, the Europeans had begun to fortify their factories. The English offered shelter to some affluent people in their fortified enclave, which later became the nucleus of fort william. After the rebels were driven away from the area at the end of 1697, the English wanted to take three villages of Khalisah territory, viz. Sutanutty, Govindpur and Dihi Kalkata on rent. The zamindars at first refused but were at last persuaded to acquiesce by the Subahdar Prince Azimuddin. The bainama or Deed of Purchase was signed on 9th of November 1698 on payment of sicca Rs. 1300/- and the annual revenue of these three villages was fixed at Rs.1195-6 annas.
Untill this date, the English had been usurpers of land at Sutanuttee, but this deed legalised their position. The compensation paid by the English to the zamindars, as mentioned in the farman of 1717, shows that it was not a traditional procedure. Yet it was a taluqdari right (not a zamindari right) and the English as such were subject to the laws of the land for which often, as in 1699, there was talk of sending a Qazi. Earlier, as usurpers, the English had collected rents from shops settled there since 1694.
From the beginning London had been urging Sutanuttee to raise revenue for their maintenance as well as for payment to the shareholders. While jama had remained stationary from 1698 to 1714, the revenue had increased to Rs. 5760/- by 1704. By 1710, it had increased to Rs. 16,500/-. Between 1710 and 1720, the land revenue had increased to nearly 230%, and was collected by collectors appointed for the purpose. The company imposed a tax of Rs. 3/- per bigha irrespective of the crop, a practice different from that of the Mughals who taxed the crop only. The company also imposed taxes on every article bought or sold, including the sale of slaves at Rs. 4 - 4 per slave. There was a 5% tax on houses and all the professional people and craftsmen including the Brahmins, had to pay tax. From the 1720's, these taxes were given ijara while Jiziya or poll tax was levied, which was however different from the Mughal tax.
The export of the English from Bengal mainly consisted of saltpetre, textile, raw silk, cotton yarn, as well as bulk goods like sugar that also served as ballast. While in 1652, the investment was around 7000 livres, in the early eighteenth century, it had gone up to the value of 336,973 livres, reflecting the increasing demand for cheap Bengal goods in Europe. The imports of the company consisted mainly of bullion and spices, woollens, broadcloth etc, of which the first two formed the most important items. Kasimbazar was the most important market for imported goods followed by Malda, Dhaka and Hughli.
In January 1715, the company received a hasb-ul hukum of the emperor permitting them to trade freely, as in Aurangzeb's time. The company now sought a farman and sent an embassy to Delhi under John Surman, which received the farman on I February 1717, in which all the earlier privileges were maintained. The company was allowed to purchase 38 villages and was given 40 bighas of land to set up a factory. The Subadar, murshid quli khan did not allow them the right of using the mint freely as the farman was silent on the issue. He also obstructed the purchase of new villages. Only in 1754 could Holwell get the adjacent spot of land, called Similia, on an annual rent of Rs. 2,281. It was only in December 1758, after the battle of palashi, that mir jafar granted to the company a sanad for the free tenure of the town of Calcutta.
In the treaty of 9 February 1757 between the English and sirajuddaula, the latter did not include any clause against the English nor would he allow the free use of the mint or the use of the villages mentioned in the farman. By the treaty of 3rd June 1757 with Mir Jafar, the English got all these with the extension of their zamindari up to Kulpi. This time the zamindars did not get any compensation. The company was given new land in 24 Parganas as zamindari by a sanad at Rs. 2,22,958-10-2-3, whose value, according to clive, would be more than ten lakh rupees. On 23rd June 1765, Mir Jafar bestowed 24 Parganas as jaigir to Clive, and later confirmed it by a farman, for ten years.
After the battle of palashi, Mir Jafar offered to the English a compensation of Rs. 1,77,00,000/- and promised a donation of Rs. 53,90,000/- for which he had to mortgage his jewels. By the treaty of 1760, mir qasim gave the revenues of Burdwan, Midnapur and Chittagong to the English. The Court of Directors however was displeased with the new acquisitions. Clive, as Governor, entered into an agreement with the nawab on 19 August 1765, by which the nawab would pay the emperor a sum of Rs. 2,16,666-10-9, in return for which the emperor shah alam appointed the English company the Dewan of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, with an exemption from the payment of customs duties. On 30 October 1765, Clive entered into another agreement with Nawab nazmuddaula, who agreed to accept Rs. 53,86,131-9 as allowance for the Nizamat. An official nominated by the English would control the expenditure.
The situation of the English company in 1765 was supreme. Calcutta was held in free tenure and in the adjacent 24 Parganas, the company acted as the zamindar. In the ceded districts, the company directly managed the revenue and administered the functions of the government excepting Faujdari cases. The company was the Dewan in rest of Bengal. The English Resident at the Darbar decided every matter of importance. As the Dewan, the company administered land revenue, collected customs and controlled financial expenditure. The commercial supremacy of the English company in Bengal was beyond any question.
The Court of Directors approved the new deals on 17 May 1766 and the English had become paramount in Bengal. After Palashi, the investment increased tremendously, thanks to the generous donation of Mir Jafar of one crore and thirty lakh rupees. Besides, the ceded districts yielded an income of fifty lakh rupees a year, which, with the income of the zamindari of Calcutta and 24 Parganas, gave the English sufficient amount of money. Gradually, the import of bullion was stopped and Bengal became a source of raw material as well as market of the finished products of England.
The social life of the English in Bengal, particularly in Calcutta, has been well documented. Coming from predominantly middle class families of England, their social life in Bengal began to change after 1765. The dark and makeshift lodgings in the fort were gradually replaced by pillared bungalows in a hybrid Anglo- Mughal style, in which the living rooms began to dominate. Till the end of the eighteenth century, there was the problem of finding marriageable European women for nearly two thousand civilian and military men. This resulted in their taking concubines and mistresses of Indian origin. Many of the Englishmen in the second half of the eighteenth century had children by their Indian mistresses, most of whom were Muslims or low-caste Hindus. The Court of Directors however refused to provide these natural sons of the Englishmen employment in the company's services, obviously a discriminatory racial policy pursued from the days of the Portuguese. Such Anglo-Indians were not considered British subjects even in the early nineteenth century, although they were allowed to go to England. [Aniruddha Ray]
Ostend Company was formed according to the idea of the emperor of Austria for commercial operations in India after the Treaty of Utrecht. The emperor fixed Ostend as the port of the company in 1714 and authorised it to send ships to India.
The company got a parwana from murshid quli khan and established a factory at Bankibazar (modern Ichapur) and fortified it with cannons. The english and the dutch bribed the faujdar of hughli, Ahsanullah Khan, to represent to the nawab against the company. The nawab ordered the removal of fortifications. At the refusal of the Ostenders war began despite the attempted mediation by a Kashmiri Muslim merchant of Hughli. From the extant French documents (unpublished), it appears that the event occurred around 1724. The first Ostend ship had reached Balasore in 1719 and Murshid Quli gave the parwana in 1721.
The commerce of the Ostend Company continued despite the hostility of the English and the Dutch. In 1724, the faujdar of Hughli led an attack on the Ostend factory for disobeying state laws and its chief was killed in the attack. Yet the company continued to make purchases in Bengal in 1725 as another ship had come with some funds.
In Europe, at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1727), the Austrian emperor was abandoned by the King of Spain while the English and the Dutch raised objections against the operations of the company. It was then decided that the Ostend Company would have an establishment in Bengal but could not send any ship there for seven years.
Khwaja Safar, an Armenian merchant, had persuaded the faujdar of Balasore to permit the Ostenders to build a factory there. The English opposed this and the Dutch had offered the faujdar a sum of one lakh twenty-five thousand rupees to drive out the Ostenders. Meanwhile through sarfaraz khan the Ostenders persuaded the nawab to grant them a parwana on payment of one lakh twenty thousand rupees. They would also pay another one lakh to the nawab for procuring a farman. The Ostenders paid thirty thousand and deposited seventy thousand rupees with jagat sheth. Murshid Quli gave a shiropa to the chief of the Ostend Company and issued a parwana two weeks before his death, permitting them to establish a factory at Bankibazar.
In Europe, the Austrian emperor wanted to get out of the Aix-la-chapelle accord and formed a league with Denmark and Sweden. Poland did not join as they were preparing to send two ships to India. The English and the Dutch seized these two ships while Denmark was persuaded to withdraw. The french in Chandernagore gave protection to the Poles.
By 1730 the banks of the Hughli were full of European deserters and adventurers, who were first employed by the Danes and later by the Ostend Company. One of the most active of such men was Francois de Schonamille of Antewerp, who declared himself to be the chief of Bankibazar. By that time the Danes had withdrawn and the Austrian emperor had first suspended and then abolished the company, a fact that had remained unknown in Bengal for many years.
Schonamille lived by country trading and often dealt with the English and the Dutch traders. In 1730, he tried to mediate unsuccessfully between the Poles and the Anglo-Dutch cartel in Bengal. Another such self-styled captain was John Combes who declared himself captain of the Ostend Company. He quarrelled with Hume who cautioned restraint and dependence on the nawab against Combes' policy of confrontation. But Combes persuaded the rest of he company officials, although one was not sure whether the projected attacks on Anglo-Dutch shipping would be in the name of the company or in the name of the Polish King. The English and the Dutch, becoming aware of the project, seized the ship. Combes blamed Hume for the delay, who left for Europe in a French ship leaving Schonamille in charge of the factory at Bankibazar.
Despite the Dutch blockade, Ostend ships visited Bengal regularly till 1733 as is evidenced from a letter of Dupleix, although by 1732, the Ostend Company was definitely abolished. Yet a French visitor had found in January 1734 the flag of the emperor of Austria floating at the Ostend factory at Bankibazar. It appears that after seven years from the date of the accord, the English and the Dutch were allowing the Ostend ships to come with the flag of the emperor. At the end of 1735, Dupleix had found that the Ostend Company had no money and no ship. In another French letter of 1739, the situation of the Ostend Company was described as dismal. Till 1744, Schonamille and a few Ostenders lived largely with the help of Danish and Swedish travellers. He blamed the lack of support from Vienna as the chief reason of their plight. But the letter of a Flemish merchant, who visited Bankibazar in 1741, would suggest that there was a good deal of unofficial contact between Ostend and Bankibazar, which had become the principal centre of European adventurers in Bengal.
In 1744, perhaps with Dutch funds, the faujdar of Hughli imposed a fine on Schonamille for his alleged collusion with the Maratha traders. Schonamille denied the accusation, led an attack on the forces of the faujdar and easily routed them. Next the faujdar led a bigger force and Schonamille, escaping to Syrium in Burma, met a violent death. Bankibazar was plundered and the flag of the emperor was hauled down. The Ostend Company, perfectly viable economically, was sacrificed at the altar of high politics.
The Ostend Company concentrated principally in Bengal and China, from where they imported tea to give the English a stiff competition. The Dutch and the French were against them because, from Ostend, they re-exported Indian and Chinese goods at cheaper prices. With moderate operational costs and with few stations, their running costs were far lower than those of other European companies operating in Bengal. Their last flicker came at the end of the eighteenth century, but it was soon extinguished by English domination. [Aniruddha Ray]
Sengupta, Achintya Kumar (1903-1976) poet, novelist and editor, was born on 19 September 1903 at Noakhali town, the work place of his father. His original home was at madaripur district. His father, Rajkumar Sengupta, was a lawyer.
Achintya Kumar spent his early life at Noakhali and had his schooling there. After the death of his father in 1916, he went to Kolkata to live with his elder brother Jitendrakumar Sengupta.
He passed matriculation from South Suburban School in 1920, Intermediate in Arts from South Suburban College (now Asutosh College) in 1922, Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English literature in 1924, and Master of Arts from the university of calcutta in 1926. He also passed the law examination in the first division in 1929. He began his career as a temporary munsif in 1931 and retired in 1960, after having being promoted to sub-judge, district judge and special officer with the Law Commission.
Achintya Kumar Sengupta
Achintya Kumar's first poem was published in prabasi in 1921 under the penname of Niharika Devi. He was considered to be one of the key numbers of the Kallol group who, after rabindranath tagore and sharat chandra chattopadhyay, were able to instate in literature. He is particularly remembered for his excellent fictionalisation of the life of religious leaders. His first novel, Bede (1928), is widely appreciated in modern bangla literature for its form, style, and subject matter. His writing is deeply influenced by modernism. The subject matter of his poetry includes romantic themes and he is also able to represent the mass consciousness. He was also noted for his skill in writing short stories, and ability to depict the lives of the working class.
Achintya Kumar wrote around 70 books; noteworthy among the novels are Kakjyotsna (1931), Bibaher Cheye Bada (1931), Prachir O Prantar (1932), Pratham Kadamphul (1961); prominent among the poetical works are Amabasya (1930), Amra (1932), Priya O Prthibi (1933), Nil Akash (1949), Purba Pashchim (1969), Uttarayan (1974). Among the biographies mention can be made of Parampurus Shrishriramakrishna (four volumes, 1951-56), Bireshvar Vivekananda (three volumes, 1958-69); among the plays, Ekanka Natya-Sangkalan (1945); and among the story works, Tuta-phuta (1928), Kath Khar Kerosin (1945), Chasabhusa (1947), Ekratri (1961) etc.
Achintya Kumar took over the charge of publishing Kallol in 1925. He worked with the Bichitra for a short period too. His reminiscence called Kallolyug, or the Kallol era, (1950) created a stir in its time. He received the Jagattarini Award, the Rabindrasmriti Award (1975) and the Sharatchandra Smriti Prize (1975) for his achievement in literature and journalism. He died in Kolkata on 29 January 1976.
[Anirudha Kahaly]
Kasida a folk embroidery of Bengal. Embroidery refers to as painting done with a needle and suggests strength and unification. Embroidery was introduced into India from Arab countries for large-scale production for trade in the 9th century AD. References suggest that Emperor Harsa wore embroidered fine muslin costumes in the 7th century AD.
Bengal is famous for enchanting Kasida needlecraft. It originated in Dhaka, essentially as a pursuit of womenfolk of the peasant class or as domestic leisure activity for subsidiary income. Taylor and Coomaraswamy have pointed out that fine satin stitches were employed with wheat-coloured untwisted muga silk on white cotton muslin for Kasida production.
Among noteworthy Kasida productions are turbans, handkerchiefs and scarves. Heavy and elaborate embroidered turbans (pagdis) were used as headgear. Rumals (handkerchiefs), 36´´ square with borders on all sides had richly embroidered trifoliate leaf pattern on plain and check varieties of cloth. They commanded a good market among pilgrims going to Mokka. Chadars (scarves) had the vibrant elegance of floral forms on their body and were bordered with exquisite circular motifs.
Arab merchants of Basra exported Kasida products in large quantities to Persia, Makka, Jedda, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis and Malta. Pagdis, in particular were a great demand in Turkey among the soldiers of the sultan.
In the whole range of Indian embroideries Kasida have earned an abiding reputation for its craftsmanship and refinement of artistic designs and its products have earned aesthetic appreciation. Indeed, Kasida reflects the dexterous embroiders' matchless skills, richness of vision and sensitivity. They formulated their own distinctive designs from nature.
This excellent art, which once flourished in Dhaka, fell into decay, and eventually disappeared. But recently Kasida production has been revived in North 24 Parganas, Nadia in West Bengal and in different parts of Bangladesh. Present day coarser and simpler varieties of pagdis, containing rows of jhumka-phul, and circular bobby or pata butis of different widths are made for the use of the young and the old. [Atul Chandra Bhowmick]
