Indrajit Ray

The silk industry in Bengal during colonial rule

This article examines two hypotheses on Bengals silk industry during the colonial period: (a) whether the industry declined during the first half of the nineteenth century, and (b) whether the discriminatory colonial policies caused its decay. Discussing the East India Companys involvement in Bengals silk trade before 1757 as a prelude, it analyses in depth various government policies on raw silk manufacturing and silk weaving during the Company raj. There are discussions on the marketability, technology and organisation of the industry as well as its employment opportunities and capital structure. In contrast to the prevailing hypotheses, the study shows that the industry entered into the declining phase during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. It also suggests that while policy discriminations were present, the hypothesis of discriminatory colonial policies as an explanation for the decline of the industry is not tenable. Rather, the industry collapsed under the adverse impact of the market.

The indigo dye industry in colonial Bengal: A re-examination

This article seeks to document and analyse various facets of the indigo dye industry in Bengal during 1772-1860. Britains trade in Indian indigo during 1600-1757 is first dis cussed here briefly to identify why the imperial government in Bengal nurtured the industrys growth against the odds of international competition and domestic constraints of organisational and technical shortfalls. We then sketch out the course of its development in response to various fiscal and monetary incentives from the government as well as supports of market. information. The spread of its development is assessed in terms of number of firms, capital employed and the creation of job opportunities. Finally, the industrys welfare implications are studied in depth to verify whether the industry was a boon or a bane to the society of Bengal during the nineteenth century.

Struggling against Dundee: Bengal jute industry during the nineteenth century

This article seeks to situate Bengal’s jute industry during the nineteenth century in a global perspective. It was a long-established cottage industry in Bengal that entered into the global market before the advent of jute technologies at Dundee, and grew together with the Dundee mills through the mid-nineteenth century. The subsequent emergence of modern mills in Bengal further aggravated the market competition. In view of inadequate deliberations in the existing literature, we intend to investigate four important questions on the contemporary jute industry: (a) what was the development status of the traditional jute industry in Bengal around the mid-nineteenth century?; (b) when did it enter into the phase of decline?; (c) what were the sources of comparative advantages between the Dundee and Calcutta mills?; and (d) what were the nature and consequences of competition between them? These issues are discussed, and also quantified, wherever possible, on the basis of contemporary data and information. The welfare implications of Bengal jute industry are also evaluated.

Imperial policy and the decline of the Bengal salt industry under colonial rule: An episode in the 'de-industrialisation' process

India traditionally manufactured salt from seawater, as she was not endowed adequately with other conventional sources like brine springs and beds of rock salt. The industry, therefore, developed in the seashores of Bengal, Bombay and Madras, particularly in those places where the brine water could be conveniently collected and stored. The industry was affected by two more spatial requirements, that is, proximity to woods and easy accessibility to river transport. The former ensured that the cost of firewood-the most intensive factor input in salt manufacture-remained low, and the latter was necessary to transport the product to dis-

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

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 industrys market performance and its consumption of raw materials. It contests the prevailing hypothesis that the industrys 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 beginning, 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 industrys export outlet, its decay is better explained by technological innovations in Great Britain.

Dynamics of Bengal coal mining in the nineteenth century: Dissemination of mineralogical knowledge and railway networking

This study seeks to analyse the pattern of development of the coal mining industry in Bengal during the nineteenth century, and also its underlying causations. It reveals that though attempted for the first time in 1774, regular excavation of coal mines took off only around the mid-nineteenth century. I argue that mining in Bengal suffered initially from the adverse attitude of colonial governance and its institutions, and afterwards, from the lack of mineralogical knowledge, inefficient transport networks and the scarcity of labour. Once the style of governance shifted from the Company State to the rule of the British Crown, those impediments disappeared. These deliberations show how those successive events established a comparative cost advantage in favour of Bengal coal, enabling it to compete with British coal in the domestic market. The export ventures of the industry, especially in South and Southeast Asia, are also briefly discussed.

'The Great Divergence' Revisited: The Case of Bengal in Early Modern Times

ABSTRACT This study contributes to the literature on the ‘Great Divergence’ by analysing the historical roots of the economic slowdown in Bengal. It offers a critique of existing hypotheses insofar as they fail to account for the experience of Bengal sufficiently. In particular, emphasis on demographic-ecological crisis as an explanation of Asian regions falling behind seems inapt for Bengal. The paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework based on Adam Smiths understanding of pre-modern process of economic development, and especially the role of capital inflows. This alternative is tested against a detailed analysis of monetary and fiscal trends in early modern Bengal.

AN ECONOMETRIC APPROACH TO THE PLANNING OF ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract The tools and techniques of econometrics are conventionally used in the estimation and testing of relationships between different economic variables, and their application features in the literature of transport economics. This paper seeks to make use of econometrics in a wider field to solve a number of economic problems that crop up in investment decisions on road development in developing countries. This study is divided into four sections with a brief conclusion. Section 1 deals with the problems that should be taken into account when taking investment decisions on road systems. In Section 2, an attempt is made to show how econometric tools can be applied in sorting out those problems. Section 3 highlights the limitations of the approach, and in Section 4, a case study is undertaken to verify the applicability of the model in reality.