English East India Company's Silk Enterprise in Bengal, 1750-1850
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1750-1850
A01=Karolina Hutková
Author_Karolina Hutková
Bengal
British colonialism
British colonies
British economic history
British imperialism
British influence
British trade in India
British trading company
British trading practices
business
Category=KCZ
East India Company
East India trade
economic impact
economy
empire
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Eurasia
global commerce
global trade
Indian economy
Silk Enterprise
silk industry
silk technologies
silk-processing activities
Product details
- ISBN 9781783273942
- Weight: 646g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 21 Jun 2019
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book examines the silk-processing activities of the English East India Company in Bengal.
This book examines the silk-processing activities of the English East India Company in Bengal and presents the Company as a manufacturer rather than a trading body or political agent. Silk was one of the first globally traded commodities; its luxury status and potential to create tax revenues and employ the poor gave it a strategic importance in many economies in Eurasia. The silk industry was also an important sector in Britain; yet, as raw silk could notbe produced domestically, the British government encouraged companies to source supplies from its colonies and the territories under its influence. Such projects proved to be challenging; the most successful was the English EastIndia Company's venture in Bengal, where the Company invested over 1 million into developing raw silk production to meet the demands of British weavers. A key component was the transfer of silk technologies from the West to the East - one of the first in this direction rather than vice versa. The outcome of this enterprise was influenced by the business and management capacities of the Company and by British and, eventually, imperial policies, with serious consequences for the Indian economy. The book ultimately presents a case of manufacturing failure, but one resulting from British imperial policies rather than colonial economies.
KAROLINA HUTKOVÁ is an LSE Fellow in Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
