ABSTRACT
The meteoric rise of the British East India Company, from its position as a struggling mercantile interest in the early 1700s to that of the most powerful political entity on the Indian sub-continent by the end of the century, has already received detailed analysis. For most of the second half of the eighteenth century, the new British rulers of Bengal were beset by many economic difficulties, the most pressing of which was the search for export commodities, and an effective commercial structure which could furnish a satisfactory profit for the Company in its trading relationship with Britain and Europe.
