ABSTRACT
In the second half of the seventeenth century, the Bihar peasant was exposed to the full-range of the activities of the European trading companies especially, the English, the Dutch and the French. The major European exports from Bihar, towards the end of the seventeenth century, had a strong rural base. The Bihar peasant, at the opening of the eighteenth century, was exposed to the forces of monetization of the economy and the commercialization of agriculture. The Bihar peasant had become a supplier of sugar, which was exported from the ports of Bengal to Asian and European markets. The European trading activities, along with that of the indigenous merchants, increased when the English obtained from the Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar, the right to duty-free trade in Bihar and Bengal in 1717, after John Surman negotiated the terms in Delhi. However, the Mughal bureaucrats continued to raise obstacles in the smooth conduct of the trade.
