ABSTRACT
The fact of Dacca's decline can scarcely be disputed, nor that the collapse of its cotton manufactures was due principally to the introduction of machine-made textiles from Great Britain. Dacca is notoriously an impoverished and declining city, and its decline may be mainly traced to that vast increase in the import of British piece-goods which must have greatly promoted the prosperity of the Cotton Manufacturing duties in Great Britain. The year chosen was 1885, when the newly-constructed Dacca and Mymensingh State Railway began to operate between Narayanganj, Dacca and Mymensingh; the year also when Dacca became a self-governing municipality with an elected chairman and a majority of elected municipal commissioners. From 1830 to 1850, Dacca felt the impact of new changes. This was the period which saw the growth of civil institutions like the Dacca Municipality, the Dacca District Board, and also the foundation of Government School and College in Dacca.
