ABSTRACT
In the early years of its rule the East India Company had no positive policy towards Dacca. For despite Dacca's dramatic decline, it is significant that even at its lowest point, in about 1840, there was no other urban centre in East Bengal that was capable of becoming an administrative and commercial regional centre. As the capital of the Mughal subah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Dacca had been a vital centre of political life and of provincial civil and military administration; within its walls also lay the imperial exchequer, the repository of all the public revenues. As the capital of the Mughal subah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Dacca had been a vital centre of political life and of provincial civil and military administration; within its walls also lay the imperial exchequer, the repository of all the public revenues. From the 1850s Dacca was the headquarters of another department connected with revenue administration and having divisional jurisdiction.
