ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book critically analyses the status of economic development in Bengal in the early modern age. It explains why, notwithstanding its ancient economic prosperity, Bengal encountered an economic slowdown in the early modern age. The book argues that mining in Bengal suffered initially from a hostile attitude by the colonial government and improper institutions, and later from a lack of mineralogical knowledge, inefficient transport network and the scarcity of labour. It discusses iron smelting and its downstreams in the nineteenth century. The book also discusses the tea plantations in Bengal, which were developed on the basis of British capital, tribal labour and what were designated as 'wastelands' in the Himalayas. It addresses the long-standing debate on Bengal's nineteenth-century deindustrialisation. The book explores different phases of paper making in nineteenth-century Bengal and also highlights the technology, raw materials, labour, capital and marketing.
