Economic Conditions in the 18th Century Regional Kingdoms

At a Glance

• Base Agriculture worked by hard-pressed peasants
• Trade balance Exports exceeded imports; bullion flowed in
• Textile centres Dacca, Murshidabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and others
• Shipbuilding Maharashtra, Andhra and Bengal; Kerala coast
• Weakness Stagnant technology and heavy peasant burdens
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Medieval History: Regional Kingdoms

Where Does It Fit?

This is the fifteenth topic of the category on regional kingdoms. The previous topic described the battle that checked the Marathas, and this topic describes the economic life of the regional states in the same century. The next and last topic of the category covers their social and cultural life. Previous topic: Ahmad Shah Abdali and allies Maratha commander Sadashivrao Bhau Afghan allies Najib-ud-Daula…">Third Battle of Panipat (1761) – Marathas vs. Ahmad Shah Abdali.

What Was the General Economic Condition?

In short: the economy of the eighteenth-century regional kingdoms was a land of contrasts, with trade and crafts doing well while farming stayed technologically backward and peasants lived at bare subsistence.

India failed to progress economically, socially and culturally at an adequate rate in the eighteenth century. Extreme poverty and extreme luxury existed side by side. The common people were poor, backward and oppressed, while the powerful lived in luxury. One debatable view holds that the masses were better off than after a hundred years of British rule. The jagirdari crisis, with too many claimants on too little land revenue, kept putting pressure on the peasant, as explained in Jagirdari Crisis and the Shifting Allegiance of Zamindars.

How Did Agriculture Work?

Agriculture was technically backward but ran on the hard labour of peasants who seldom got the fruits of their toil. Though farm produce supported the rest of society, the peasant’s own reward was miserably small. Peasants had to pay heavy sums to the state, zamindars, jagirdars and revenue-farmers. The main crops included rice, wheat, sugar, pepper, spices and cotton. The regional states, which depended on the cooperation of zamindars and local chiefs, did not cut these burdens, and their wars made them worse.

What Did India Trade?

India was self-sufficient in crafts and farm products and did not import goods on a large scale. Cotton textiles, raw silk and silk fabrics, indigo, saltpetre, opium, rice, wheat, sugar, pepper and spices, precious stones and drugs found good demand abroad. Exports exceeded imports and the gap was filled by imports of silver and gold, so India was known as a sink of precious metals. This continued the pattern described for the earlier regional kingdoms in Economic Conditions in the Regional Kingdoms.

Which Were the Manufacturing Centres?

Textile centres included Dacca, Murshidabad, Patna, Surat, Ahmedabad, Broach, Chanderi, Burhanpur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Agra, Multan, Lahore, Masulipatnam, Aurangabad, Visakhapatnam, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Madurai. Kashmir made woollen goods. Bengal handloom weavers made some of the world’s most prized fabrics, especially fine muslins, exported in the mid-eighteenth century to Egypt, Turkey and Persia, to Java, China and Japan and to Europe. Metal industries were also developed.

Maharashtra, Andhra and Bengal led in shipbuilding, and shipping flourished on the Kerala coast at Calicut and Quilon. The Zamorin used the Muslim Kunjali Marakkars as his navy. Shivaji’s navy defended the west coast against the Portuguese, and European companies bought many Indian-made ships.

How Strong Was the Economy in the End?

As an analytical point, the economy of the regional states was prosperous in the places where trade and crafts were strong and stagnant elsewhere, and it did not give the rulers the financial base to build strong armies, which helps explain why they lost ground to the Company.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Eve of conquest Describes the economy the English entered
• Trade surplus Explains why Europeans sought Indian goods
• Link Connects the jagirdari crisis with peasant conditions

What Came Next?

The next topic covers social and cultural life in the eighteenth-century regional kingdoms. Next topic: Purdah, sati, child marriage, dowry Courts…">Social and Cultural Life in the 18th Century Regional Kingdoms.

Key People and Terms

• Bullion Gold and silver coming in through trade
• Muslin Fine Bengal cotton
• Kunjali Marakkars Naval commanders of the Zamorin
• Revenue-farmer Person who bought the right to collect revenue
• Saltpetre Export used for gunpowder
• Sink of precious metals India as an importer of bullion

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on the eighteenth-century economy ask for a balanced view. These points add depth.

• Strength Trade, textiles and shipbuilding
• Weakness Backward farming and heavy burdens
• Link Why regional states lacked a financial base