Dhaka: Its rise and decline as a centre of textile production and export
The origin of
textile industry of Dhaka may be traced back to the early times, but it was during this period that it flourished most. Weaving was carried on all over the province and it has been said that what was wool to England, linen to Egypt and silk to China, cotton was
to Bengal
Nigar Sultana
Cotton textile productions was the largest single industry of Dhaka from early seventeenth century till about the end of the eighteenth. The origin of weaving industry may be traced back to early times, but it was during this period that the industry flourished most. A decline set in from about the middle of the eighteenth century. Thereafter it accelerated and by the early 183 export of textile goods accounted for 70 per cent of its level in 1747.
The origin of textile industry of Dhaka may be traced back to the early times, but it was during this period that it flourished most. Weaving was carried on all over the province and it has been said that what was wool to England, linen to Egypt and silk to China, cotton was to Bengal. But the best quality textiles were produced in Dhaka (such other places being Sonargaon, Jangalbari, and Bazitpur). These were generally called muslins and meant for the people of higher classes and export. Dhaka also produced coarse fabrics and these were for the use by the poorer section of the local people. The fine muslins were of several kinds with different names-malmal, tanzeb (adornment of the body), nayansuk (pleasing to the eye), chikan (thin), charkona (square shaped), ab-i-rawan (running water), shabnam (morning dew), jungle khaso (specialty of the Jangalbari manufacturing station), doores (striped), jamdani (flowered) and booti (designed with knotted forms) Out of these varieties, the finest fabrics were reserved for the emperor and the nawab of Bengal as well as for export. Those reserved for the emperor were called malbas khas and those for the nawab sarkari-i-ali. The latter category was also supplied to the house of Jagat seth. In the subsequent period malbas khas came to be known as malmal khas. To procure the finest muslins for the emperor and the nawab an official known as daroga was appointed. His duty was to maintain looms at different manufacturing stations (aurangs) where weavers were employed to produce cloths for the foreign merchants. Such establishments were called malbus khas kuthi and were of the type of the Mughal karkhanas. Incidentally these names of the different varieties of muslins were mostly of Persian origin, thus indicating that it was the users and exporters rather than the direct producers who gave the names to various categories.
All the fine muslins were made of a particular variety of the copas (cotton not separated from the seed) grown in the tract of land extending from Feringibazar (12 miles south of Dhaka) along the banks of Meghna to Idilpur. This cotton was of the best quality. Imported cotton was used for the manufacture of the coarser variety of cloths.
Simple instruments were used in the production process, but the quality of the muslin was very high. This was possible because of the high quality of raw cotton (copas) and the hereditary manual skill of the weavers. Indeed from very early times the quality of muslin was drawing the attention of the foreign travellers. For example, two Muslim travelers of the nineteenth century mentioned that the cotton garments manufactured in so extraordinary a manner that nowhere else are the likes to be seen. These garments are the for most part round, and wove to that degree of fineness that they may be drawn through a ring of middling size.
Then in the 1830s James Taylor took the opinion that, throughout times the Dacca muslins have maintained their reputation and even in the present day, notwithstanding the great perfection which the art of weaving has attained in Britain, these fabrics are unrivalled.
During the Mughal period Dhaka also developed into an important centre of trade and commerce. Indeed it was the increased external, especially European, demand that provided the main impetus to the development of its cotton textile industry. Till about the end of the sixteenth century foreign travelers (Ibn Batuta, Barbosa, Varthema, Ralph Fitch) were all full of praise for the commercial prosperity of Sonargaon. But with the transfer of the capital from Sonargoan to Dhaka began the latter to attract both individual and organized traders from outside. The individual traders (i.e. traders who organized trade on individual basis) were the Khatri, Rajputs, the Pathans, Iranians, Gujratis, Khorasanis and the Armenians. James Taylors account dated 1800 show that these merchants played an important part in Dhakas trade with Sri Lanka, south-east Asia, west Asia and other parts of the sub-continent and the quantity of goods exported by them did not fall below that of the organized European traders. The Portuguese were the first to come to Bengal early in the sixteenth century, but their commercial activities never flourished. They were followed by the Dutch (1663), the English (1669) and the French (1682). The original Dutch factory was located at Tejgaon, but later it was transferred to the bank of Buriganga where Mitford Hospital is now situated. The French built their factory at Tejgaon and on the bank of river Buriganga the place where Ahsan Manzil is located. The French trade did not flourish before 1730. The first English factory was also established in the Tejgaon area. It was abandoned in 1690 and relocated in 1723. These companies established kuthis or business houses called factories and procured textile goods (piece-goods) from different production centres (aurangs).
Some statistical data are available to shed light on the total volume of the export of goods from Dhaka. In 1747 cotton goods worth Rs. 2,850,500 were exported from Dhaka. However, since we have no statistics for any point of time in the earlier period, these data do not enable us to make any idea about the rate of increase in the volume of textile production of the city as a result of the increased demand of Europe met by the Dutch and the English. However, a priori considerations suggest that there was a net gain in exports. For, earlier the exports from Bengal to Europe were marginal. Secondly, Japanese market was opened for the first time by the Dutch and the English. It is true that the Dutch and the English also took part in the export trade with Asian countries, but they did not entirely displace the trade by the asian merchants. The fact that export to Europe increased is indicated by the data relating to the export trade of the English East India Company and its officials. Indeed it would be reasonable to suggest that the total volume of Dhakas export continued to increase or at least remained stable till the acquisition of the Diwani by the company.
Procurement policy, merchants, bankers and volume of trade
The procurement policy of the English East India Company has been discussed by several scholars. The usual policy was to engage some local businessmen to procure goods for them. They were given advance sometimes to the extent of 75 per cent of the value of the goods to be delivered by the weavers. In Kolkata the advance was known as dadan and the merchants were called dadni merchants. In Dhaka the same procurement policy was followed, but the word dadni was changed to pattan. The names of the pattan merchants engaged by Dhaka Council are available in the Factory Records from 1736 to 1765. These merchants were Ramnarain Dalal, Netoo Dalal, Sunamony Dalal, Muktagolab Paikar, Hafizullah Paikar, Bishnudas Paikar Jaykissen Paiker and Conul Nundezan. In 1736 they were given an advance of Rs 61610/-. Written agreements were signed between the English Company and these merchants and the agreement specified the quantity to be supplied, the period of delivery and the price of the different varieties contracted for. Their names suggest that most of these merchants were non-locals by origin.
The system of procuring piece-goods through advance payment was abandoned in 1753. From Om Prakashs work it is clear that the Dutch followed the same system as the English did. However, he also maintains that part of the export goods was purchased with the help of commission agents or dalal. It is possible that the dalals mentioned above in the Factory Records were commission agents. Incidentally the European companies, especially the Dutch and the English, did not only export to European markets, they were engaged in intra-Asian trade. Their exports to Europe and Japan meant a net gain for the total volume of the export of Dhaka as of Bengal as a whole.
The expansion of production, international trade, expenditure on urban development, public monuments, luxuries, the army and civil administration led to the increased monetisation of economic transactions in the province, especially in Dhaka. But the problem was that though sicca rupee was the standard currency, according to James Taylor, there were 16 denominations of Arcot rupees, three denominations of sicca rupees and three denominations of sanwat rupees. The presence of so many currencies created the need for change of money and for a group of people with expert knowledge in this field. They were the Shroffs and Poddars.
Although anyone could get bullion coined at the mint, nevertheless in practice this task was reserved for the Shroff. They brought old and debased coins to the mint to be reminted and they also perched bullion for the same purpose. The Dhaka Factory Records of the English company mentioned the names of these banking houses working in the eighteenth century. These were: Seth Mahtab Rai, Seth Swarupchand, Sibrai Nayanchand, Ludduparnack (Jagat Seths gomosta), Dhan Ram, Khosal Chand Mati Chand, Alamchand Nimchand, Anupamchand Kissenchand, Kinkar Das, Matiram Sen, Santi Ram, Balaram Rai, Hari Kissen and Ananda Ram. From these names it is abundantly clear that most of them had come from Rajputna or outside Bengal. These bankers loaned to the government, merchants and issued hundis or bills of exchange. Sometimes these banks expanded their operations to the neighbouring areas.
The trade carried on the European and the Asian merchants was virtually one-way traffic, for there was too little demand for external goods in Dhakas (indeed in Bengals) markets. The result was that these merchants had to import bullion for payment to the local producers. According to Sushil Chowdhury in the middle of the eighteenth century, the export of textile goods from Bengal by the Dutch and the English taken together and the Asian merchants were worth, respectively, five and 11.5 million rupees (a total of 16.5 million rupees).
There is no means of knowing how much treasures were being imported by these merchants in Dhaka because the records of the Dutch and the French companies and individual foreign traders do not contain any information. The English records show that they paid for almost their entire investment (i.e. purchase) in Dhaka in bullions or coins brought from outside. Usually the English merchants brought chests full of bullions from Kolkata and coined them into money in Dhaka. Sometimes they borrowed funds from local banking houses. Incidentally figure cited by Sushil Chaudhuri contradict Taylors assumption that the volume of trade carried on by the individual Asian traders equaled that of the European companies.
Beginning of the decline
The second half of the eighteenth century witnessed the beginning of the decline of Dhaka as a centre of textile production and commerce due to the decline in her exports. Earlier Dhaka had lost her political importance with the transfer of capital to Murshidabad early in the eighteenth century. Now started the process of her decline in the economic field. The decline in exports was due to several factors. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution in England, in which the textile production sector played the most important role was making rapid progress. Secondly, the British government imposed heavy duty on Indian imports. Thirdly, the outbreak of war in Europe following the French Revolution reduced European demand for Indian textiles. Fourthly, after the acquisition of Diwani in 1765, the English company stopped the import of bullion and began procuring cotton piece-goods out of their territorial revenue. But as their revenue was not adequate the English traders started abusing their newly-acquired political power to purchase goods at a reduced price, But the weavers naturally refused to comply with the obvious negative impact on the level of production. With regard to the volume of export James Taylor was of the opinion that cloths worth an amount exceeding 18 lakhs of rupees could not be procured in a single year. This would mean that compared to 1747 the decline was of the order of about 40 per cent.
The decline of Dhaka as a centre of textile production and its export accelerated during the first four decades or so of the nineteenth century. This will be clear from a brief reference to some of the relevant statistics. The export of the muslin to England. This was reduced to 8.5 lac in 1807 and only 3.5 lac in 1813. In 1817 export of muslin ceased altogether. Wc have no data on the decline of total exports of cotton piece-goods from Dhaka to all the external markets. However, some idea may be had from the data relating to export from Bengal as a whole: export declined from Rs. 2,30,83,570/- in 1805 to 8,22,890/- in 1832/33 i.e by 70 per cent.
At the same time, local market was also being lost through the import of machine-made cotton goods from England. In 1813/14 imported cotton goods was worth only Rs. 9,070/-, but import went upto Rs. 42,64,707/- in 1832/33. Again, the import of cotton twist increased from only Rs. 1,23,145/- in 1824/25 to Rs. 23,87.807/- in 1832/33, thus, causing hardship to the local spinners. Incidentally, though import in England continued to be taxed heavily, the rate of duty on import of British textile goods to Bengal was reduced to 2.5 percent in 1813.
Such a changing scenario with regard to export and import obviously led to a huge loss of employment in spinning and weaving. Following N. K. Sinhas assumption Deben Mitra has suggested that one lac weavers were thrown out of employment in the province. There is no way we can verify the validity of such an assumption. Much less can we say about the number of weavers thrown out of employment in Dhaka city. However, it may safely be asserted that the number of weavers and spinners declined also in Dhaka or Dhaka city also experienced de-industrialisation as mentioned by the nationalist writers of the late nineteenth century. Only one type of handicraft production remained unaffected - this was weaving of coarse cloth of all varieties for the local people. These cloths were so cheap that imported cloths could not compete with them. Thus, jogees (Hindu weavers) and joolas (Muslim weavers) who made cloth for the poorer people continued to remain in their profession unaffected. But, overall, Dhaka represented symptoms of decay corresponding with the diminished population and reduced circumstances of the present inhabitants. A great number of houses were unoccupied or in a state of ruin. Drains, ghats, roads and bridges were neglected for want of funds to keep them in repair. The suburbs were over run with jungle, while the interior of the town was filled with stagnant canals.
What happened to the other groups (money-changers, bankers, pattans and other merchants) directly connected with export of cotton goods? Due to several causes including over assessment during the early years after the introduction of the Permanent Settlement most of the zamindar families of Bengal became defaulters in revenue payment to the government and their estates were sold in the auction market under the operation of the Sunset Laws and in the majority of cases the purchasers were urban-based monied men. The merchants of Dhaka city were no exception to this general pattern - they also transferred their capital to the emerging land market.
The most important business houses of Dhaka city who invested in zamindari estates were the Khawja bothers, (Alimullah and Hafizullah and later Abdul Gani Mia) Dul Singh, Rajiblochan, Barkatullah, Mirza Ashraf Ali, George Paniaty (a Greek merchant), Mirza Gulam Ali, Govinda Das, Mirza Haider Ali, Rubisser Johannes (Greek merchant) and Ram Prasad Sarkar. Dhaka never regained her glory as a centre of cotton manufacture. Much less did it witness the development of modern industries during the British rule. Indeed, compared to Kolkada, Dhaka became an ever more parasite city, in a colonial setting, a nerve centre of colonial exploitation, rather than a generator of economic growth. She played this role in two ways: (a) centre for the consumptions and distribution of imported manufactured goods from the west and (b) transit point for the export of agricultural raw materials and wage goods.
The writer is a teacher
