Mughal Markets, Ports and Long-Distance Trade

From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, Mughal South Asia, from the western coast to Bengal and the Coromandel coast, linked village production to regional markets and oceanic commerce. Farmers sold part of their harvest to meet cash taxes and household expenses; artisans made goods for local buyers and distant orders; merchants joined those transactions with credit, agents and transport. Surat linked western India to Red Sea and Persian Gulf routes, while Bengal’s river ports fed textile commerce into maritime Southeast Asia. South Asian merchants remained central as Portuguese, Dutch and English companies entered the trade.

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Markets linked farms, workshops and towns

Farmers sold grain and other produce to obtain the money required for revenue payments, while keeping some for household use. Weavers, carpenters, oil pressers and other artisans often worked at home and sold goods there or at fairs and markets. In the 1660s, François Bernier described Delhi shops under arcades, with store rooms behind and dwellings above or nearby. The bazaar brought sellers and buyers together, while grain moved in bulk toward cities, garrisons and armies.

Banjaras, mobile pastoralist traders, carried grain over long distances. Their work could involve both transport and finance. In Malwa, a region of west-central India, the family of village headman Mohan Das borrowed from a banjara leader, Nayak Khandha. In 1660, Mohan Das’s son Purshottam Das repaid Khandha’s relatives; a written release recorded that the debt was settled except for a remaining bond of twenty-five rupees. A separate pass, sealed by a servant of jagirdar Nawazish Khan, a holder of revenue rights over assigned land, allowed Nayak Singha and other banjaras to buy grain without specified taxes. The pass tied an official’s authority to the practical movement of food.

Advances and wages organized production

Merchants could finance production by giving weavers an advance, called a dadani. In return, a weaver might agree to work for that merchant or deliver cloth at a fixed price. The arrangement gave the producer money before sale and gave the merchant a claim on future goods. Imperial and private workshops also hired workers: in 1620, English East India Company factors at Patna in eastern India set up a temporary workshop where nearly one hundred people wound silk.

Textile districts in Gujarat and Bengal supplied both domestic and overseas buyers. Dutch trade records for 1700–1724 list more than 5.4 million textiles exported from Bengal and Bihar, three million from the Coromandel Coast of southeast India and fewer than one million from Gujarat. The figures record a shift in Dutch sourcing toward eastern production. In textile trade between Gujarat and maritime Southeast Asia, Gujarati, Chinese and Arab merchants preceded Portuguese and Dutch participation. Armenian merchants also worked in Mughal cities and ports, linking South Asian commerce with West Asia.

Ports served merchants and pilgrims

Surat was a major Mughal port on India’s western coast. Its ships sailed toward Mocha and other Red Sea ports; the route carried pilgrims and cargo between Surat and Mecca. In the early seventeenth century, princes and senior officials owned some of the largest vessels. By about 1700, Surat had a substantial community of merchant shipowners. Shipping was a private investment: the loss of a vessel could ruin its owner, and evidence for the period does not show routine insurance for the ship itself.

On Bengal’s river network, Dhaka, now in Bangladesh, connected inland production with the delta and maritime routes. Bara Katra, built in 1644–1646, was a courtyard complex with rooms and shops near the Buriganga River. Its endowment set aside shop income for repairs and charitable purposes while providing lodging for merchants and travellers. Its endowment provisions and river location show how urban trade relied on commercial premises and maintained accommodation.

Credit and legal records kept trade moving

Trade also depended on written promises and payments that could outlast the people who made them. A Malwa account records that after the moneylender Ganesh Sahu died, his son Sangram checked the family books, collected what remained due, and paid the Afghan partner Kale Afghan’s share to Kale’s son. In 1711 a qazi, a Muslim judge, sealed a document recording the repayment and the declarant’s acknowledgment. The account books tracked transactions across generations; the sealed deed made the settlement legible to other parties.

These networks changed as the English East India Company shifted from trading privileges toward territorial power. After its victory at Plassey in 1757, the Company received the diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, from Mughal emperor Shah Alam II in 1765. Company rule therefore joined commerce to provincial taxation in a new way, while Indian merchants, financiers and producers continued to operate in changing political conditions. After the uprising of 1857, the Company deposed the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who died in exile in 1862.