Muslin trade in Bengal

Muslin, a cotton fabric of plain weave was hand woven in the region around Dhaka, Bengal (now Bangladesh) and exported to the Middle East and Europe for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Early history

The textile industry of Bengal is quite old and they are found in some ancient hand written and printed documents. In the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, it is mentioned that there was trade between India and red sea port of Aduli, Egypt and Ethiopia by the Arab and Greek merchants in the second century CE. Cloths including Muslin was exchanged for ivory, tortoiseshell and rhinoceros-horn at that time. Muslin was traded from Barygaza, an ancient port of India located in Gujarat to different parts of Indian subcontinent before the European merchants came to India.

Muslin was very favourite to the Romans. They used bullion and gold coins to buy Muslin from Dhaka and South India. Muslin was introduced to Europe by the Romans and eventually it became very popular. A Chinese voyager Ma Huan wrote about five or six varieties of fine cloths after visiting Bengal in the early fifteenth century and mentioned that Bengal muslin was highly priced in China at that time.

Sixteenth century

In the early sixteenth century, A Portuguese apothecary named Tomes Pires mentioned that Bengal muslins were traded to Thailand and China. Bengali muslin was also traded to the Muslim world, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. During the Ottoman rule from sixteenth century on wards, large quantities of muslin was exported to middle-east. Muslin turbans was very favourite to the Ottomans. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese started trading of textiles from Indian subcontinent through the Persian Gulf including high quality of muslins. In the seventeenth century, the Portuguese trade declined.

Seventeenth century

In the early seventeenth century, British and Dutch merchants entered Indian Subcontinent sailing via Red Sea. At the same time, Armenian merchants from Iran came to Indian subcontinent travelling on land through Qandahar and Isfahan. They used to trade textile goods including muslin from Bengal to Aleppo of Syria. In an official inventory of Istanbul market dated from 1640, 20 types of muslins was found and the highest value found there is 1600 silver pence. As the business expanded, the European companies became interested to settle factories in Dhaka. The Dutch made their factory in Dhaka in 1663, the British in 1669 and the French in 1682.

Eighteenth century

The Ostend Company came to Bengal at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They purchased textiles through agents and their own officials. When they found the business very profitable, they also made settlements in Dhaka.

Available statistics show that in 1747 the trade of Dhaka cotton goods (primarily Muslin), including local trade valued twenty-eight and a half lakh rupees.

Decline

From 1787–1788, Dhaka suffered from severe natural calamities specially heavy rainfall and famine broke out. After the disaster, more emphasis was given on agriculture to reduce the effects of the famine. Tax was revoked on the exportation of grains. So, people became more interested in agricultural works than weaving as the wages of laborers and other people working in agriculture suddenly rose up.

From 1782 to 1787, the industrial revolution happened in Britain and Britain started to produce fine qualities of cotton. During British colonial rule, the muslin industry was made down by various colonial policies, which supported imports of industrially manufactured textiles from Britain. A heavy duty of 75 percent was imposed on export of cotton from Bengal. These ultimately lead to the decline of muslin trade in Bengal.

Notes

• Ahmedullah, M, From Muslin To Museum: The Rise and Fall of Bengal’s Textile Empire-1,2 & 3, Alochonaa (Dialogue)

Further reading

• Allen, B.C. (2009). Dacca : Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers. Delhi: LOGOS Press. ISBN 978-81-7268-194-4.
• Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2013). The Muslim Heritage of Bengal. Kube Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84774-062-5.
• Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 281–. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
• Eaton, Richard M. (1996). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760. University of California Press. pp. 202–. ISBN 978-0-520-20507-9.
• Islam, Khademul (May–June 2016), Our Story of Dhaka Muslin, vol. 67, AramcoWorld, pp. 26–32, OCLC 895830331
• Prakash, Om (1998). European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 202–. ISBN 978-0-521-25758-9.
• Giorgio Riello; Prasannan Parthasarathi, eds. (2011). The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200-1850. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969616-1.
• Giorgio Riello; Tirthankar Roy, eds. (2009). How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500-1850. BRILL. pp. 219–. ISBN 90-04-17653-5.
• Staples, Kathleen A.; Shaw, Madelyn C. (2013). Clothing Through American History: The British Colonial Era. ABC-CLIO. pp. 96–. ISBN 978-0-313-08460-7.