Synopsis Merchants and Companies in Bengal: Kasimbazar and Jugdia in the Eighteenth Century offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of the South Asian merchants as well as the organizations of the textile trade in Bengal in the first half of the eighteenth century. Heavily archived from French and English sources, this book tells the story of the silk merchants at Kasimbazar and the cotton traders at Jugdia prior to EEIC's takeover of Bengal. The fragility and instability of a mercantile economy, the commodification of goods and the role of capital -- both indigenous and external--are highlighted in this volume.