Books on eighteenth-century Bengal talk of how the economy declined when the British took over the revenue administration.

This volume is different from other books written on this period because it breaks away from the well-trodden path of eighteenth-century historiography that looks at the period as one that saw a general decline.

It explores the major components of the distributive economic networks of markets, overland and riverine communication systems and consumption.

It analyses their interaction with the state, both during the Nizamat and the early years of the rule of the English East India Company in Bengal.