Colonialism, Globalization and the Economy of South-East India, c.1700-1900

It is not easy to write the ‘long-term’ economic history of any region in India -- which may account for the fact that very few such histories have been written. One obvious problem concerns the availability of data: where a paucity of sources for the pre-colonial period suddenly becomes replaced by a superfluity for the colonial epoch, but many of doubtful validity. Also, it is difficult to think through the economic implications of the profound social changes, which took place in the 19th century and which challenge any simple notions of continuity. Indian regional economies may have been as ultimately dependent on the plough in 1900 as in 1700 but, surrounding that, virtually everything else was different. Whereas in 1700, south-east India had been an important part of a textile manufacturing industry of world significance, by 1900 it stood on the agrarian periphery of an entirely different global economic order.[...]