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Kasimbazar a great commercial centre on the river Bhagirathi during the seventeenth century and developed into a flourishing silk-town in the late eighteenth. In the Mughal imperial Trunk Roads system Kasimbazar was considered as a nerve centre because of its linkage with
rajmahal, Bhagalpur and Patna in the west and Dhaka in the east. james rennel has described its communicational link with other Bengal marts in The Description of the Roads in Bengal and Bihar (London 1779).
Kasimbazar was well-known in the commercial world as
an international mart for silk, as Bhagwangola was for grain. Most European
traders, particularly the dutch
and the english,
had their agencies in Kasimbazar. In the Kasimbazar silk-trade, the Dutch
were dominant till mid eighteenth century while the British began to dominate
from the early 1750s. Throughout eighteenth century Kasimbazar was the
biggest mart in eastern India for silk and silk piece goods. It was also
a great weaving centre where great amount of raw silk and cotton materials
were manufactured and exported to various parts of Asia and Europe. Besides
Calcutta, the next bastion of power for the English east
india company was Kasimbazar. One of the causes contributing
to the battle of palashi
was an attack on the English factory by sirajuddaula.
[Sirajul Islam] |
