Question

Explain the following:

The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.

Answer 1

1. Most European enterprises had vast resources, making it difficult for Indian merchants and traders to be competitive.
2. The European companies gained power by securing various concessions from local courts.
3. Some of the companies had monopoly rights over Dade. All of this led to the downfall of the traditional ports of Surat and Hoogly, through which local merchants operated. Exports from these ports dropped considerably. The credit that had previously financed the commerce began to dry up. The local bankers gradually went insolvent.
4. In the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of the race that passed through Sura was 16 million. By the 1740s. It had dropped to three million rupees. As time passes. Surat and Hooghly deteriorated. Bombay (Mumbai) and Kolkata (Kolkata) grew.