Economic Conditions in Early Modern Bengal: A Contribution to the Divergence Debate

Abstract:     
The paper contributes to the debate on relative levels of living in the early modern world by estimating the income of and probable range of income growth in Bengal before European colonization. The exercise yields two conclusions, (a) average income in Bengal was significantly smaller than that in contemporary Western Europe, and (b) there is insufficient basis to infer either growth or decline in average income in the 50 years before colonization and the century after. The former conclusion is relevant to the discussion on the origins of international economic inequality, or 'divergence', and the latter is relevant to the scholarship that considers the economic effects of colonialism.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 31

Keywords: Colonial India, Comparative development, National income

JEL Classification: N10, N15

working papers series