THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIREminister Robert Walpole, and in France the regime of Cardinal Fleury
produced a similar atmosphere. Therefore the representatives of both
powers enjoyed a quiet time during which they could concentrate on
consolidating their respective bases in India.
In India itself, meanwhile, this was the period of the dissolution of the
Mughal empire. Baji Rao and Nadir Shah raided Delhi and in Bengal a
highly competent Mughal governor, Murshid Quli Khan, ruled as if he
were an independent prince. Murshid, a Brahmin converted to Islam, had
had a meteoric administrative career in the service of the Great Mughal.
Following the eclipse of Delhi, he did pretty much what he liked. He built
a new capital of Bengal, Murshidabad, and annexed Bihar and Orissa. He
organised an efficient centralised administration, eliminated many of the
Mughal fiefs and collected the revenue in cash. It may sound paradoxical,
but it was he who prepared the ground for British rule in India. Without
his efficient system of administration and a large revenue in cash, Bengal
would have been useless to the British.
Of course, while Murshid was still alive, the British remained marginal
figures in Bengal and were entirely dependent on his pleasure. In 1717 the
East India Company had been granted the privilege of free trade and free
coinage in Bengal by the Great Mughal, but this grant was an empty
promise as far as Murshid was concerned. In order to get along with him,
the British had to deal with Murshid’s banker, Fatehchand, called Jagat
Sheth (‘Merchant of the World’). Jagat Sheth obstructed the British by
denying them free access to the Mughal mint. He made a good profit by
controlling access to the mint and buying up silver at prices dictated by
him. But the British wisely decided to work with him and not against him.
In this way they gained a key position in the trade of Bengal by making
clever use of the existing power structure.
In western India the British position was quite different. Gujarat was of
prime importance for international trade, but there was no Murshid Quli
Khan in that province, and the dissolution of the Mughal empire
immediately affected this region. Surat, the great port of the empire, lost its
importance within a few decades. Many merchants fled from this proud
imperial port to Bombay where the British offered protection against
Mughal and Maratha depredations. Bombay had a good natural port, but
its connection with the hinterland was blocked by the Western Ghats and,
therefore, it was much less suited for international trade than Surat.
Nevertheless, the Indian merchants preferred a safe port to a place where
one’s life and property were at stake, as the death of Muhammad Ali in
1733 had so clearly shown to everybody concerned.
The tragic fate of this last great merchant of Surat stands in striking
contrast with the good fortune of his Bengal contemporary, Jagat Sheth.
Muhammad Ali had inherited a veritable trading empire from his
grandfather, Abdul Ghaffur. Dozens of ships carried his goods to all the