[Sidenote: Former state of trade.]
Your Committee have given this short comparative account of the effects
of the maritime traffic of Bengal, when in its natural state, and as it
has stood since the prevalence of the system of an investment from the
revenues. But before the formation of that system Bengal did by no means
depend for its resources on its maritime commerce. The inland trade,
from whence it derived a very great supply of silver and gold and many
kinds of merchantable goods, was very considerable. The higher provinces
of the Mogul Empire were then populous and opulent, and intercourse to
an immense amount was carried on between them and Bengal. A great trade
also passed through these provinces from all the countries on the
frontier of Persia, and the frontier provinces of Tartary, as well as
from Surat and Baroach on the western side of India. These parts opened
to Bengal a communication with the Persian Gulf and with the Red Sea,
and through them with the whole Turkish and the maritime parts of the
Persian Empire, besides the commercial intercourse which it maintained
with those and many other countries through its own seaports.
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