This article seeks to answer three basic questions about the nineteenth-century cotton textile industry in Bengal that still remain unresolved in the literature; namely, when did the industry begin to decay, what was the extent of its decay during the early nineteenth century, and what were the...

1. Introduction -- 2. Bullion movement to and from Bengal, 1660-1860 -- 3. Woes of the cotton textile industry : competitive failure or policy discrimination? -- 4. Prosperous silk textile industry : traditional edge of comparative advantage -- 5. Decline of the salt manufacturing industry : an...