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Bankrolling Empire : Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India by Sudev Sheth (2025, Trade Paperback)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherCambridge University Press
ISBN-101009330225
ISBN-139781009330220
eBay Product ID (ePID)12072283010
Product Key Features
Book TitleBankrolling Empire : Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India
Number of Pages377 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2025
TopicEconomics / General, Asia / India & South Asia
IllustratorYes
GenreBusiness & Economics, History
AuthorSudev Sheth
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.8 in
Item Length9 in
Item Width6 in
Additional Product Features
LCCN2023-024324
Reviews'A remarkable account, path-breaking in its detail, of the shifting relations between private finance and political power in 17th & 18th century India: drawing on original sources, ranging across multiple languages, and moving between microscopic and wide-angled perspectives, Sheth traces the fortunes of a family of Jain bankers, revealing how they calculated and conducted their relations with political power during critical times - surviving the decline of Mughal power, the expansion of British control and the ambitions of local rulers, to emerge as a significant industrial house today. Necessary reading - not just for historians of late Mughal India, but for anyone interested in business history and in historical relations between private capital and state power.' Sunil Khilnani, Ashoka University, 'Following the fortunes of a merchant-banking family in western India across four generations, Bankrolling Empire weaves a rich and exciting narrative of the inter-dependence between merchant capital and state formation in Mughal India. This book is a must read for scholars interested in state-society relations, banking firms and social transformations in early modern South Asia.' Farhat Hasan, University of Delhi, 'An important contribution to the study of early modern India. By tracing the activities of several prominent Gujarati banking families across multiple generations, Sudev Sheth resolves a long-standing debate over the Mughal empire's dependency on indigenous financiers, and whether their withdrawal of lending services had led to imperial collapse.' Richard M. Eaton, University of Arizona, 'This delightful book uses the prism of family history to address a longstanding debate in the history of the Mughal empire, that of the evolving role of merchants in sustaining, and later dismantling the regime. Based on remarkable multi-lingual research, it is a major contribution to South Asian history.' Nandini Chatterjee, University of Exeter, 'Sheth employs an intergenerational study of a family of Gujarati financiers to provide original and rich narratives about family business, the relationship between business and politics, and the decline of the Mughal empire. The use of unconventional primary sources, written in eleven Asian and European languages, is extraordinarily impressive.' Geoffrey Jones, Harvard Business School, 'Innovative in its concepts, and creative in its use of a range of historical materials, Bankrolling Empire is a welcome and original attempt to illustrate the transition from the Mughal to the British empire from the hitherto-neglected perspective of the Indian families who financed both. Sheth's work will be of equal interest to students of the Mughal empire and of the growing field of business history in India.' Abhishek Kaicker, University of California, Berkeley, 'How a dynasty of indigenous merchants and bankers in Gujarat made and unmade the fortunes of local rulers. A deeply researched study that lifts the Orientalist curtain which still shrouds the nexus between money and power in premodern Asia.' Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study, 'This book combines deep analysis and wide research in a study of how successive phases of the Mughal, Maratha and early British empires interacted with the entrepreneurial careers of two important Indian capitalist families. It is a pathbreaking contribution to our understanding of global capitalisms in the early modern world.' Sumit Guha, University of Texas, Austin
Dewey Edition23/eng/20230722
Dewey Decimal338.70954
Table Of ContentIntroduction; 1. Prelude: The Mughal Empire, 1526-1750; 2. Courtly mutualism: the emperor's jeweler Shantidas Jhaveri, 1628-1658; 3. Political commensalism: Manekchand Jhaveri and bankrolling bids to the throne, 1658-1707; 4. Interlude: cultivating financial crisis under Aurangzeb, 1660s-1719; 5. Expedient extortion: the governor's golden goose Khushalchand Jhaveri, 1719-1730; 6. Competitive coparcenary: Vakhatchand Jhaveri and brokering politics, 1730-1818; 7. Postlude: Bankrollers of Mughal succession, 1750-1818; Conclusion; Appendices; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.
SynopsisSudev Sheth presents the downfall of the Mughal Empire and the rise of its successor states as experienced directly by family entrepreneurs. Using hitherto untapped sources in multiple languages, he reveals how local persons and elites participated in the financial crisis that shook Indian society to its very foundations., By the 1660s, the mighty Mughal Empire controlled the Indian subcontinent and impressed the world with its strength and opulence. Yet hardly two decades would pass before fortunes would turn, Mughal kings and governors losing influence to rival warlords and foreign powers. How could leaders of one of the most dominant early modern polities lose their grip over empire? Sudev Sheth proposes a new point of departure, focusing on diverse local and hitherto unexplored evidence about a prominent financier family entrenched in bankrolling Mughal elites and their successors. Analyzing how four generations of the Jhaveri family of Gujarat financed politics, he offers a fresh take on the dissolution of the Mughal empire, the birth of princely successor states, and the nature of economic life in the days leading up to the colonial domination of India.
LC Classification NumberHD62.25.S54 2024
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