The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.115

v4.c20.115

The chief imports into India in Mughal times were silver and gold, copper and lead, high class woollen clothing (for which Europe, and notably France, was the chief supplier), horses (from the Persian Gulf and Khurāsān), spices (from the Dutch Indies), superior brands of tobacco (from America), glass-ware, wine and curiosities from Europe, and slaves from Abyssinia. But the total value of all these, with the exception of the precious metals and broadcloths and other costly woollen fabrics, was very small. Towards the end of the century silk taffetas and brocades began to be exported in larger quantities and a distinct improvement in the dyeing and weaving of silk was effected in Bengal by the experts brought out by the English East India Company from home. The whole Madras coast, from Masulipatam to Pondicherry, and next, but far behind it, Kanara (or the country from Hublī to Kārwār), were the seats of the most productive ordinary cotton industry in India; but the wars following the overthrow of the Quṭb Shāhī sultanate and the rise of the Marāthās completely ruined these regions, and the primacy in cotton manufacture passed on to Bengal at the beginning of the eighteenth century.