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The Permanent Settlement and the emergence of a British state in late-eighteenth-century India

Tirthankar Roy

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: The Permanent Settlement (1793) was the first major institutional reform introduced by the East India Company state in late-eighteenth century India. Most studies exploring its origin suggest that the idea was a transplant from England or Europe. That hypothesis begs a question. The case for reform had been made in the 1770s. Why did the policy take so long to materialize if it was no more than a passive copy? It did, the paper claims, because an alternative model of state-making exercised appeal, which prioritized information gathering to serve the fiscal state.

Keywords: property rights; colonialism; Permanent Settlement; zamindar; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N15 N45 N55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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