Constructing a colonial state: the land rights debate in eighteenth-century Bengal

Tirthankar Roy

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The paper reinterprets the East India Company’s state-building effort in late eighteenth‑century Bengal by foregrounding the intertwined evolution of fiscal capacity and institutional reform. It argues that the Permanent Settlement of 1793 emerged not from a desire to follow Indian or English precedent, but from the Company’s struggle to concentrate fiscal powers. A debate on the need to obtain information on taxpayers, which delayed the reform, reveals this struggle. Repeated failures in data collection pushed the state to anchor the reform in an expanding judicial system capable of producing actionable information. The Settlement strengthened revenue flows, enabling the financing of a centrally controlled army and contributing to Britain’s wider imperial expansion. However, its long-term rigidity limited fiscal flexibility and impeded broader developmental outcomes.

Keywords: British Empire; Permanent Settlement; fiscal state; property rights; zamindar; colonial law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2026-06-17
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Published in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17, June, 2026. ISSN: 0010-4175

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