34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 126 Roy Choudhury, op cit, pp 118. 127 Sec, Hamza Alavi, et al, opcit. 128 B B Mishra, The Indian Middle Classes-—Their Growth in Modern Times. London, 1961, pp 23-25, 44. 129 Dasgupta, op cit, pp 114-115. 130 Ibid. 131 According to O'Mally, at the time of Plassey they were so powerful that, even without the British, they could put any one in power as Nawab. See, O'Mally, epcit, pp 117-118. 132 J N Dasgupta, Bengal in the Nineteenth Century A D, Calcutta, 1914, p 117. 133 Ibid, pp 114-115. 134 Ibid, p 119. 135 Ibid, pp 106-141. The comment of Fitch was somewhat patronising: Saptagram "is a fair city for a city of the Moores, and very plentiful of all things" {ibid, pl4l). 136 Radhakamal Mukhcrjee, The Economic History of India, 1600-1800, Allahabad, 1967, p 122. 137 Hunter, op cit, Vol IX, p 63. Among other important centres of commerce in Eastern India were Sonargaon, Rajmahal, Patna, Pipli, Chandecan, Sripur (ibid, p 122). Patna and Benaras were two main trade centres through which the products of Bengal reached North India (ibid, p 98). Ces^r Frederici, a Venetian traveller, in 1578, also mentioned Bator (presently a part of Howrah city) as a temporary halt of the boatmen along the river Ganga on their way to Saptagram (sec. Government of Bengal, Bengal District Gazeteer—Howrah, Calcutta, 1909,p 17). 138 Radhakamal Mukherjec, op cit, p 134. 139 Ibid, pp 123-124. 140 Hamza Alavi, opcit.