36 SOCIAL SCIENTIST was more than sufficient for such 'investment* which rose to 6 million current rupees in 1767. It was 10 million in 1777. The two principal articles of trade were raw silk and cotton piece goods. In 1793 the 'investment* of raw silk was Rs 25,86,847 and that of cotton piece goods amounted to Rs 67,408.3 Increase of land revenue, as already indicated, was phenomenal. During 1760-63 Mir Kasim raised his revenue demand from Bengal to the tune of Rs 24.7 million (sicca) which was described by John Shore as 'a mere pillage and rackrent' because it amounted 'in one or two years to an increase of revenue exceeding the augmentation of nearly two preceding centuries'.4 This assessment of Rs 24.7 million, however, was reduced to an assessment on paper and only Rs 6.5 million could be actually collected, as Mir Kasim was still relying mostly on the old zamindars of Murshid Kuli Khan's time. The situation changed drastically after the assumption of diwani by the Company. Compulsion of collecting the largest amount of money in the quickest possible time forced a logical gravitation towards accepting the farmers of revenue in preference to the old zamindars. As early as in 1775, the Court of Directors of the Company in their Minute of 15 September remarked: 'We have reason to believe that not less than one-third of the Company's land are or have lately been held by the Banians of English gentlemen. The Governor's Banian stands foremost by the enormous amount of his farms and contracts.' Between 1765 and 1777 'Lands were let in general too high, and, to find out the real value of the lands, the most probable method was to let them to the highest bidders and also to dispose of the farms by public auction.5 With the help of these new intermediaries who could be willingly ruthless, unhampered by 'roots that clutch', collection of land revenue was increased from Rs 6.5 million of Mir Kasim's time to Rs 26 million in 1784.6 Most of the load of the increased revenue was ultimately placed on the small peasants. It was this burden which created the major stress and strain in Bengal under the new colonial rule. Social tensions, emerging from the extraction of revenue surplus, were very much there in Bengal and elsewhere under the Mughals, particularly during disintegration of their empire. But these tensions underwent qualitative changes after the assumption of diwani by the English East India Company, as significant variations took place in respect of the composition of the surplus-appropriating classes, the amount of surplus and the method of appropriation as well as the ulterior purpose of this extraction. These qualitative changes, which precipitated the unfolding of the major contradiction in the contemporary society of Bengal and else where in eastern India, would provide the backdrop of our modest study to explore the growth of Calcutta and the concomitant social dislocations. Let us begin with locating the social groups which figured prominently in Calcutta's economic life in the pre-colonial period and