Market Formation in Assam: Nature of Trade in and around the Brahmaputra Valley, C. 1826–1905

Abstract

The British East India Company (EIC) and other European traders entered Assam for trade. The region thrived on traditional places of exchange. These were haats (markets at the village and district level held at regular intervals), duars, fairs and chawkeys (trading posts of Ahom-age). The Treaty of Yandabo (1826) marked the entry of EIC in parts of Assam. Regimental towns, documented as bazaars in government records, appeared in the nineteenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century, census towns also emerged. These towns accommodated regular markets, periodic haats, fairs and other trading places. This article is based on primary sources of Buranjis, travelogues, military reports, journals, memoirs and archival records. The theoretical works of Walter Christaller (1966) and Philip D. Curtin (1984) and works of literature have been used to understand the growth and operation of marketplaces. This article finds that modern bazaars were connected to the traditional haats, fairs and chawkeys. Bazaars served the colonial regime by acting as the agent of the colonial commercial economy. The colonial regime also often used traditional market places to further their commercial interests. The haats and fairs supplemented the overall commerce of the region and acted as nodes in the commercial networks in the region.