Bengal textiles in Britain

The English East India Company first visited Bengal in the early 1660s to purchase textiles. At that time Bengal was already a famed manufacturing centre of the finest cotton textiles in the world.  The English East India Company first visited Bengal in the early 1660s to purchase textiles. At that time Bengal was already a famed manufacturing centre of the finest cotton textiles in the world.

The textiles that the East India Company imported into England from the Indian subcontinent had a significant impact quite early on, initiating major changes in fashion. According to Defoe, in his book Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, anyone could be transformed by wearing Indian textiles: 'Plain country Joan was turned into a fine London madam'.

Earlier Gujarat and Madras were the main sources of the Company's textile procurement, some of which were utilized to purchase spices from the Indonesian islands. Although Bengal was the last major centre for British textile exports within the Indian subcontinent, it soon emerged as the biggest, and this continued throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries.

John Blanch, a pamphleteer, wrote in 1696 that, 'thanks to the efforts of the East India Company, Indian muslin and silk are becoming the general wear in England.' Muslin textiles were utilized is a variety of ways. (excerpt) alalodulal.org