Maritime history of Bengal

The maritime trade of Bengal was centered on the Bay of Bengal. For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, the major ports of Bengal, Satgaon and Chittagong, and later Hooghly, maintained significant commercial links with Burma, Malacca and Aceh. The second trade route connected Bengal with Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Malabar Coast, and the third, subsidiary route connected Bengal with Gujarat and West Asia. Bengal's coastal trade with the Karamandal was equally important, which depended on Bengal's annual grain imports. The main exports of Bengal's coastal and overseas transport were various types of manufactured goods and agricultural products—clothes, rice, wheat, gram, sugar, opium, clarified butter, and salt. In return, Bengal imported spices, camphor, porcelain, silk, sandalwood, ivory, metals, conch shells, and cowrie. With the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, Bengal entered the Euro-Asian exchange network, becoming the center of the region's economy.

Prehistory

Excavations at the Pandu Rajar Dhibi in West Bengal have shown that a Chalcolithic culture began around 1600 BC, followed by an Iron Age culture around 750 BC. The tools found at this site indicate maritime trade. Some of the artifacts recovered from here are similar to those found on the islands of Crete and Macedonia, indicating contact with Greece and Europe at a very early period.