The staple commodities of export by the English East India Company from Bengal in the middle of the 18th century were
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) Cotton, silk, saltpetre and opium
In the mid-18th century the Company's main exports from Bengal were cotton and silk cloth, saltpetre (used for gunpowder) and opium. Bengal was the Company's source of fine textiles, and after 1765 its revenue was used to buy these goods rather than importing bullion from Britain.
- ✓ (d) The Company bought fine cotton and silk cloth in Bengal, held a monopoly of Indian saltpetre from the middle of the 18th century, and by the late 18th century was expanding opium cultivation.
- ✗ (a) The Company bought finished cotton and silk cloth from Bengal, not raw cotton or oil-seeds; only opium in this list fits.
- ✗ (c) Gold and silver went the other way: before 1765 the Company brought them from Britain to pay for Indian goods.
- ✗ (b) Sugar, salt, zinc and lead were not the Company's staple Bengal exports of this period.
Remember · Bengal exports of the Company in the 1750s: cotton and silk textiles, saltpetre, opium. Before Diwani (1765) it paid for them with bullion from Britain.
Sources
- Indian Journal of History of Science (INSA): Epic of Saltpetre to Gunpowder ↗ “Ever since the middle of the 18th century, the East India Company of England enjoyed the monopoly of Indian saltpetre”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·