An Exploration of the Origins of the Nineteenth-Century Sugar Industry and Its Trading System in the Kotchandpur Area of Jessore

Located in the largest delta in the world, Bangladesh has a long history of commercial salt andsugar manufacture. Although the salt industry in this area goes back more than a thousand years,the growth of the sugar industry is a more recent historical event. Formerly, the region was apart of British India. Here, this paper searches for the beginnings and expansion of the datesugarbusiness in the greater Jessore district during the mid-nineteenth century. KotchandpurThana, now an upazila in the Jhenaidah district of Khulna Division of Bangladesh, becamethe main centre for sugar manufacture and trade in the district. Beginning with Mr. Blake—who first started a factory in Burdwan, India, and later extended to Kotchandpur by the lateeighteenth century—the study shows the founding of sugar factories by European entrepreneurs.Two main kinds of sugar were produced during this time: Dhulua, a yellowish, non-granularform, and Puka sugar, famed for its clarity. Ownership of the business changed in 1842 to Mr.Newhouse, a Scottish entrepreneur whose legacy lives on in the remaining factory buildingsand family graves in Kotchandpur. This paper looks at the growth of the date-sugar industry,its manufacturing process and related trading systems. Using a mixed-methods strategy thatcombines qualitative and quantitative methods, the study draws on rich visual and descriptivedata. This study is significant because it helps to clarify the early industrialization processes incolonial Bengal and the socio-economic changes connected to European participation in ruralbusiness. This study addresses a substantial gap in economic and industrial historiography byreconstructing the historical geography of sugar production in Jessore, thereby contributingnew perspectives on heritage preservation and the structure of local identity in contemporaryBangladesh.