The merchant world represents a relatively neglected area in South Asian history. This book fills a gap by bringing together a number of articles which deal with the mercantile world of colonial India. The three major themes taken up are: the relationship between the business world and the world of politics in the late colonial era, particularly the links between business interests and political nationalism; the position of merchants and businessmen in relation to the economy and society of late colonial India; and merchant circulations, the way in which specific regional trading networks extended the range of their operations to cover the entire subcontinent as well as the wider world. Written by a top specialist, this work will interest South Asianists as well as students of colonialism.