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Valiant tank

The Tank, Infantry, Valiant (A38) was a British tank design of the Second World War that only reached the prototype stage. It was intended to meet a specification for a well-armoured, light-medium tank, for use against Japanese forces in the South-East Asia theatre. The prototype demonstrated that the design was a failure and this sole example produced was retained by the School of Tank Technology as a lesson to its students.

Design and development
The Valiant, under General Staff specification A38, began as a candidate for an assault tank, with the thickest armour on the lowest possible weight, for use in the Far East. It was to be similar in intention to the 40-ton A33 Excelsior although far lighter. As the Valiant managed the same 114 mm frontal armour with only 27 tons, it managed to achieve its primary goal, but only by making unacceptable compromises elsewhere. At a time when British tank design was already at its nadir, this "terrible price for the weight concession" led to what is probably the worst British tank of the war.

The design brief of December 1943 called for three prototypes of a small, heavily armoured tank for the Far East. Speed across open country was less important, as was performance against armour. Design work started with Vickers, but they soon passed it to Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon, then finally Ruston & Hornsby, who built the single prototype in 1944. Vickers' original intention may have been to use parts of their Valentine infantry tank where possible, but this did not survive the production choices of the other manufacturers, nor was the running gear of the far lighter Valentine compatible with the needs of such heavy armour. The largest point of commonality was the choice of engine, the 210 bhp General Motors 6004 two-stroke diesel, as used in later marks of Valentine.

Construction was like that of the Matilda infantry tank – large cast armour pieces bolted together. Suspension was by six equally sized wheels on each side, with independent wishbone suspension units for each, rather than bogies. Concern was expressed about the possible fragility of these units in combat, but Valiant was never taken seriously off-road to test them. The drivetrain was to the rear, from a 210 bhp diesel. This low power limited the tank to a predicted top speed of 12 mph, although this was still acceptable for an infantry tank or assault tank.

Following from the later Valentine VIII and XI models, the turret was to accept either the QF 6 pounder or the QF 75 mm, with space for a turret crew of three (commander, gunner, loader). This was achieved at the cost of a large heavy turret with near-vertical faces and a massive cast front face with distinctively prominent bolts. The mantlet was internal and a weak point against accurate fire at close range. Unlike the late model Valentines it had a co-axial machine-gun.

The Valiant's suspension was tested by the Fighting Vehicle Proving Establishment (FVPE) at Chertsey in May 1945. The first day gave minor problems and was abandoned after only 13 mi of easy on-road driving. However, the driver was already exhausted by this time, finding that the steering levers needed his full weight to operate and that the seat, footbrake and gear lever all carried risk of physical injury in using them. The Officer in Charge decided to abandon the trials there and then as it was impossible and unsafe to continue, reporting that "in his view the entire project should be closed". There were also issues with weight distribution and the ground clearance of only 9 in, and by that point of the war there was no longer a need for the tank. The Valiant project was terminated.

Variants
A Valiant II was mentioned in late 1943, but little more was heard of it. In February 1944 there was more detailed discussion of a "Heavy Valiant", which may have been the same and has been reported as such in some sources.

The Heavy Valiant was a substantially different vehicle, only using the turret and driver's compartment of the Valiant on a hull derived from the A33 Excelsior and its T1 suspension. This gave armour of 9 in on the hull front and 10 in on the turret. Weight was now estimated at 42 tons, which is comparable with the original Excelsior despite almost doubling the armour thickness, and so this must have been a much smaller tank. Power was doubled to cope with the weight, using the new and compact 400 bhp Rolls-Royce Meteorite engine (a cut-down V8 Meteor) and an improved transmission. The mistake of the Valentine was to be repeated, where the turret was up-gunned to the 95 mm howitzer of the Centaur IV at the cost of forcing the commander to take over the loader's task in a two-man turret. There is a record of a prototype having gone to the ranges at Lulworth Cove for trials in January 1945, but no other record of what it looked like.

Present day
The sole Valiant was retained by the School of Tank Technology, where students were treated to an inspection of it at the end of their course and invited to find fault. David Fletcher wrote of this: "One hopes they started early in the morning."

The Valiant can now be seen at The Tank Museum.

title: Valiant tank


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Economic history of India

Around 500 BC, the Mahajanapadas minted punch-marked silver coins. The period was marked by intensive trade activity and urban development. By 300 BC, the Maurya Empire had united most of the Indian subcontinent including Tamilakam, which was ruled by Three Crowned Kings. The resulting political unity and military security allowed for a common economic system and enhanced trade and commerce, with increased agricultural productivity.

The Maurya Empire was followed by classical and early medieval kingdoms, including the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Guptas, Western Gangas, Harsha, Palas, Rashtrakutas and Hoysalas. The Indian subcontinent, due to its large population, had one of the largest economy of any region in the world for most of the interval between the 1st and 18th centuries. Angus Maddison estimates that from 1-1000 AD India constituted roughly 30% of the world's Population and GDP.

India experienced per-capita GDP growth in the high medieval era, coinciding with the Delhi Sultanate. By the late 17th century, most of the Indian subcontinent had been reunited under the Mughal Empire, which for a time Maddison estimates became the largest economy and manufacturing power in the world, producing about a quarter of global GDP, before fragmenting and being conquered over the next century. Bengal Subah, the empire's wealthiest province, had an advanced, productive agriculture, textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, in a period of proto-industrialization.

By the 18th century, the Mysoreans had embarked on an ambitious economic development program that established the Kingdom of Mysore as a major economic power. Sivramkrishna analyzing agricultural surveys conducted in Mysore by Francis Buchanan in 1800–1801, arrived at estimates, using "subsistence basket", that aggregated millet income could be almost five times subsistence level. The Maratha Empire also managed an effective administration and tax collection policy throughout the core areas under its control and extracted chauth from vassal states.

India experienced deindustrialisation and cessation of various craft industries under British rule, which along with fast economic and population growth in the Western world, resulted in India's share of the world economy declining from 24.4% in 1700 to 4.2% in 1950, and its share of global industrial output declining from 25% in 1750 to 2% in 1900. Due to its ancient history as a trading zone and later its colonial status, colonial India remained economically integrated with the world, with high levels of trade, investment and migration.

From 1850 to 1947, India's GDP in 1990 international dollar terms grew from $125.7 billion to $213.7 billion, a 70% increase, or an average annual growth rate of 0.55%. This was a higher rate of growth than during the Mughal era (1600–1700), when it had grown by 22%, an annual growth rate of 0.20%, or the longer period of mostly Maratha Confederacy rule from 1700 to 1850 where it grew 39%, or 0.22% annually. However, by the end of British rule, India's economy represented a much smaller proportion of global GDP. In 1820, India's GDP was 16% of the global GDP. By 1870, it had fallen to 12%, and by 1947 to 4%. The Republic of India, founded in 1947, adopted central planning for most of its independent history, with extensive public ownership, regulation, red tape and trade barriers. After the 1991 economic crisis, the central government began policy of economic liberalisation.

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley civilisation, the first known permanent and predominantly urban settlement, flourished between 3500 BCE and 1800 BCE. It featured an advanced and thriving economic system. Its citizens practised agriculture, domesticated animals, made sharp tools and weapons from copper, bronze and tin, and traded with other cities. Evidence of well-laid streets, drainage systems and water supply in the valley's major cities, Dholavira, Harappa, Lothal, Mohenjo-daro and Rakhigarhi, reveals their knowledge of urban planning.

Ancient and medieval characteristics
Although ancient India had a significant urban population, much of India's population resided in villages, whose economies were largely isolated and self-sustaining. Agriculture was the predominant occupation and satisfied a village's food requirements while providing raw materials for hand-based industries such as textile, food processing and crafts. Besides farmers, people worked as barbers, carpenters, doctors (Ayurvedic practitioners), goldsmiths and weavers.

Religion
Religion played an influential role in shaping economic activities. Pilgrimage towns like Prayagraj, Varanasi, Nasik and Puri, mostly centred around rivers, developed into centres of trade and commerce. Religious functions, festivals and the practice of taking a pilgrimage resulted in an early version of the hospitality industry.

Economics in Jainism is influenced by Mahavira and his philosophy. He was the last of the 24 Tirthankars, who spread Jainism. Relating to economics, he emphasised the importance of the concept of 'anekanta' (non-absolutism).

Family business
In the joint family system, members of a family pooled their resources to maintain the family and invest in business ventures. The system ensured younger members were trained and employed and that older and disabled members would be supported. The system prevented agricultural land from splitting with each generation, aiding yield from the benefits of scale. Such sanctions curbed rivalry in junior members and instilled a sense of obedience.

Organisational entities
Along with the family- and individually-owned businesses, ancient India possessed other forms of engaging in collective activity, including the gana, pani, puga, vrata, sangha, nigama and Shreni. Nigama, pani and Shreni refer most often to economic organisations of merchants, craftspeople and artisans, and perhaps even para-military entities. In particular, the Shreni shared many similarities with modern corporations, which were used in India from around the 8th century BC until around the 10th century AD. The use of such entities in ancient India was widespread, including in virtually every kind of business, political and municipal activity.

The Shreni was a separate legal entity that had the ability to hold property separately from its owners, construct its own rules for governing the behaviour of its members and for it to contract, sue and be sued in its own name. Ancient sources such as Laws of Manu VIII and Chanakya's Arthashastra provided rules for lawsuits between two or more Shreni and some sources make reference to a government official (Bhandagarika) who worked as an arbitrator for disputes amongst Shreni from at least the 6th century BC onwards. Between 18 and 150 Shreni at various times in ancient India covered both trading and craft activities. This level of specialisation is indicative of a developed economy in which the Shreni played a critical role. Some Shreni had over 1,000 members.

The Shreni had a considerable degree of centralised management. The headman of the Shreni represented the interests of the Shreni in the king's court and in many business matters. The headman could bind the Shreni in contracts, set work conditions, often received higher compensation and was the administrative authority. The headman was often selected via an election by the members of the Shreni, and could also be removed from power by the general assembly. The headman often ran the enterprise with two to five executive officers, also elected by the assembly.

Coinage
Punch marked silver ingots were in circulation in the 6th-5th century BC. They were the first metallic coins minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Gangetic plains and were India's earliest traces of coinage.

Maurya Empire
During the Maurya Empire (c. 321–185 BC), important changes and developments affected the Indian economy. It was the first time most of India was unified under one ruler. With an empire in place, trade routes became more secure. The empire spent considerable resources building and maintaining roads. The improved infrastructure, combined with increased security, greater uniformity in measurements, and increasing usage of coins as currency, enhanced trade. During this time India's share is estimated to have been from 32% to 35% of the world economy.

Medieval India
The number of coins in circulation declined and instead credit arrangements predominated. Contemporary Hindu law devote increasing attention to sureties, collateral, promissory notes and compound interest.

Villages paid a portion of their agricultural produce as revenue to the rulers, while their craftsmen received a part of the crops at harvest time for their services.

Trade
Maritime trade was carried out extensively between South India and Southeast and West Asia from early times until around the 14th century AD. Both the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts were the sites of important trading centres from as early as the 1st century BC, used for import and export as well as transit points between the Mediterranean region and southeast Asia. Over time, traders organised themselves into associations which received state patronage. Historians Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib claim this state patronage for overseas trade came to an end by the 13th century AD, when it was largely taken over by the local Parsi, Jewish, Syrian Christian and Muslim communities, initially on the Malabar and subsequently on the Coromandel coast.

Other scholars suggest trading from India to West Asia and Eastern Europe was active between the 14th and 18th centuries. During this period, Indian traders settled in Surakhani, a suburb of greater Baku, Azerbaijan. These traders built a Hindu temple, which suggests commerce was active and prosperous for Indians by the 17th century.

Further north, the Saurashtra and Bengal coasts played an important role in maritime trade, and the Gangetic plains and the Indus valley housed several centres of river-borne commerce. Most overland trade was carried out via the Khyber Pass connecting the Punjab region with Afghanistan and onward to the Middle East and Central Asia.

Delhi Sultanate
Before and during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 AD), Islam underlay a cosmopolitan civilization. It offered wide-ranging international networks, including social and economic networks. They spanned large parts of Afro-Eurasia, leading to escalating circulation of goods, people, technologies and ideas. While initially disruptive, the Delhi Sultanate was responsible for integrating the Indian subcontinent into a growing world system.

The period coincided with greater use of mechanical technology in the Indian subcontinent. From the 13th century onwards, India began adopting some mechanical technologies from the Islamic world, including gears and pulleys, machines with cams and cranks. The worm gear roller cotton gin was invented in the Indian subcontinent during the 13th and 14th centuries, and is still used in India through to the present day. The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin first appeared in the Indian subcontinent some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in the villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India during the Delhi Sultanate era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The increasing use of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production.

GDP estimates
According to economic historian Angus Maddison in Contours of the world economy, 1–2030 AD: essays in macro-economic history, the Indian subcontinent was the world's most productive region, from 1 AD to 1600.

Mughal Empire
The economy in the Indian Subcontinent performed just as it did in ancient times, though now it would face the stress of extensive regional tensions. Parthasarathi estimated that 28,000 tonnes of bullion (mainly from the New World) flowed into the Indian subcontinent between 1600 and 1800, equating to 30% of the world's production in the period.

An estimate of the annual income of Emperor Akbar's treasury in 1600 is $90 million (in contrast to the tax take of Great Britain two hundred years later in 1800, which totaled $90 million). The Indian subcontinent region's economy was estimated to be the 2nd largest in the world in 1600, only below China.

During the time of Akbar, the Mughal Empire was at its peak as it controlled the vast region of North India and had entered into alliances with the Deccan states. It enforced a uniform customs and tax-administration system. In 1700, the exchequer of the Emperor Aurangzeb reported an annual revenue of more than £100 million, or $450 million, more than ten times that of his contemporary Louis XIV of France, while controlling seventeen times the population.

India was producing about 25% of global industrial output throughout the 1st century AD to up until mid 18th century. The Mughals were responsible for building an extensive road system, creating a uniform currency, and the unification of the country. The Mughals adopted and standardized the rupee currency introduced by Sur Emperor Sher Shah Suri. The Mughals minted tens of millions of coins, with purity of at least 96%, without debasement until the 1720s. The empire met global demand for Indian agricultural and industrial products.

Cities and towns experienced growth under the Mughal Empire, which had a relatively high degree of urbanization. By 1600, between 4.6% and 15% of India's population lived in urban areas, with the figure measuring between 6.4% and 11% around 1840. Several cities had a population between a quarter of a million and half a million, while some including Agra (in Agra Subah) hosted up to 800,000 people and Dhaka (in Bengal Subah) with over 1 million by some accounts. Shireen Moosvi estimates that 36% of the workforce were in the secondary and tertiary sectors, a higher percentage in non-primary sectors than eastern Europe at the time where 65–75% have been estimated to have been engaged in agriculture in 1750.

Agriculture
Indian agricultural production increased. Food crops included wheat, rice, and barley, while non-food cash crops included cotton, indigo and opium. By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators had begun to extensively grow two crops from the Americas, maize and tobacco. Bengali peasants learned techniques of mulberry cultivation and sericulture, establishing Bengal Subah as a major silk-producing region. Agriculture was advanced compared to Europe, exemplified by the earlier common use of the seed drill. The Mughal administration emphasized agrarian reform, which began under the non-Mughal Emperor Sher Shah Suri. Akbar adopted this and added more reforms. The Mughal government funded the building of irrigation systems, which produced much higher crop yields and harvests.

One reform introduced by Akbar was a new land revenue system called zabt. He replaced the tribute system with a monetary tax system based on a uniform currency. The revenue system was biased in favour of higher value cash crops such as cotton, indigo, sugar cane, tree-crops, and opium, providing state incentives to grow cash crops, adding to rising market demand. Under the zabt system, the Mughals conducted extensive cadastral surveying to assess the cultivated area. The Mughal state encouraged greater land cultivation by offering tax-free periods to those who brought new land under cultivation.

According to evidence cited by economic historians Immanuel Wallerstein, Irfan Habib, Percival Spear, and Ashok Desai, per-capita agricultural output and standards of consumption in 17th-century Mughal India was equal in 17th-century Europe and early 20th-century British India.

Manufacturing

Until the 18th century, Mughal India was one of the most important manufacturing centers in international trade. Key industries included textiles, shipbuilding and steel. Processed products included cotton textiles, yarns, thread, silk, jute products, metalware, and foods such as sugar, oils and butter. This growth of manufacturing has been seen as a form of proto-industrialization, similar to 18th-century Western Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Early modern Europe imported products from Mughal India, particularly cotton textiles, spices, peppers, indigo, silks and saltpeter (for use in munitions). European fashion, for example, became somewhat dependent on Indian textiles and silks. From the late 17th century to the early 18th century, Mughal India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and the Bengal Subah province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia. Demand for European goods in Mughal India was lighter, Europe's exports being largely limited to some woolens, ingots, glassware, mechanical clocks, weapons, particularly blades for Firangi swords, and a few luxury items. The trade imbalance caused Europeans to export large quantities of silver and to a lesser extent gold to Mughal India to pay for South Asian imports. Indian goods, especially those from Bengal, were also exported in large quantities to other Asian markets, such as Indonesia and Japan.

The largest manufacturing industry was cotton textile manufacturing, which included the production of piece goods, calicos and muslins, available unbleached in a variety of colours. The cotton textile industry was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade. The most important center of cotton production was the Bengal Subah province, particularly around Dhaka. Bengal alone accounted for more than 50% of textiles and around 80% of silks imported by the Dutch. Bengali silk, cotton textiles, and cowrie shells were exported in large quantities to Europe, Indonesia, Japan, and Africa, where they formed a significant element in the exchange of goods for slaves, and treasure. In Britain protectionist policies, such as 1685-1774 Calico Acts, imposed tariffs on imported Indian textiles.

Mughal India had a large shipbuilding industry, particularly in the Bengal Subah province. Economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates shipbuilding output of Bengal during the 16th and 17th centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen British colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771.

 * Bengal Subah

Bengal Subah was the Mughal' empire's wealthiest province, globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding. and exporting silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter and agricultural and industrial products. Bengal's capital city Dhaka was the empire's financial capital, with a population said to exceed one million.

Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles.

 * Post–Mughal Empire (1730–1818)

In the early half of the 18th century, Mughal Empire fell into decline, with Delhi sacked in Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire, the treasury emptied, tens of thousands killed, and many thousands more carried off, with their livestock, as slaves, weakening the empire and leading to the emergence of post-Mughal states. The Mughals were replaced by the Marathas as the dominant military power in much of India, while the other smaller regional kingdoms who were mostly late Mughal tributaries, such as the Nawabs in the north and the Nizams in the south, declared autonomy. However, the Mughal tax administration system was left largely intact with somewhat change with Tapan Raychaudhuri estimating revenue assessment actually increased to 50 percent or more, in contrast to China's 5 to 6 percent, to cover the cost of the wars. Similarly in the same period, Maddison gives the following estimates for the late Mughal economy's income distribution:

Among the post-Mughal states that emerged in the 18th century, the dominant economic powers were Maratha Empire, Bengal Subah (under the Nawabs of Bengal) and the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore.

Jeffrey G. Williamson argued that India went through a period of deindustrialization in the latter half of the 18th century as an indirect outcome of the collapse of the Mughal Empire, and that British rule later caused further deindustrialization. though Indian textiles maintained a competitive advantage over British textiles until the 19th century. Prasannan Parthasarathi countered that several post-Mughal states did not decline, notably Bengal, Marathas and Mysore, which were comparable to Britain into the late 18th century.

British rule
A year after the loss of the British East India Company trading base of Calcutta, along with the hoard of imported bullion, to the new Nawab of the Bengal Subah, Siraj ud-Daulah, the Company won a decisive victory over the Nawab, and his French East India Company allies, at the Battle of Plassey, in 1757. The victory was achieved through agreeing to appoint the Nawab's military commander, Mir Jafar, as a Company friendly replacement, if he turned Siraj ud-Daulah's numerically superior forces on his masters household, and partitioned the Nawab's treasury, to compensate both parties. The Company regained, and fortified Calcutta, later gaining the right to collect tax revenues, on the Nawabs behalf, in the Bengal Subah, from 1765, a right to trade tax free, fortify the cities and factories it established, along with a right to establish local armies, turning the mercantile company, into the effective state apparatus, and later proxy for the British Crown. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Crown would intervene and establish a formal colonial administration in the Company controlled territory.

British East India Company rule
Immediately following the East India Company gaining the right to collect revenue, on behalf of the Nawab of Bengal, the Company largely ceased a century and a half practice of importing gold and silver, and for more than a decade, which it had hitherto used to pay for the goods shipped back to Britain, the American colonies, East Asia, or on to African Slavers, to be bartered for Slaves in the Atlantic Slave trade: In addition, as under Mughal rule, land and opium revenue collected in the Bengal Presidency helped finance the company's administration, raise Sepoy armies, and fund wars in other parts of India, and later further afield, for example the Opium Wars, with additional capital raised, at typically 10%, from Banias money lenders.

In the period 1760–1800, Bengal's money supply was greatly diminished. The closing of some local mints and close supervision of the rest, the fixing of exchange rates and the standardization of coinage added to the economic downturn.

During this period, the East India Company began tax administration reforms in a fast expanding empire spread over 250 e6acre, or 35 percent of Indian domain, with regional land, opium and salt taxes set, and collected. Indirect rule was established on protectorates and buffer states.

During the period 1780–1860 India changed from an exporter of processed goods paid for in bullion to an exporter of raw materials and a buyer of manufactured goods.

The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, from 1807, both eliminated a significant export market, and encouraged Caribbean plantations to organize the import of South Asian labor.

British economic policies gave them a monopoly over India's large market and cotton resources.

In the 1750s fine cotton and silk was exported from India to markets in Europe, Americas, Asia, and Africa. With East India Company supplied cotton pieces comprising approximately 30%, by value, of the trade goods bartered for Slaves in the Anglo-African Triangular trade, and featuring in the French and Arab slave trades.
 * Textiles

East India Company buyers, along with independent British, Dutch and French East India company buyers, historically competed against each other, to place pre-paid advanced orders with Bengali middlemen for quantities of cotton pieces (Bolts of cloth approximately 18 yards by one yard in size), of a specified quality, and pattern, for delivery the following year. The middlemen often failed to deliver the ordered quantity, or quality, to the contracted party, with pieces purchased with one companies money, from local weavers across the region, instead sold to a higher bidder. Post the East India Company gaining administrative authority over Bengal, the Company forced the local merchants to fulfil its orders before servicing those of other parties, leading to protest, both from the local middlemen and competing East India Companies. As they did they after the British East India Company started dictating the price of yarn sold within the region, which had historically accounted for the majority of the cost of a cotton piece. The actions though not impacting local product, financially benefitted the Calcutta administration, over the local middlemen and the competing Companies engaged in the international trade.

From the late 18th century British industry began to lobby their government to reintroduce the Calico Acts, and again start taxing Indian textile imports, while in parallel allow them access to the markets of India. Which the UK parliaments partly conceded to, with removal of the East India Company's two hundred year old monopoly on most British trade with India, via the Charter Act of 1813, forcing the till then protected Indian market to open to British goods, which could now be sold in India without Company tariffs or duties. Starting in the early 19th century, British textiles began to appear in the Indian markets, with the value of the textile imports growing from £5.2 million in 1850 to £18.4 million in 1896. Raw cotton was imported without tariffs to British factories, which manufactured yarn and textiles and sold them back to India, also without tariffs. Indian historian, Rajat Kanta Ray, noted the relative decline of the Indian cotton textile industry started in the mid-1820s. The pace of its decline was, however, slow though steady at the beginning, but reached a crisis by 1860, when 563,000 textile workers lost their jobs. Ray estimates that the industry shrank by about 28% by 1850. However, it survived in the high-end and low-end domestic markets. Ray argued that British discriminatory policies undoubtedly depressed the industry's exports, but suggests its decay is better explained by technological innovations in Britain. With Amiya Bagchi estimating the impact of the invention of the Spinning mule on the employment of handspinners: Indian textiles had maintained a competitive advantage over British textiles up until the 19th century, when Britain eventually overtook India as the world's largest cotton textile manufacturer. In 1811, Bengal was still a major exporter of cotton cloth to the Americas and the Indian Ocean. However, Bengali cotton exports declined over the course of the early 19th century, as British imports to Bengal increased, from 25% in 1811 to 93% in 1840.

The second quarter of the 19th century, raw materials, which chiefly consisted of raw cotton, opium, and indigo, accounted for most of India's exports. By the end of the 1930s Indian textiles, and raw cotton, jute, hemp, and silk exports exceed $200 million, annually.

Exploitable mineral deposits had started to be identified under the East India Company, with the first Coal mines, along with the Geological Survey of India established to identify and map the available resources in the territory. A modern Iron and steel industry in India would be established in the Second half of the 19th century, with over 3 million tonnes of metals produced annually, and 25 million tonnes of coal, by the 1940s.
 * Mining

The East India Companies' trade, and industry enabling metalled road network was expanded from the 2,500 km, constructed to 1850, to 350,000 km by 1943.
 * Roads

In 1787, a Gunpowder Factory was established at Ishapore; it began production in 1791, it is now the Rifle Factory Ishapore, beginning in 1904. In 1801, Gun & Shell Factory, Calcutta was established and the production began on 18 March 1802. There were eighteen ordnance factories before India became independent in 1947.
 * Indian ordnance factories

Under the EIC the first Indian authored publications, printed, on locally produced paper, produced in locally established paper mills, appeared, from the Hicky's Bengal Gazette, to by the 1940s, a hundred thousand tonnes of paper was being produced, annually.
 * Paper and publishing

British Raj
The formal dissolution of the Mughal Empire heralded a change in British treatment of Indian subjects. During the British Raj, massive railway projects were begun in earnest and government jobs and guaranteed pensions attracted a large number of upper caste Hindus into the civil service for the first time. British cotton exports absorbed 55 percent of the Indian market by 1875. In the 1850s the first cotton mills opened in Bombay, posing a challenge to the cottage-based home production system based on family labour. Real GDP per capita grew 14 per cent during 1870–1906.

 * Fall of the rupee

During the American Civil War, the US Dollar halved in value to ₹1.54 by 1864. After its victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), Germany extracted a huge indemnity from France of £200,000,000, and then moved to join Britain on a gold monetary standard. France, the US, and other industrialising countries followed Germany in adopting gold after the Panic of 1873. Countries such as Japan that did not have the necessary access to gold or those, such as India, that were subject to imperial policies remained mostly on a silver standard. Silver-based and gold-based economies then diverged dramatically. The worst affected were silver economies that traded mainly with gold economies. Silver reserves increased in size, causing gold to rise in relative value. The impact on silver-based India was profound, given that most of its trade was with Britain and other gold-based countries. As the price of silver fell, so too did the exchange value of the rupee, when measured against sterling.

 * Agriculture and industry

The Indian economy grew at about 1% per year from 1890 to 1910, in line with, and largely dependent on increased agricultural output, through schemes such as the Punjab Canal Colonies, Ganges canal, and cultivation of 4,000,000 acres of Assam jungle, which the growth of land under cultivation only keptIng pace with a population that doubled in the same period. The result was little change in Real income levels. Agriculture was still dominant, with most peasants at the subsistence level.

Entrepreneur Jamsetji Tata (1839–1904) began his industrial career in 1877 with the Central India Spinning, Weaving, and Manufacturing Company in Bombay. While other Indian mills produced cheap coarse yarn (and later cloth) using local short-staple cotton and simple machinery imported from Britain, Tata did much better by importing expensive longer-stapled cotton from Egypt and buying more complex ring-spindle machinery from the United States to spin finer yarn that could compete with imports from Britain.

In the 1890s, Tata launched plans to expand into the heavy industry using Indian funding. The Raj did not provide capital, but aware of Britain's declining position against the US and Germany in the steel industry, it wanted steel mills in India so it promised to purchase any surplus steel Tata could not otherwise sell.

By the end of the 1930s, Cotton, Jute, Peanuts, Tea, Tobacco, and Hides accounted for the majority of the $500+ million of agricultural derived, annual exports.

 * Railways

British investors built a modern railway system in the late 19th century—it became the then fourth-largest in the world and was renowned for the quality of construction and service. The government was supportive, realising its value for military use and for economic growth. The railways at first were privately owned and operated, and run by British administrators, engineers and skilled craftsmen. At first, only the unskilled workers were Indians.

A plan for a rail system was first advanced in 1832. The first train ran from Red Hills to Chintadripet bridge in Madras, inaugurated in 1837. It was called Red Hill Railway. It was used for freight transport. A few more short lines were built in the 1830s and 1840s. They did not interconnect and were used for freight forwarding. The East India Company (and later the colonial government) encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of operation. The companies were to build and operate the lines under a 99-year lease, with the government retaining the option to buy them earlier. In 1854 Governor-General Lord Dalhousie formulated a plan to construct a network of trunk lines connecting the principal regions. A series of new rail companies were established, leading to rapid expansion.

In 1853, the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder in Bombay and Thane, covering a distance of 34 km. The route mileage of this network increased from 1349 km in 1860 to 25495 km in 1880 – mostly radiating inland from the port cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Most of the railway construction was done by Indian companies supervised by British engineers. The system was sturdily built. Several large princely states built their own rail systems and the network spread across India. By 1900 India had a full range of rail services with diverse ownership and management, operating on broad, metre and narrow gauge networks.

Headrick argues that both the Raj lines and the private companies hired only European supervisors, civil engineers and even operating personnel, such as locomotive engineers. The government's Stores Policy required that bids on railway contracts be submitted to the India Office in London, shutting out most Indian firms. The railway companies purchased most of their hardware and parts in Britain. Railway maintenance workshops existed in India, but were rarely allowed to manufacture or repair locomotives. Christensen (1996) looked at colonial purpose, local needs, capital, service and private-versus-public interests. He concluded that making the railways dependent on the state hindered success, because railway expenses had to go through the same bureaucratic budgeting process as did all other state expenses. Railway costs could therefore not respond to needs of the railways or their passengers.

In 1951, forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states, were amalgamated to form a single unit named the Indian Railways. The existing rail systems were abandoned in favor of zones in 1951 and a total of six zones came into being in 1952.

The first refineries were established to produce kerosene, petrol, paints and over chemicals, locally, with production increasing once local deposits had been identified, to by the 1940s, sixty million gallons of petrochemicals were being produced annually.
 * Chemicals

 * Economic impact of imperialism

Debate continues about the economic impact of British imperialism on India. The issue was first raised by Edmund Burke who in the 1780s vehemently attacked the East India Company, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society, and elaborated on in the 19th century by Romesh Chunder Dutt. Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray (1998) continued this line of reasoning, saying that British rule in the 18th century took the form of plunder and was a catastrophe for the traditional economy. According to the economic drain theory, supported by Ray, the British depleted food, and money stocks and imposed high taxes that helped cause the terrible famine of 1770, which killed a third of the people of Bengal. Ray also argued British India failed to offer the necessary encouragement, technology transfers, and protectionist frameworks, to permit British India to replicate Britain's own industrialisation, before its independence.

British historian P. J. Marshall reinterpreted the view that the prosperity of the Mughal era gave way to poverty and anarchy, arguing that the British takeover was not a sharp break with the past. British control was delegated largely through regional rulers and was sustained by a generally prosperous economy through the 18th century, except for the frequent, deadly famines. Marshall notes the British raised revenue through local tax administrators and kept the old Mughal tax rates. Instead of the Indian nationalist account of the British as alien aggressors, seizing power by brute force and impoverishing the region, Marshall presents a British nationalist interpretation in which the British were not in full control, but instead were controllers in what was primarily an Indian-run society and in which their ability to keep power depended upon cooperation with Indian elites. Marshall admitted that much of his interpretation is rejected by many historians.

Some historians point to company rule as a major factor in both India's deindustrialization and Britain's Industrial Revolution,    suggesting capital amassed from Bengal following its 1757 conquest supported investment in British industries such as textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution as well as increasing British wealth, while contributing to deindustrialization in Bengal.

Other economic historians have blamed the colonial rule for the current dismal state of India's economy, with investment in Indian industries limited since it was a colony. Under British rule, India's a number of native manufacturing industries shrank. The economic policies of the British Raj caused a severe decline in the handicrafts and handloom sectors, with reduced demand and dipping employment; the yarn output of the handloom industry, for example, declined from 419 million pounds in 1850 to 240 million pounds in 1900.

"There is no doubt that our grievances against the British Empire had a sound basis. As the painstaking statistical work of the Cambridge historian Angus Maddison has shown, India's share of world income collapsed from 22.6% in 1700, almost equal to Europe's share of 23.3% at that time, to as low as 3.8% in 1952. Indeed, at the beginning of the 20th century, 'the brightest jewel in the British Crown' was the poorest country in the world in terms of per capita income."

Economic historians have investigated regional differences in taxation, and public good provision, across the British Raj, with a strong positive correlation found between education spending, and Literacy in India; with historic Provincial policies still impacting comparative economic development, productivity, and employment.

Other economic historians debate the impact of Mahatma Gandhi's establishment of the Swadeshi movement, and All India Village Industries Association, in the 1930s, to promote an alternative, self sufficient, indigenous, village economy, approach to development, over the Classical Western economic model; along with the impact of the Nonviolent resistance movement, with the mass boycottIng of industrial goods, tax strikes, and abolition of the salt tax, on public revenues, public programs, growth and industrialisation, in the last quarter of the British Raj.

India served as both a significant supplier of raw goods to British manufacturers and a large captive market for British manufactured goods.

 * Relative decline in productivity

India accounted for 25% of the world's industrial output in 1750, declining to 2% of the world's industrial output in 1900. Britain replaced India as the world's largest textile manufacturer in the 19th century. In terms of urbanization, Mughal India had a higher percentage of its population (15%) living in urban centres in 1600 than British India did in the 19th century.

Stephen Broadberry, Johann Custodis, and Bishnupriya Gupta, in 2014, offered the following comparative estimates for:
 * Productivity comparison

Several economic historians claimed that in the 18th century real wages were falling in India, and were "far below European levels". This has been disputed by others, who argued that real wage decline occurred in the early 19th century, or possibly beginning in the late 18th century, largely as a result of "globalization forces".

Clingingsmith and Williamson argue India deindustrialized, in the period between 1750 and 1860, due to two very different causes, before reindustrialization. Between 1750 and 1810, they suggest the loss of Mughal hegemony allowed new despotic rulers to revenue farm their conquered populations, seeing tax and rent demands increase to 50% of production, compared to the 5–6% extracted in China during the period, and levied largely to fund regional warfare. Combined with the use of labour and livestock for martial purposes, grain and textile prices were driven up, along with nominal wages, as the populace attempted to meet the demands, reducing the competitiveness of Indian handicrafts, and impacting the regional textile trade. Then from 1810 to 1860, the expansion of the British factory system drove down the relative price of textiles worldwide, through productivity advances, a trend that was magnified in India as the concurrent transport revolution dramatically reduced transportation costs, and in a sub-continent that had not seen metalled roads, the introduction of mechanical transport exposed once protected markets to global competition, hitting artisanal manufacture, but stabilizing the agricultural sector.

Angus Maddison states:

"This was a shattering blow to manufacturers of fine muslins, jewellery, luxury clothing and footwear, decorative swords and weapons. My own guess would be that the home market for these goods was about 5 percent of Moghul national income and the export market for textiles probably another 1.5 percent."

 * Absence of industrialisation

Historians have questioned why India failed to industrialise. As the global cotton industry underwent a technological revolution in the 18th century, while Indian industry stagnated after adopting the Flying shuttle, and industrialisation began only in the late 19th century. Several historians have suggested that this was because India was still a largely agricultural nation with low Commodity money wage levels, arguing that nominal wages were high in Britain so cotton producers had the incentive to invent and purchase expensive new labour-saving technologies, and that wages levels were low in India so producers preferred to increase output by hiring more workers rather than investing in technology.

Colonial boom
During 1906–50, real GDP per capita of India fell 5.7 per cent while that of the UK grew 45 per cent and the USA grew 111 per cent. British colonial rule created an institutional environment that stabilized Indian society, though they stifled trade with the rest of the world. They created a well-developed system of railways, telegraphs and a modern legal system. Extensive irrigation systems were built, providing an impetus for growing cash crops for export and for raw materials for Indian industry, especially jute, cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber, and tea.

In 1928, 48% of the cotton spindles installed outside Europe, North America and Japan were in India (Dunn and Hardy, 1931: 25). In 1935, 50% of the steel produced outside Europe, North America and Japan was produced in India (BKS, 1950: 265–74). The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), headed by Dorabji Tata, opened its plant at Jamshedpur in Bihar (present day in Jharkhand) in 1908. It became the leading iron and steel producer in India, with 120,000 employees in 1945. TISCO became an India's symbol of technical skill, managerial competence, entrepreneurial flair, and high pay for industrial workers.

During the First World War, the railways were used to transport troops and grains to Bombay and Karachi en route to Britain, Mesopotamia and East Africa. With shipments of equipment and parts from Britain curtailed, maintenance became much more difficult; critical workers entered the army; workshops were converted to make munitions; the locomotives, rolling stock, and track of some entire lines were shipped to the Middle East. The railways could barely keep up with the sudden increase in demand. By the end of the war, the railways had deteriorated badly. In the Second World War the railway workshops were again converted into munitions workshops.

Inflation emerged a national issue during the World Wars with negligible rise in real GDP. Non-royal private wealth was encouraged by colonial administrations during these times. Houses of Birla and Sahu Jain began to challenge the Houses of Martin Burn, Bird Heilgers and Andrew Yule. About one-ninth of the national population were urban by 1925.

The first economic boom cycle ended with the Great Depression in India. The colonial administration did little to alleviate debt stress. The worst consequences involved deflation, which increased the burden of the debt on villagers. Total economic output did not decline between 1929 and 1934. The worst-hit sector was jute, based in Bengal, which was an important element in overseas trade; it had prospered in the 1920s but prices dropped in the 1930s. Employment also decline, while agriculture and small-scale industry exhibited gains. The most successful new industry was sugar, which had meteoric growth in the 1930s.
 * Economic bust

Gold-Silver ratio quintupled to 100-1 during 1920-40 triggering a sterling crisis worse than the 1890s. The Bank of England records the Indian central bank held a positive balance of £1,160 million on 14 July 1947, and that British India maintained a trade surplus, with the United Kingdom, for the duration of the British Raj eg. Source: Indian sterling balances, p. 2, 15 Jan.1.1947, Bank of England (BoE), OV56/55.

Studies of the comparative tax burdens in the British Empire, by days of labour required to meet the per capita tax bill, income tax rates, and gross colonial revenues indicate the tax burden in India required approximately half the number of days of labour to meet, as that of the UK, and a third that of some settler colonies, such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Hong Kong, which some economic historians speculate deprived the Colonial Indian administration of the revenue necessary to provide the public goods to accelerate economic development, literacy, and industrialisation, as experienced elsewhere in the empire.

The newly independent but weak Union government's treasury reported annual revenue of £334 million in 1950. In contrast, Nizam Asaf Jah VII of Hyderabad State was widely reported to have a fortune of almost £668 million then. About one-sixth of the national population were urban by 1950. A US Dollar was exchanged at 4.79 rupees.

Karl Marx, writing in 1857, suggested the Nominal (Silver) per capita income of East India Company, in 1854, was approximately 1:12 that of the UK, as was the Nominal per capita tax burden 1:12 of the UK, 1:10 of France, and 1:5 of Prussia. Explaining why the EIC administration was perpetually running local deficits, and in need to borrow monies in India, to fund the administration.

Economic historians such as Prasannan Parthasarathi have criticized these estimates, arguing primary sources show Real (grain) wages in 18th-century Bengal and Mysore were comparable to Britain. According to evidence cited by Immanuel Wallerstein, Irfan Habib, Percival Spear and Ashok Desai, per-capita agricultural output and standards of consumption in 17th-century Mughal India was higher than in 17th-century Europe and early 20th-century British India. Sivramkrishna analysed agricultural surveys conducted in Mysore by Francis Buchanan in 1800–1801, arrived at estimates, using "subsistence basket", that aggregated millet income could be almost five times subsistence level, while corresponding rice income is three times that much. That could be comparable to advance part of Europe. However, due to the scarcity of data, more research is needed, before drawing any conclusion. Shireen Moosvi estimates that Mughal India had a per-capita income 1.24% higher in the late 16th century than British India had in the early 20th century, although the difference would be less if increasing purchasing power in terms of manufactured goods were taken into account. She also estimates that the secondary sector contributed a higher percentage to the Mughal economy (18.2%) than it did to the economy of early 20th-century British India (11.2%).

According to economic historian Paul Bairoch, India as well as China had a higher GDP (PPP) per capita than Europe in 1750. For 1750, Bairoch estimated the GNP per capita for the Western world to be $182 in 1960 US dollars ($ in 1990 dollars) and for the non-Western world to be $188 in 1960 dollars ($ in 1990 dollars), exceeded by both China and India. Other estimates he gives include $150–190 for England in 1700 and $160–210 for India in 1800. Bairoch estimated that it was only after 1800 that Western European per-capita income pulled ahead. Others such as Andre Gunder Frank, Robert A. Denemark, Kenneth Pomeranz and Amiya Kumar Bagchi also criticised estimates that showed low per-capita income and GDP growth rates in Asia (especially China and India) prior to the 19th century, pointing to later research that found significantly higher per-capita income and growth rates in China and India during that period.

Socialist period
Before independence a large share of tax revenue was generated by the land tax. Thereafter land taxes steadily declined as a share of revenues.

The economic problems inherited at independence were exacerbated by the costs associated with the partition, which had resulted in about 2 to 4 million refugees fleeing past each other across the new borders between India and Pakistan. Refugee settlement was a considerable economic strain. Partition divided India into complementary economic zones. Under the British, jute and cotton were grown in the eastern part of Bengal (East Pakistan, after 1971, Bangladesh), but processing took place mostly in the western part of Bengal, which became the Indian state of West Bengal. As a result, after independence India had to convert land previously used for food production to cultivate cotton and jute.

Growth continued in the 1950s, the rate of growth was less positive than India's politicians expected.

Toward the end of Nehru's term as prime minister, India experienced serious food shortages.

Beginning in 1950, India faced trade deficits that increased in the 1960s. The Government of India had a major budget deficit and therefore could not borrow money internationally or privately. As a result, the government issued bonds to the Reserve Bank of India, which increased the money supply, leading to inflation. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 led the US and other countries friendly towards Pakistan to withdraw foreign aid to India, which necessitated devaluation. India was told it had to liberalise trade before aid would resume. The response was the politically unpopular step of devaluation accompanied by liberalisation. Defence spending in 1965/1966 was 24.06% of expenditure, the highest in the period from 1965 to 1989. Exacerbated by the drought of 1965/1966, the devaluation was severe. GDP per capita grew 33% in the 1960s, reaching a peak growth of 142% in the 1970s, before decelerating to 41% in the 1980s and 20% in the 1990s.

From FY 1951 to FY 1979, the economy grew at an average rate of about 3.1 percent a year, or at an annual rate of 1.0 percent per capita. During this period, industry grew at an average rate of 4.5 per cent a year, compared with 3 per cent for agriculture. Real GDP per capita grew 59 per cent during 1950–77.

Prime minister Indira Gandhi proclaimed a national emergency and suspended the Constitution in 1975. About one-fifth of the national population were urban by 1975.

Prime Minister Nehru was a believer in socialism and decided that India needed maximum steel production. He, therefore, formed a government-owned company, Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) and set up three steel plants in the 1950s.
 * Steel

India was close to Soviet Union, which provided technology assistance and transfer in the field of heavy industries such as Oil & Gas, Nuclear, Mining, Machinery, Railways, Heavy equipment, Electrical equipment etc.
 * Heavy Industry

The second economic boom cycle ended with the 1979 oil crisis that triggered fiscal deficits through the 1980s. In 1975 India's GDP (in 1990 US dollars) was $545 billion, $1,561 billion in the USSR, $1,266 billion in Japan, and $3,517 billion in the US. Real GDP per capita grew 51 per cent during 1977–94.
 * Economic bust

Capitalist boom
Economic liberalisation in India since the 1990s led to paradigm shift in growth and structure of national income. Real GDP per capita grew 142 per cent during 1994–2013.

About one-fourth of the national population was urban by 2000.

The Indian steel industry began expanding into Europe in the 21st century. In January 2007 India's Tata bought European steel maker Corus Group for $11.3 billion. In 2006 Mittal Steel (based in London but with Indian management) acquired Arcelor for $34.3 billion to become the world's biggest steel maker, ArcelorMittal, with 10% of world output.

The government started the Golden Quadrilateral road network connecting Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata with various Indian regions. The project, completed in January 2012, was the most ambitious infrastructure project of independent India.

[[File:India bonds.webp|thumb|250px|India bonds
 * Economic bust

]] The coronavirus pandemic led to a recession in the Indian economy. Real GDP per capita grew 39 per cent during 2013–21.

For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US dollar is converted at 9.46 rupees. Despite continuous real GDP growth of at least 5% since 2009, the Indian economy was mired in bureaucratic hurdles.

Pre 1947

 * Anstey, Vera. The economic development of India (4th ed. 1952), 677pp; thorough scholarly coverage; focus on 20th century down to 1939
 * Bowen, H. V. Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833 (2006), 304pp
 * Balachandran, G., ed. India and the World Economy, 1850–1950 Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-567234-8.
 * Blyn, George. Agricultural trends in India, 1891-1947: output, availability, and productivity (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
 * Broadberry, Stephen, Johann Custodis, and Bishnupriya Gupta. "India and the great divergence: An Anglo-Indian comparison of GDP per capita, 1600–1871." Explorations in Economic History 55#1 (2015): 58–75. online
 * Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan. The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business strategies and the working classes in Bombay, 1900-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) online.
 * Chattopadhyaya, D. P., & Chaudhuri, B. B. (2005). Economic history of India from eighteenth to twentieth century. (New Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations.)
 * Chaudhuri, K. N. Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (1985)
 * Deyell, John S. 2019. "Indian Kingdoms 1200–1500 and the Maritime Trade in Monetary Commodities". in Currencies of the Indian Ocean World, 49–69. Springer.
 * Donaldson, Dave. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the impact of transportation infrastructure." American Economic Review 108.4-5 (2018): 899–934. online
 * Dutt, Romesh C. The Economic History of India under early British Rule, first published 1902, 2001 edition by Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-24493-0
 * Ludden, David, ed. New Cambridge History of India: An Agrarian History of South Asia (1999).
 * Habib, Irfan. Agrarian System of Mughal India (1963, revised edition 1999).
 * Habib, Irfan. Indian Economy, 1858–1914 (2006).
 * Kumar, Prakash. Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India (Cambridge University Press, 2012) 334 pp
 * Lal, Deepak. The Hindu Equilibrium: India c. 1500 B.C.–2000 A.D. (2nd ed. 2005).
 * Lal, K. S. (1995). Growth of scheduled tribes and castes in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
 * Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
 * Lockwood, David. The Indian Bourgeoisie: A Political History of the Indian Capitalist Class in the Early Twentieth Century (I.B. Tauris, 2012) 315 pages; focus on Indian entrepreneurs who benefited from the Raj, but ultimately sided with the Indian National Congress.
 * Majumdar, R. C. (2010). Corporate life in ancient India. Charleston, SC: Bibliolife.
 * Mahajan, Nupam P. (1999) India's First Coinage. Retrieved 24 February 2005.
 * Micklethwait, John & Wooldridge, Adrian (2003). The Company: a short history of a revolutionary idea. Modern library chronicles. ISBN 0-679-64249-8.
 * Sarkar, Jadunath, Economics of British India, Kolkata: Sarkar.
 * Raychaudhuri, Tapan and Irfan Habib, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of India: Volume 1, c. 1200–c. 1750 (1982).
 * Roy, Tirthankar. The Economic History of India 1857–1947 (2002, 2006, 2011).
 * Roy, Tirthankar. India in the World Economy from Antiquity to the Present (2012).
 * Tomlinson, B. R. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (The New Cambridge History of India) (1996) excerpt and text search
 * Tomlinson, B. H. "India and the British Empire, 1880–1935", Indian Economic and Social History Review, (October 1975), 12#4 pp. 337–80
 * Washbrook, David A. "Law, state and agrarian society in colonial India." Modern Asian Studies 15.3 (1981): 649–721.
 * Max Weber, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism
 * Yazdani, Kaveh. India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) (Leiden: Brill), 2017. xxxi + 669 pp. online review
 * Roy, Tirthankar. The Economic History of India 1857–1947 (2002, 2006, 2011).
 * Roy, Tirthankar. India in the World Economy from Antiquity to the Present (2012).
 * Tomlinson, B. R. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (The New Cambridge History of India) (1996) excerpt and text search
 * Tomlinson, B. H. "India and the British Empire, 1880–1935", Indian Economic and Social History Review, (October 1975), 12#4 pp. 337–80
 * Washbrook, David A. "Law, state and agrarian society in colonial India." Modern Asian Studies 15.3 (1981): 649–721.
 * Max Weber, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism
 * Yazdani, Kaveh. India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) (Leiden: Brill), 2017. xxxi + 669 pp. online review
 * Max Weber, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism
 * Yazdani, Kaveh. India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (17th to 19th C.) (Leiden: Brill), 2017. xxxi + 669 pp. online review

Gazetteers and statistics

 * The Imperial Gazetteer of India (26 vol, 1908–31), highly detailed description of all of India in 1901. online edition

Since 1947

 * Bardhan, Pranab. Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India by (Princeton University Press; 2010) 172 pages;
 * Datt, Ruddar & Sundharam, K.P.M. (1965). Indian Economy (51st Revised ed. (2005)). S.Chand. ISBN 81-219-0298-3.
 * Das, Gurcharan. India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (2002).
 * Frankel, Francine R. India's Political Economy, 1947–1977: The Gradual Revolution (1978).
 * Lal, Deepak. The Hindu Equilibrium: India c. 1500 B.C.-2000 A.D. (2nd ed. 2005).
 * Larue, C. Steven. The India Handbook (1997) (Regional Handbooks of Economic Development).
 * Majumdar, Sumit K. India's Late, Late Industrial Revolution: Democratizing Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press; 2012), 426 pages; focus on the entrepreneur-led revolution since 1990
 * Myrdal, Gunnar. Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations (3 vol, 1968) 2284 pages; also 4th vol. on methodology (1970), focus on India and neighbors; by winner of Nobel prize in economics
 * Roy, Tirthankar. Economic History of India 1857–1947 (3d ed., 2011).
 * Rudolph, Lloyd I. In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State (1987).
 * Sankaran, S. Indian Economy: Problems, Policies and Development (Margham Publications, 7th ed. 1994).
 * Tomlinson, B. R. et al. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (1996) (The New Cambridge History of India)
 * Wolpert, Stanley, ed. Encyclopedia of India (4 vol. 2005) comprehensive coverage by scholars
 * Roy, Tirthankar. Economic History of India 1857–1947 (3d ed., 2011).
 * Rudolph, Lloyd I. In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State (1987).
 * Sankaran, S. Indian Economy: Problems, Policies and Development (Margham Publications, 7th ed. 1994).
 * Tomlinson, B. R. et al. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (1996) (The New Cambridge History of India)
 * Wolpert, Stanley, ed. Encyclopedia of India (4 vol. 2005) comprehensive coverage by scholars
 * Tomlinson, B. R. et al. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (1996) (The New Cambridge History of India)
 * Wolpert, Stanley, ed. Encyclopedia of India (4 vol. 2005) comprehensive coverage by scholars
 * Wolpert, Stanley, ed. Encyclopedia of India (4 vol. 2005) comprehensive coverage by scholars

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title: Economic history of India


text:
John Moulder Wilson

John Moulder Wilson (October 8, 1837 – February 1, 1919) was a Union Army officer and later served as Chief of Engineers as well as serving as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1889 to 1893. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery in combat during the American Civil War.

Biography
Wilson was born in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1860 and was commissioned into combined Batteries B & L, 2nd U.S. Artillery as part of the U.S. Horse Artillery Brigade. He transferred to the Corps of Topographical Engineers in July 1862 and was awarded the Medal of Honor for fighting at the Battle of Malvern Hill in Virginia, on August 6, 1862. He joined the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1863 and received three brevet promotions for gallant service in Alabama. After the Civil War, Wilson worked on Hudson River improvements and drafted plans for the canal around the Cascades of the Columbia River. He improved the Great Lakes harbors of Oswego, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and Toledo, Ohio. Wilson headed the divisions of the Chief's office pertaining to military affairs for four years, was in charge of public buildings and grounds in Washington during both Grover Cleveland administrations, and was Superintendent of West Point from 1889 to 1893 during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison. Before his appointment as Chief of Engineers, he was Northeast Division Engineer. He was appointed as Chief Engineer of the US Army and promoted to brigadier general on February 1, 1897. As Chief of Engineers, he directed the Corps' activities during the Spanish–American War.

Wilson retired from the Corps on April 30, 1901. He served as an arbitrator during the Coal Strike of 1902, and was president of the Columbia Hospital for Women from 1902 to 1907. He remained a prominent figure in the cultural life of Washington until his death there on February 1, 1919.

General Wilson was a Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Columbia University.

Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Engineers. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., August 6, 1862. Entered service at: Washington Territory. Birth: Washington D.C.. Date of issue: July 3, 1897.

Citation:

"Remained on duty, while suffering from an acute illness and very weak, and participated in the action of that date. A few days previous he had been transferred to a staff corps, but preferred to remain until the close of the campaign, taking part in several actions."

Personal
Wilson was the son of Joseph Shields Wilson and his first wife Eliza Uhler Moulder. His older sister Mary Shields Wilson was the wife of Brevet Brig. Gen. Thomas Duncan. His older brother Brevet Brig. Gen. Thomas Wilson was a 1853 West Point graduate and his younger brother Lt. Commander Downs Lorraine Wilson was an 1871 Naval Academy graduate.

Wilson married Augusta Bertha Waller. They had a daughter, but she died about six months old in New Orleans. Wilson and his wife were buried at the West Point Cemetery.

title: John Moulder Wilson


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User talk:Beagle2

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Antisana

Antisana is a stratovolcano of the northern Andes, in Ecuador. It is the fourth highest volcano in Ecuador, at 5753 m, and is located 50 km SE of the capital city of Quito.

Antisana presents one of the most challenging technical climbs in the Ecuadorian Andes. Next to the Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Chimborazo, the Antisana belongs to the five volcanic mountains that the Prussian-born explorer Alexander von Humboldt tried to climb in 1802 during his American journey.

title: Antisana


text: User:Tcp-ip

title: User:Tcp-ip


text:
Jutarnji list

Jutarnji list (lit. 'The Morning Paper') is a Croatian daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in Zagreb since 6 April 1998, by EPH (Europapress holding, owned by Ninoslav Pavić) which eventually changed name in Hanza Media, when bought by Marijan Hanžeković. The newspaper is published in the berliner format and online. Its online edition jutarnji.hr is the second most visited news website in Croatia after Index.hr.

According to the owner of Hanza Media Marijan Hanžeković, "Jutarnji list should be conceptually newspaper of liberal and social-democratic orientation, with emphasis on accuracy and relevance."

History and profile
Jutarnji list was launched in April 1998, becoming the first successful Croatian daily newspaper to appear since the 1950s. It was named after the Jutarnji list (1912) Zagreb daily that used to circulate from 1912 until 1941. The newspaper is part of Hanza Media media group.

Jutarnji is considered to be a more left-leaning liberal daily than Večernji list.

In 2003, Jutarnji list launched a comprehensive Sunday edition, Nedjeljni Jutarnji. On 19 February 2005, Jutarnji list published an exhaustive biography of Ante Gotovina.

The paper quickly took the majority of Croatian media market and became one of the most read newspapers in that country. In the first five years it sold more than 214 million copies. During the actual economic crisis the number of sold copies diminished from about 80,000 in 2007 to 52,763 in 2013. The crisis hit in the same manner other daily newspapers in Croatia. The circulation of Jutarnji list was 66,000 copies in October 2014.

Contributors (past and present)
Writer Predrag Matvejević was an essayist at the Jutarnji list. Other notable contributors include Slavenka Drakulić, Igor Mandić, Ante Tomić, Jurica Pavičić, Nenad Polimac, Tvrtko Jakovina, Inoslav Bešker.

Editors-in-Chief

 * Tomislav Wruss (1998–2008)
 * Mladen Pleše (2008–2013)
 * Viktor Vresnik (2013–2015)
 * Goran Ogurlić (since 2015)

Controversies
In February 2008, Jutarnji list was involved in a scandal when it published an interview with what was thought to be Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. The reporter contacted 23-year-old Viktor Zahtila by e-mail and SMS, who he assumed to be the prime minister. Zahtila replied via email and nowhere explicitly stated that he was Ivo Sanader. The reporter, Davor Butković, never checked to see if he was actually communicating with the PM.

title: Jutarnji list


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Talk:Japanese militarism

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Toshka Lakes

Toshka Lakes (بحيرات توشكى, ) is the name given to recently formed endorheic lakes in the Sahara Desert of Egypt. Their presence is caused by periodic overflow from Lake Nasser.

The presence of the depression helped establish the Toshka New Valley Project, made possible by the Sheikh Zayed Canal, which starts from the Mubarak pump station to raise water from the creek of Lake Nasser to the canal, and whose aim is to develop the southern valley area.

Etymology
There are two opinions regarding the origin of the name "Toshka". The first is that that the word “toshka” is made up of two syllables: "toshi" or "tosho", and "ki", "ke", or "ka". “Toshi” is the name of the stump plant, a type of medicinal herb that grows in the valley, and “ki” means "the place", "the house", or "the homeland" in the Nubian dialect or the region. Toshka in its entirety then means “the home of the Ghubeira plant.”

The second opinion is, which is more widely accepted, is the lakes are named after a Nubian village (Old Nubian: ⲧⲱϣⲕⲉⲁ ) which existed in the region until it was flooded after the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The word “toshka” consists of two syllables.

In the past, the Toshka region included two villages, one east of the Nile, “Toshka East” and the other west of the Nile, “Toshka West.” The residents used Nile boats to move between the two villages. The two new ones have the same name “Toshka East” and “Toshka West”. A new city was built in remembrance of the village.

Battle of Toski
In the year 1889, a famous battle took place in the Toshka region between the British campaign and the army of the Mahdist State. Madhist revolutionaries marched from Sudan under the leadership of Abd al-Rahman al-Nujumi, proclaiming that they were ridding the Nile Valley of the corruption of the Turkish and British rulers, spread the Madhist faith to Egypt, and to free Ahmed Orabi from prison.

Aswan High Dam
The Aswan High Dam, constructed in Egypt in 1964–1968, created Lake Nasser. It was designed with a maximum water level of 183 m above sea level. As a precaution against any unexpected rise in Lake Nasser's water level, a spillway and channel were built in 1978. The channel has the potential to divert water from the reservoir to the Toshka basin, which is located outside the Nile basin. This design relieves dam pressure and protects downstream areas from massive flooding. The canal was made through a spillway channel that was dug starting from Khor Toshka branching from Lake Nasser and passing through the Toshka Valley in the Western Desert until it connects to the depression.

Formation
In 1998, Ethiopia experienced mass flash floods and river floods. Excess water coming from in Ethiopia's highlands put strain on the river Nile and put the flood control plan of the Aswan High Dam to the test. For the first time, the massive reservoir reached its highest level of 183 meters above sea level in September. Excess water started being released from Lake Nasser by overflow into a hollow at the south end of the Eocene limestone plateau. During September and October, the basin received between 32 and 98 million cubic meters of water per day.

Astronauts on the ISS began noticing the first, easternmost lake growing in November 1998. By late 1999, three additional lakes formed successively westward, and the westernmost lake started forming sometime between September 2000 and March 2001. These lakes are not yet named individually.

It was estimated that in total, the Toshka Lakes cover approximately 1300 square kilometers (502 mi2). The levels of the lakes are lower than in 2001, and areas of wetlands and sand dunes have formed between the former and present shorelines. A minor lake downstream of the three larger lakes has completely dried out. The levels of the lakes vary between 175 m for the one closest to Lake Nasser to 144 m for the one furthest downstream.

Decline
By the late 2000s, the Toshka region experienced an increase in agricultural activity, with farmers using water from Lake Toshka and pumps from Lake Nasser for agricultural purposes. The region saw some economic growth as a result of the increased agricultural activity, and a new city was built to support the Toshka Agricultural Project located northeast of the Sheikh Zayed Canal. The city of New Toshka was established by Presidential Decree No. 199 of 2000 and its location modified by Presidential Decree No. 268 of 2006 with the aim of creating an integrated urban community.

By 2006, Lake Toshka's water levels began to decline rapidly, exposing large areas of dry land. The amount of stored water had been reduced by 50%. By June 2012, water filled only the lowest parts of the main western and eastern basins, covering a surface area of 307 square kilometers, an 80% decrease compared to 2002. The central basin is almost completely devoid of water and the rest of the lakes had mostly dried up due to low flow in the river. By 2017 the lakes were nearly completely dry, leaving only small remnants of water in the western basins.

Sudan Floods
The 2019 summer rainfall in Sudan and South Sudan was significant enough to raise the water level in Lake Nasser, which allowed the eastern Toshka basin to start refilling. This was followed by the record-breaking floods that occurred in Sudan in 2020. These floods led to the highest water level ever recorded in Lake Nasser. The following year, in 2021, another flood occurred in Sudan. Then, due to the 2022 Sudanese floods, Lake Nasser approached record levels once again, causing the Toshka Lakes to fill rapidly.

The filling of the Toshka Lakes in 2022 resulted in the highest water levels ever recorded in the area, and it also indicated the formation of new lakes in depressions located to the north and south of the eastern basin. The area covered by the original lakes increased substantially above the levels seen in 2001, gaining 3 more lakes on the eastern side. This increase in water levels has had a significant impact on the agricultural areas in the region, which have grown considerably due to the abundance of water. As a result, the Toshka agriculture project has benefited greatly from the increased water supply, and the region's economy has improved due to growth in the agricultural industry.

Geography
The new lake system is endorheic, meaning the waters never flow out to the sea. The Nile-sourced water creates the lakes and helps to recharge the underlying aquifer; however, desert temperatures cause very high levels of evaporation. Although the new lakes already contain an impressive number of fish, these high evaporation levels will make the waters increasingly saline over time, reducing fish stocks and harming the newly established flora and fauna.

The Toshka Hollow lies within the seismically active Nubian Swell. The Egyptian government is developing the surrounding region, also known as the "New Valley Project". The plan is to extend the waterway to the Kharga oasis. Use of Nile resources is governed by the Nile Basin Initiative; however, the Toshka project does not breach the agreement as water is diverted from Lake Nasser only after heavy water flows upstream have raised lake levels above 178 m.

title: Toshka Lakes


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Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline

Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline (1555–1622) was a Scottish lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord President of the Court of Session from 1598 to 1604, Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1604 to 1622 and as a Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland.

Early life
Born at Seton Palace, East Lothian, he was the son of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton, and Isobell Hamilton. The Setons remained a Roman Catholic family after the Scottish Reformation of 1560, and continued to support Mary, Queen of Scots, after her abdication and exile in England.

Alexander Seton was educated at the German and Roman College in Rome from June 1571 to December 1578. Alexander was noted learning Italian and science (philosophy) in Rome by Baptista da Trento in 1577 in a letter describing plots to marry Elizabeth I of England to the Earl of Leicester and re-instate Mary in Scotland. The family historian Viscount Kingston heard that he was skilled in mathematics, heraldry and architecture, and might have been made a Cardinal if he had stayed at Rome. A Venetian diplomat, Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli, heard that Pope Gregory XIII had subsidised Seton's study in Rome, and that Seton had a doctorate from the University of Bologna.

Career
In 1583, Alexander Seton joined his father's embassy to France. William Schaw, the Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland was his companion. They left from Leith in Andrew Lamb's ship. According to the Jesuit Robert Parsons, Lord Seton considered sending the youthful Alexander back to Scotland as his representative at one point.

Alexander became a Privy Councillor in 1585 and was appointed a Lord of Session as Lord Urquhart in 1586. He rose to be Lord President of the Court of Session and was created Lord Fyvie on 4 March 1598. From July 1593 he led a council convened to manage the estates of Anne of Denmark, and she made him 'bailie and justiciary of the regality of Dunfermline on both sides of Forth on 15 February 1596. In December 1596 Richard Douglas wrote that Seton's mother was a great favourite of Anne of Denmark, and that she "rules the king her husband" as an explanation for his promotions.

Around this time, King James had difficult financing the two royal households, and years later, he wrote that Seton had joked that his "house could not be kept upon epigrams", meaning that fine words alone would not raise money.

Meanwhile, Jesuits like William Crichton saw Seton and Lord Home as an important Catholic courtiers and a route to the king and queen, as they explored the idea of James VI as future king of England. Crichton introduced an English Catholic, Nicholas Williamson, to a student at Douai, David Law. Crichton intended that Law would introduce Williamson to Seton, but they were both captured in March 1595 near Keswick and imprisoned in London.

At the end of August 1596 according to James Melville, the King arranged a Convention of the Estates at Falkland Palace which included the allies of the forfeited earls. Alexander Seton made a speech like those of Coriolanus or Themistocles calling for the re-instatement of these earls to strengthen the country. The reference to Themistocles, who spoke about naval power to the Athenians, perhaps refers to the forfeited Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell.

On 7 November 1598 he was made burgess, Guild-brother and Provost of Edinburgh. In March 1598 he took delivery of Spanish and Bordeaux wine, probably for the banquet for Ulrik, the younger brother of Anne of Denmark at Riddle's Court. Other notes in the town's records include a dozen torches supplied by a waxmaker for the baptism of Princess Margaret in April 1599, and another dozen for the baptism of Prince Charles.

Union of the Crowns
Seton was regarded as one of the finest legal minds of the time, and he became an advisor to James VI and guardian and tutor to Prince Charles at Dunfermline Palace.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Anne of Denmark went to Stirling Castle hoping to collect her son Prince Henry. Alexander Seton's sister Lady Paisley was of her companions that day. During heated discussions at the castle, Anne of Denmark had a miscarriage. As a member of the Privy Council, Seton went with others to Stirling in May 1603 to discuss and investigate the controversy. Seton wrote to King James in London advising him to treat the queen with care, writing, "physic and medicine requireth a greater place with Her Majesty at present than lectures on economics and politics."

After the Union of the Crowns when the Scottish royal family relocated to London, Seton remained on the committee supervising Anne's Scottish incomes, while James VI went to England, and the infant Charles remained with Seton and his wife Grizel Leslie at Dunfermline Palace.

On 14 March 1604, Seton wrote to Robert Cecil on the subject of the union and opinion in Scotland;"This Union is the most at this time of all men's hearts and speeches. I find none of any account here but glad in heart to embrace the same in general: some suspect the particular conditions may engender greater difficulties. I hope the wisdom of the Prince who is both the ground and the cornerstone of this happy Union, with your and other wise men's assistance shall set by all such difficulties: as also I think there can be no particular condition desired for the weal (commonwealth) of one of the nations, but it must be profitable to the other, nor nothing prejudicial to one, but must be hurtful to the other, albeit only by the distracting of their due concord which wise men will think of greater consequence, nor any particular may be subtly cozened (brought) in. This is all I can write even of our thoughts here-away: I doubt not there are divers apprehensions there also'."

In 1604, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and in 1605 was created Earl of Dunfermline. Alexander Seton brought Prince Charles, Duke of Albany, to England in August 1604. There was a large entourage, and John Crane wrote from Worksop Manor to the Mayor of Leicester asking him to make ready a lodging with 12 beds, a kitchen, and 7 hogsheads of beer. They lodged in William Skipwith's Leicester townhouse. Next they went to Dingley, the home of Thomas Griffin.

Seton stayed in London till January 1605, co-inciding with the visit of the Ulrik, Duke of Holstein, and had a tour of armouries of the Tower of London. At Whitehall, Viscount Cranborne arranged for him to read the original Treaty of Greenwich, which had led to the war of the Rough Wooing in 1543, and other documents. Seton returned the historical papers to Cecil on 3 November.

Alexander Seton returned to Scotland with a pension of £200 to reward his keeping of Prince Charles, made Duke of York on Twelfth Night, and his expenses for his 'pains in the Union' amounting to £200 a year. He had made friends with the Venetian ambassador in London, Zorzi Giustinian, who sent him pamphlets about Venetian politics.

Seton corresponded with the Chancellor of England, Lord Ellesmere. His letter of 30 October 1606 mentions the plague in Scotland which had been continuous in Edinburgh for four years, and although the outbreak was not vehement at this time, it interfered with the sitting of law courts. The plague was worse in Ayr and Stirling and 2,000 people had died in the last two months.

After the death of George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar, Seton was made Keeper of Holyrood Palace and the park and gardens, with power to appoint gardeners to the north and south yards, and the small garden.

In 1609 he was again in England. Henry Yelverton had fallen from the king's favour. A Mr Dummond, perhaps John Drummond of Hawthornden, advised him to enlist the help Arbella Stuart to gain Alexander Seton's support. Seton duly presented Yelverton's petition to King James during his progress at Hinchingbrooke.

In 1611 he helped a French clockmaker Nicolas Foucanote settle in Edinburgh. He had served Henry IV of France and came to London asking help from Anne of Denmark, who sent him to Seton. Seton helped him become a burgess of Edinburgh by arranging his marriage to Elizabeth Robesoun, daughter of John Robesoun of Leith, burgess of Edinburgh, who had been butcher and supplier of foodstuffs to the royal households.

Seton had an official lodging in Holyrood Palace, and also rented properties on the High Street including Riddle's Court. In July 1614, his wife prepared a guest room at Holyrood for Elizabeth Schaw, the wife of John Murray of bedchamber, but she had chosen to stay elsewhere.

In February 1616 he was again in London and saw Anne of Denmark at Greenwich, writing that he spoke to her in the old familiar manner, although she was ill and kept to her bedchamber. He felt that the Scots were left out of government business as "we ar leitill bettir nor idill cifres heir" - "we are little better than idle ciphers here." Seton received medical treatment from the court physician Théodore de Mayerne.

Later in 1616, in preparation for the royal visit to Scotland, he was required by the Privy Council of Scotland to declare what remained of the Scottish Royal tapestry collection at Dunfermline Palace. He stated there were 10 pieces "of auld and worne tapestrie of the storie of Aeneas, the storie of Troy, and of the story of Mankynd."

His modern humanist and neo-stoic attitude was demonstrated by his energetic defence of Geillis Johnstone accused of witchcraft in 1614.

Material culture, artistic and literary patronage
A portrait of his wife Margaret Hay, painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger in 1615 is in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Part of a painted ceiling bearing his monogram and heraldry from Pinkie House is displayed at Edinburgh's Huntly House museum: his painted long gallery is still preserved at Pinkie House, now Loretto School. Of Pinkie House the family historian wrote, "he built ane noble house, brave stone dykes about the garden and orchards, with other commendable policie about it."

In his 1622 will, Seton directed the Earl of Winton and his brother Sir William Seton to complete his building work at Pinkie. They were requested to "have caire to sie the foir laich wark at Pinkie in the inner court therof tirrit & theikit of new with skailyie (roofed), and that this new wark begunne by me be everie way perfytit & buildit in all materials to the final ending thereof ... according to my intention and mynd declarit to Alexander Ingillis of Rottinraw my servant, and as the plat (plan) of the same is set downe".

The gallery at Pinkie is a plain wooden vault, and the painting subdivides into compartments filled with emblems and mottoes. The general theme may have been to celebrate the Union of the Crowns. The painting was not to the taste of later generations, in 1668 John Lauder of Fountainhall saw the gallery and other paintings which do not now survive, and wrote that Seton had "been mighty conceity in pretty mottoes and saying, whereof the walls and roofs of all the roomes are filled, stuffed with good moralitie, though somewhat pedantick."

Archaeologists have discovered parts of his garden at Fyvie. Seton also had a lodging in Edinburgh, and in July 1597 James VI held a lengthy audience with the ambassador Robert Bowes in this garden. He rented accommodation from John MacMorran, probably at Riddle's Court on the Lawnmarket.

His will includes tapestry of "portrait and forest work" and gilt leather hangings and curtains, almost as valuable as his library at Fyvie and Pinkie. Personal jewellery included, two "horns" or tags set with 77 diamonds and 2 rubies; the jewel called the Orpheus having 20 diamonds and 25 rubies; a gold swan set with 40 diamonds; 2 rubies, and a pearl; a griffin (the Seton crest) set with a ruby and sapphire; a gold cross, an image of the Virgin Mary, and a gold toothpick.

A catalogue of a part of his library at Pinkie survives. In 1599 Robert Pont, the father of the cartographer Timothy Pont dedicated his book, A Newe Treatise of the Right Reckoning of Yeares and Ages of the World, to Alexander Seton. The dedication placed Seton as a rare Maecenas of this Land". In 1617, John Napier of Merchiston dedicated his Rabdologiae seu Numerationis per virgulas libri duo to Seton. The book describes the method of multiplication using rods called "Napier's bones," and its Latin dedication acknowledges the help of Seton as the "illustrious Scottish Maecenas."

Alexander Seton also commissioned the tomb of his friend the architect William Schaw at Dunfermline Abbey.

Death and funeral
After 15 days of illness, Alexander Seton died on Sunday 16 June 1622 at Pinkie. His nephew, the Earl of Winton, had spent 12 sleepless days at his bedside.

On 19 June his body was taken by boat across the Forth to his house at Dalgety Bay near Dunfermline. He was buried in his vault in Dalgety Church, on 9 July 1622. A manuscript describes in detail the elaborate procession from the house (long demolished) to the kirk, which included his Master Stabler John Menzies of Carlops riding in full armour, and his Master Household John Drummond with a black flag, known as the "gumpheon of state", painted with a skull and tears. John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St Andrews, gave the sermon.

The Earl of Melros wrote to the courtier John Murray of Lochmaben on the 19 June, discussing the difficulty of finding a replacement administrator, writing "Many are able to serve at tennis, at the cord, who are unfit for the house".

Marriages and children
Alexander Seton first married Lilias Drummond, daughter of Patrick Drummond, 3rd Lord Drummond, their children were;
 * Anne Seton, (b. circa 1593), married Alexander Erskine, Viscount Fentoun, their eldest son was Alexander Erskine, 3rd Earl of Kellie.
 * Isobel Seton, married John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale.
 * Margaret Seton (I), (baptised in Edinburgh, 1596), died in infancy,
 * Margaret Seton (II), (b. 1599), married Colin Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Seaforth.
 * Sophia Seton, who married David Lindsay, 1st Lord Balcarres in 1612.

Alexander Seton married secondly in 1601, Grizel Leslie, a daughter of James Leslie, Master of Rothes, their children were;
 * Charles (I), died young.
 * Lilias Seton, (baptised November 1602)
 * Jean Seton, (b. circa 1606), married John Hay, 8th Lord Yester.

Alexander Seton married thirdly, circa 1607, Margaret Hay (1592–1659), daughter of James Hay, 7th Lord Hay of Yester. Seton's widow Margaret Hay married James Livingstone, Lord Almond and Earl of Callendar, in 1633.
 * Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline.
 * Grizel Seton, (b. 1609)
 * Mary Seton, (b. 1611)