Does the Market Matter? Economic History of an Indian Region in a Euro-Centric View

The 18th Century Deccan was a highly commercialised, market driven society, quite unlike the descriptions of "traditional" Indian societies in the literature. In many ways, this society was similar to those of north-Western Europe during the same period. At the same time, there were critical differences. One important difference was that of the state formation process. By the 18th century, European nations had succeeded in developing strong centralised state apparatuses. On the other hand, the state formation processes were much more open ended in the Deccan, which had interesting implications for differences in the structure of economic change in the two societies [Economics Dept. WP No.UDE15/3/2004].