A Local History of Global Capital

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Before synthetic fibers and cargo containers, jute sacks were the primary packaging material in global trade, transporting grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco, coffee, wool, guano, and bacon. Jute was the second-most consumed fiber globally, following cotton, yet it was cultivated almost exclusively by peasant smallholders in the Bengal delta. This work explores how jute fibers intertwined the delta's peasantry with the dynamics of global capital. It spans from the British Raj's peak in the nineteenth century to the early years of post-partition Pakistan in the mid-twentieth century, detailing how jute's global connections transformed peasant life, including work, leisure, domesticity, social interactions, and concepts of justice, ethics, and religion. The author illustrates how peasant life was influenced by fluctuations in global commodity markets, transitioning from a period of consumerism and prosperity in the nineteenth century to one of debt and poverty in the twentieth century. This narrative reveals how jute linked the Bengal delta's peasantry to the tumult of global capital, showing how global markets shaped their daily lives and dictated the boundaries between prosperity and poverty, survival and starvation.