In August 1690, East India Company official Job Charnock shifted the Company’s Bengal operations from Hooghly to Sutanuti on the Hooghly River. This created a durable base for river-and-sea trade in eastern India. The settlement grew into Calcutta (now Kolkata), though the site already had earlier villages and trading activity.
In 1696, the Company began building the first Fort William near its riverfront settlement. The fort helped protect warehouses, shipping, and Company staff in a competitive trading environment. This militarized infrastructure also strengthened Calcutta’s role as a colonial port economy tied to Company power.
In November 1698, the East India Company secured revenue (zamindari) rights over Sutanuti, Kalikata, and Gobindapur from the local landlords. This gave the Company stronger legal and fiscal control over the land around its port settlement. With land revenue and policing increasingly shaped by Company needs, Calcutta became a more stable base for an entrepôt (a hub where goods are collected, stored, and re-shipped).
In 1717, Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar issued a farman (royal order) that granted major trading concessions to the East India Company in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. These privileges reduced taxes and barriers on Company commerce and helped Calcutta grow as a major collection and shipping point. Over time, use and misuse of duty-free passes (dastaks) also increased conflict with regional authorities.
In June 1756, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, attacked and took Fort William, briefly seizing Calcutta. That night, prisoners were held in a small guardroom later called the “Black Hole of Calcutta,” an event remembered through contested casualty accounts. The episode became a turning point that intensified Company military retaliation and reshaped the city’s security and governance.
On 23 June 1757, the East India Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey. This victory enabled the Company to install a more compliant nawab and gain decisive influence over Bengal’s finances. With Bengal’s wealth increasingly linked to Company interests, Calcutta’s port economy expanded as the Company’s main Bengal base.
On 22 October 1764, the Company defeated an alliance that included the Mughal emperor at the Battle of Buxar. The result strengthened the Company’s political position after Plassey and reduced reliance on ruling through a nominal, independent nawab. This shift mattered for Calcutta because port revenues, procurement, and shipping were now tied more directly to Company state-building.
On 16 August 1765, the Treaty of Allahabad granted the East India Company Diwani rights—the authority to collect revenue—in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. This turned trade profits into state revenue, funding armies and administration. Calcutta, as the Company’s key river port and headquarters in Bengal, benefited from the tighter link between taxation, procurement, warehousing, and export shipping.
By the mid-1760s, customs administration in Calcutta was organized around dedicated premises and warehouses, reflecting the city’s growing role in regulated import-export trade. Shifts in where the Custom House operated (including the old Fort area) show how port functions were becoming embedded in colonial governance. Customs control was central to an entrepôt economy because it governed duties, documentation, storage, and oversight of cargo movement.
In 1772, Warren Hastings transferred major offices from Murshidabad to Calcutta, making it the capital of British India. This concentrated administrative decision-making near the port and river traffic that supported Company revenue and supplies. Calcutta’s harbor economy thus became closely tied to the colonial state’s bureaucracy, courts, and military logistics.
In 1773, Britain passed the Regulating Act, creating the Governor-General in Bengal and increasing oversight of Company rule from Calcutta. In 1774, the Supreme Court at Fort William was established, bringing English legal institutions into the city’s governance. Together, these reforms strengthened Calcutta as both a trading port and an administrative-legal center for imperial control.
In 1813, Parliament renewed the Company’s charter but ended its monopoly on trade with India (while keeping key exceptions such as tea and China trade). This widened access for other British merchants and increased private shipping and commercial competition connected to Calcutta. The city’s role as an entrepôt grew more complex as state power and private trade became more intertwined at the port.
In 1833, the Government of India Act ended the Company’s commercial functions and reinforced its role as an administrative governing body. It also centralized authority by redesignating the Governor-General of Bengal as Governor-General of India. For Calcutta, this marked a shift from a company-town trade base toward being the seat of an increasingly centralized colonial government still anchored to a major port economy.
On 2 August 1858, Parliament passed the Government of India Act transferring governing authority from the East India Company to the British Crown. This change followed the 1857 rebellion and reflected a new imperial strategy for ruling India. For Calcutta’s colonial entrepôt story (1690–1858), it marks the endpoint: the port city’s growth and administration were no longer directed by a merchant company-state, but by the formal British Raj.
Port of Calcutta (Kolkata) as a British colonial entrepôt (1690-1858)