This volume comprises twelve of the most important pieces on the nature of India's trade and financial dealings in the early colonial period, during the years of imperial expansion. Several of the pieces included here are inaccessible or have long been out of print. Foreign trade, in particular the commercial transaction between India and Great Britain, is the topic which dominates the essays.

The volume editor's introduction ties together the various strands which link the essays. Professor Siddiqi traces how the East India Company made the transition from a trading organization to a governing power. She shows how trading capital, markets, credit systems, and the intricacies of bullion flows formed the basis of an increasingly complex network of controls which resulted in commercial as well as political dominance by Britain over India.