Fluctuations in the global price of cotton had a cataclysmic effect on the people of Bombay. This work is based on the petitions of insolvents submitted to the Bombay High Court during the second half of the nineteenth century. Drawing on petitions of close to 20,000 individual insolvents, it maps patterns of income, literacy levels and connections between religion and occupation. It deals with the credit structure of the bigger merchants and highlights the ...
