Rampur Boalla

Rampur Boalia, on the Padma River, grew as a centre of the silk trade in Rajshahi. Mulberry cultivation in the surrounding country supplied silk producers, and the riverside market connected their thread and cloth with merchants from farther afield. A Dutch trading house stood by the river, a sign of European interest in the produce of northern Bengal.

By the late eighteenth century the East India Company was investing heavily in raw silk at Boalia. In 1787 its commercial resident, Mr Speke, received funds both to purchase silk and to make advances for further supplies. The following year officials sent him silkworm eggs from China in the hope of introducing a different variety of silk. The trade joined cultivators, reelers and weavers to an expanding network of European commercial establishments.