Meet Jagat Seth - The Richest Family Of Bengal

When we look back at our history, we find that India did have a reasonably well-developed money market and a credit instrument. Before the British came to India, we were one of the richest countries in the world - that India was known as the "Golden Bird." In Indian history, there were many families that were so insanely rich that they would make the Elon Musks, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates of the world look like paupers.

Meet Jagat Seth - The Richest Family Of Bengal Who Gave Loans To British | awesomegyan

Owning to rich resources and being a well-developed nation, for many centuries India was plundered by foreign invaders. However, even after this, some such names are also recorded in our history, who used to rule on the strength of their money despite not being the rulers of the country. One such name was Jagat Seth of Murshidabad, well known as Seth Fatehchand.

Who was Jagat Seth or Seth Fatehchand?

Jagat Seth title was given to Fateh Chand by the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah in 1723. After that, the entire family of Fateh Chand came to be known as Jagat Seth Family. Jagat Seth means the ¡°Banker of the World¡±, a very rich banker in Bengal in the first half of the 18th century.

Foundation of the Jagat Seth family

Meet Jagat Seth - The Richest Family Of Bengal | Wiki Commons

The founder of this family is believed to be Seth Manik Chand. It is believed that the ancestors of Jagat Seth Mahtab Rai were residents of Marwar and in 1495 AD, Girdhar Singh Gehlot had accepted Jainism from among the Gehlot Rajputs. Hiranand Sahu of this family left Marwar and settled in Patna in 1652 AD.

At that time Patna used to be a big centre of trade. Here Hiranand Sahu started the business of saltpetre, in those days Europeans used to be the biggest buyers of saltpetre. Along with the saltpetre business, the moneylender had also increased the work of lending on interest and soon he was counted among the rich moneylenders. Hiranand Sahu had seven sons, who were scattered here and there to do business. One of his sons Manik Chand came to Dhaka which was the capital of Bengal during that time.

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Seth Manikchand, the Bengal banker whose house was anointed Jagat Seth, ruled financial markets for nearly fifty years through business acumen and political support and he was who had laid the foundation of the Jagat Seth family of Bengal.

Murshid Quli Khan | Wikipedia

Murshid Quli Khan Subedar of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa and Seth Manik Chand were close friends of each other. Manik Chand was not only the cashier of Nawab Murshid Quli Khan but the revenue of the province was also deposited with him. Together they established Murshidabad, the new capital of Bengal and sent 20 million rent to Aurangzeb instead of one crore thirty lakhs.

The Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar conferred the title of Seth on Manik Chand in 1715. After this Manik Chand family came to be known as Jagat Seth. After Manik Chand, the power of the Seth family came into the hands of Fateh Chand, during his time Seth family reached heights.

Some reports also estimate that the British economy back in the 1720s was smaller than the wealth of Jagat Seth.

Although a shadow of its former glory, the palatial home of the Jagat Seth family, has been converted to a museum. Oswal Jains, Manick Chand and Fateh Chand, not only established a flourishing trading empire in the 18th century but also served as bankers. It was their achievement in the banking business that earned the family the title of Jagat Seth or ¡®banker of the world¡¯. The family had joined hands with Robert Clive of the East India Company in his fight with Nawab Sirj-ud-daula of Bengal.

How did Jagat Seth die?

After the Battle of Plassey, Mir Jafar became the new Nawab. He organised the killing of several members of the family including Jagat Seth, Mehtab Chand and his cousin Swarup Chand, in 1763, and threw their bodies off the ramparts off Munger Fort.

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Where is Jagat Seth¡¯s family now?

After the death of Madhab Rai and Maharaj Swaroop Chand, their empire started collapsing. They lost control over much of the land they owned, and the money that the British East India Company borrowed from them, was never paid back. The final nail in the coffin for them was the revolt of 1857. By the 1900s, the Sahu Family or the Jagat Seths disappeared from the public eye. Much like the Mughals, their descendants are not known. Jagat Seth's house little away from Hazarduari place is the house of Jagat Seth now converted to a museum.

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