DHAKA.Changes in the eighteenth century Towns and Cities in Pre-colonial Times:Before exploring the growth of cities in the colonial period, one NEEDS to look at URBAN centres during the centuries preceding British rule.There was a new phase of change from the mid-eighteenth century.Commercial cities like Dhaka Surat, and Masulipatnam, which had grown in the seventeenth century, declined when trade shifted to other PLACES and when British gradually gained POLITICAL control in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, with the trade of the English East India Company expanded.Colonial port cities like Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, emerged rapidly as the new economic capitals and also became centres of colonial administration and political power.