Cuestiones diversas( 17 )

cloth in the neighbouring towns of Broach and Ahmadabad and re-exported the finer sorts to the Middle East while the thicker ones were sold in the European market for household use.'*'* Soon they found that the painted calico

of Gujarat could be sold in the Levant, as the Moors made

2 3

their cabayas from this cloth. So they re-exported the painted calicoes to the Levant, In the meantime cotton goods from India, both plain and patterned, had been favourably accepted in England. The plain cotton goods displaced the more expensive linens which had been imported from Holland and Germany. The printed ones were much in demand for table linen, bed furnishings and other decorative purposes.*4* Prom

1625

onwards we note a growing demand for

Indian textiles in England. The sudden large demand could not be met immediately by Gujarat alone and therefore buyers were sent to Agra, Patna, Samana and some other places. In

1630 there occurred a serious famine around Surat and the

textile industry of Gujarat suffered heavily. * The Company’s

1. Ibid, P. 2U8 2. Clothing.

3. K.H. Chaudhuri, op. cit., P.

283

.

157.

factors were forced to find new sources of supply. Though the English were granted the right of free trade throughout the Mughal empire, no factor got as far as Bengal proper* But the factories at Surat, Agra and Ajmer did serve to introduce the English to the products of Bengal, which

were a staple ingredient of the trade up the Ganges valley. This acquaintance at second hand with Bengal and its products was further enlarged hy the English voyages to Pulicat and Masulipatam. On the Coromandel coast Bengal products 'were again much in evidence. Thus the attention of the English merchants was drawn to Bengal’s products. But they found

that the sea coast of Bengal was controlled by the Portuguese. The English therefore turned to a land approach. But they felt that the tftransportation by land thither would be more hazardous than the benefit by the sale of a small quanitty can answer.” Nevertheless the English could not but recognise how important Bengal goods might become in their trade. In 1631 and in 1632, the factors at Surat reported

that white cloth from Bengal was selling at cheap rates which made it profitable to export it to England, Persia

2

and South East Asia. * Bengal, they wrote^”yields

1. W. Foster, England’s Quest For Eastern Trade, p.33* R.O.C., vol. 15> Letter No. 1536.

158.

store of exceeding good powder sugar which costs not there ahout two pence halfpenny the English pound with all charges abroad ... gumlac upon sticks is there to "be

had very cheap and is much required as well for Macassar and Persia as for England, silk may ther^pe bought likewise

yearly to a great summe at

k

in 5f (anam)s the English pound.11

The expulsion of the Portuguese from Bengal however made it possible to open trade relations there. In 1633 some factors were sent to secure permission from Shah Shuja, then subadar of Bengal^to settle at Hariharpur in the

Mahanadi delta of Orissa. On 2nd February 1

63

U, the English obtained a farman from Shah Jahan permitting them

to bring their ships into Bengal as far as Pipli near Balasore.^ The Company was permitted to bring their ships up to Pipli

only because the Portuguese had just been expelled from Hug^li. At this period the English were interested in the clove trade of Macassar. The port of Macassar proved an attractive

1. Four fifth of tfte fanam^.

2. R»0»C« , Vol. 15,Letter No. 1536.

3. William Bruton, News From The East Indies or a voyage to Bengalah, Hakfruyt’s Collection of Early Voyages, Vol. V, P.55.

159.

market for the sale of Indian goods. Even the worst cloth provided hy the new factory in Haripharpur in

163b

was sold at Macassar,'*' since it was recognised that Macassar was the “best market for Bengal cloth hy reason of its trade in cloves, which could he paid for with textiles.

. _ _ c

In 1651 the English obtained from Shah Shuja, a nishan or sealed permit hy which they were permitted to have

freedom of trade in Bengal without any other restrictions, 2

in return for an annual payment of RS.3>000 only. * Again in 1656 another nishan granted hy Shah Shuja^to the English enjoined that "the factory of the English Company he no more troubled with demands of custom for goods imported

or exported either hy land or water ... hut that they buy and sell freely and without impediment neither let any

3

molestation he given them about anchorage".

The English Company thus having procured thsirfirst nishan from Shah Shuja,r established a factory at Hugli

in 1651. Within a few months, the factors were able to report to London of excellent prospects there.

f<

These

1. fl.K. Bassett, op. cit., p.109.

2. 2U039, fol.6.

3. Home Miscellaneous series, vol. 629,

PP-5-8,

B.M.A.M. 2U039, fol.7*

160.

places of Bengala and Surixa (Orissa) sufficiently manifest that there is room enough for the employment of a very great stock; where although the Butch invest

v at least £200,000 yearly and some years find landing for seven or eights ships of great "burthen, nevertheless your worships supplying this place with stock sufficient and honest men to manage it, will soonefind a great "business and as much profit!; v/hen, "besides for the shipping your worships shall design to return for Europe there may "be

sufficient to imploy to Persia the Red Sea, Achin, Pegu, Tenassarijlm and Ceylon ...” By 1658 another factory was opened at Kasimbazar, the emporium of the silk trade.

IText came the factory at Patna, which "became the chief centre 2

of the saltpetre trade.

Thus the Company started their trade in Bengal.

In the meantime the news of Shah Jahan’s illness reached

___ _ _ c

Bengal (1657) and §h.ah Shuja set out to contest the imperial throne.

1. R.O.C. Vol. 21+, Letter No. 21+35.

161.

_C

j Shah ShujaTs defeat in the Mughal war of succession of 1657-58, jeopardised the rights granted by him to the East India Company, Would the successful contestant, Aurangzib,recognise 8hujafs nishan of 1651 as binding

upon himself? The ansv/er was no. Mir Jumla, the first of Aurangzib*s subadars in Bengal, was however prepared to

tolerate the trading activity of the East India Company in his own interest.

Mir Jumla and the English East India Company

This was not the first encounter between the English and Mir Jumla. When he was in the service of the sultan

of Golfcunda, he had trading relations with different regions of the Mughal empire and also with Burma, Arakan, Pegu,

Tennasari^m, Achin, Macassar, the Maldives, Persia and 1 —

Arabia. * Mir Jumla*s junks were regularly piloted by Englishmen. He sometimes employed English private traders

2

to conduct commercial operations on his behalf. * On 7th July

1656

Mir Jumla entered into the Mughal service as wazir. In consequence Shah Jahan conferred on him the Carnatic as his

1. Jagadish Narayan Sarkelr, nMir Jumla rs Overseas Commercial

In document CONVENIO INTERNACIONAL DE TORREMOLINOS PARA LA SEGURIDAD DE LOS BUQUES PESQUEROS, 1977 (página 71-91)