Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 23.4

23.4

It is not possible to conceive the quantity drawn every year from Bengale for the supply of the whole of the Mogol Empire, as far as Lahor and Cabol, and generally of all those foreign nations to which the cotton cloths are sent. The silks are not certainly so fine as those of Persia, Syria, Sayd, and Bairut; but they are of a much lower price; and I know from indisputable authority that, if they were well selected and wrought with care, they might be manufactured into most beautiful stuffs. The Dutch have sometimes seven or eight hundred natives employed in their silk factory at Kassem-Bazar, where, in like manner, the English and other merchants employ a proportionate number. Bengale is also the principal emporium for saltpetre. A prodigious quantity is imported from Patna. It is carried down the Ganges with great facility, and the Dutch and English send large cargoes to many parts of the Indies, and to Europe. Lastly, it is from this fruitful kingdom that the best lac, opium, wax, civet, long pepper, and various drugs are obtained; and butter, which may appear to you an inconsiderable article, is in such plenty, that although it be a bulky article to export, yet it is sent by sea to numberless places.