Remonstrantie 6.2.5

6.2.5

Our honourable employers will be surprised that no larger quantities of goods can be sold in so extensive a country as this, but I will explain that satisfactory profits could be made but for the amount of the English and Portuguese imports. For example, I observed that in 1626, when the Portuguese galleons chased the English ships from Surat, and they had to winter in the Mayottes, quicksilver rose to Rs. 250 the maund, vermilion to Rs. 320, and coral and other goods proportionately. Small consignments sold at a profit are therefore better than large supplies sold at a loss, or held over for years; for the local merchants are naturally timorous, and dare not take any great risks, but think only of a small but certain profit. To some extent this is due to want of enterprise, and besides, if goods lie unsold, the interest of 10 to 12 per cent, annually consumes the merchants like a canker. In Agra the men who are richest live mainly by money-lending, a practice which is not discreditable to Hindus, but only to Moslems (though indeed they do it commonly enough) ; and that certain profit comes before the gain of the enterprising merchant.