Remonstrantie 9: [ 8. BURHANPUR AND GUJARAT.]
Jahangir's India (Moreland, Geyl) 9
- Language
- English
[ 8. BURHANPUR AND GUJARAT.]
9.1
Burhanpur is situated 300 kos south of Agra, and 150 kos north of Surat. It is a very large, open city, and was formerly unfortified, but recently, when the Deccan forces besieged it in order to assist Sultan Khurram [Shahjahan], Raja Ratan defended it with a wall of earth and fortified posts at various points. This year, 1626, when Khan Jahan, the Governor of the country, led a force of 40,000 horse against the Deccan, he ordered Lashkar Khan, who governed during his absence, to encircle the whole city with a wall, and owing to the number of people this has been accomplished very rapidly in a short time. Its length is 12 kos or more, but it is not a circle; there are many bastions, and all is correct and exact, but constructed only of earth. The river Tapti, which flows past Surat, and passes this city also, is so full of rocks and stones as to be unfit for navigation; otherwise it would be very convenient for the trade of the city, which is still extensive, but was formerly much greater. The offtake of goods was incredible at the time when the city was governed by Khan Khanan or by Sultan Khurram, for Khurram was an active and powerful prince; he maintained a large standing army here against the Deccan, as it lies on the frontier; and he was always surrounded by an extensive Court.
9.2
He was a patron of all craftsmen, to whom he paid such high wages that he attracted all the splendour of his father’s Court, for he was as greedy for novelties, costly jewels, and other rarities as Jahangir himself, and he paid more liberally, being sensible, and refusing to be guided, like his father, by his avaricious subordinates. He rebelled, however, because he thought his father had lived too long, and, besides, he wished to displace his eldest brother, Sultan Parwiz; but the rebellion failed, as can be read at length in the account I have written of the history of the country, and after his flight some of his territories, including Burhanpur, were assigned to Parwiz. The latter’s period of rule was very dull, for he was a man of poor spirit, aspiring to no state or display, and he was satisfied if he could get drunk every day, preferring to sleep by day and drink by night. Consequently he pays no attention to the administration of the country, his troops are left unpaid, their numbers diminished, and their pay reduced, while the farms of the revenue of the villages and neighbouring country are increased. It is this which impoverishes the country and enriches the courtiers.
9.3
The English used to have a regular factory at Burhanpur for the sale of various goods, such as heavy woollen cloth, lead, tin, quicksilver, vermilion, satins, and velvets, for the Army. All the money obtained by these sales was remitted by exchange on Agra or Surat, because there is nothing to be had locally which is suitable for their trade, or for ours. In case some improvement in administration should follow the death of the present King, it would be necessary to have a factory there for the sale of such goods, or others; though the English have agents there at present, it is only in order to dispose of large quantities of old stock, either profitably or at a loss. Surat (latitude degrees), is, owing to its situation, the chief seaport belonging to the King, though the city is 7 kos, or about 4 [Holland] miles, up the river, and all goods, both imports and exports, must be shipped and landed by boat. Three kos, or two miles, further eastwards, the English have found a convenient anchorage named Swally, where there is a sandbank, which is exposed at low water, and gives shelter at high tide, so that it is a desirable place for loading and unloading goods. From Swally goods can be brought by land on carts; this is much more expensive than sending them by boat, but the latter course is exceedingly dangerous, because the Malabar pirates can keep their small craft lying off the river's mouth without being observed, and capture whatever there is.
9.4
The city is fairly well built, and is about two [Holland] miles in circumference. It has no walls, but ditches have been dug round it, provided with four gates on the land side. On the water front is a castle built of white coral rock, small in circuit, but well provided with guns and equipment; it is considered locally to be practically impregnable, but it could not withstand a determined siege for long. In order to strengthen it further, or to increase the artillery, they have constructed a platform on an inner high wall running round the fort, and covered it with beams and planks; here, on the upper tier, are placed more than 30 guns, but as a matter of fact this arrangement would make them like a mouse in a trap, for if the upper works were shot away, or breached, the whole platform must collapse, and put the lower tier of guns also out of action. Formerly, when the coast was still unknown to the English, a very extensive trade was carried on in Surat by the Moslems, but it has now fallen off greatly, and indeed is nothing compared to what it was, because all the chief seaports, which were recently so flourishing, have collapsed, some through war, others owing to other causes; Ormuz, Mocha, Aden, Dabhol, and also the whole Goa coast, are idle, and do not know where to voyage; each is almost smothered in its own produce, and there are no signs that any other place, country, or seaport, has benefited, though usually one country profits by the decay of another.
9.5
All merchants, from whatever country they come, complain most bitterly. Portuguese, Moslems and Hindus all concur in putting the blame for this state of things entirely on the English and on us, saying that we are the scourges of the sea and of their prosperity. Often enough, if we notice any shortcoming, and blame them, or threaten them, for it, the leading merchants tell us they heartily wish we had never come to their country. They point to the number of ships that used to sail from Surat alone — every year four or five of the King’s great ships, each of 400 or 500 last (two for Achin, two for Ormuz, two for Bantam, Macassar and those parts), besides smaller ships owned by individual merchants, coming and going in large numbers. Nowadays the total is very small. Two of the King’s ships usually clear in February, and sail from the river in March, carrying goods on freight for anyone who offers; they reach Mocha at the end of April, where their goods may have to lie over for a year for want of buyers, but the ships start on their return voyage in August, unless one is destined for Suez or Mecca [Jidda], in which case it winters at Mocha, and the goods are sold at leisure. The ships bring back chiefly ducats, and small quantities of merchandise.
9.6
A small vessel, or tauri, sails every year in September for Achin, carrying black baftas, candekins, tricandis, chelas, and other cotton goods for that coast, and returns about March with tin, pepper, and a certain amount of other spices brought there by the people of Macassar. There remains no other regular voyage worth mentioning. For the last four or five years, since the Portugese have lost Ormuz, the trade of the Surat merchants with Persia has been carried as freight by the English ships, or by ours; they consign chiefly cotton goods, turbans, and girdles from Golconda and Mangapatnam, which are sent to Ispahan. Practically none of the goods which we carry on freight compete with what we ourselves send to Persia, so that this traffic is a great benefit to them without causing any injury to us, and the freight covers the expenses of the Company's ships. Some merchants who own tauris, or small vessels, send them along with our ships, laden with cotton, rice, or other goods of low grade, but no one dares to sail from any port to Ormuz unaccompanied, because (when our ships have left) the Portuguese frigates keep guard, and make prize of whatever they capture, so that Ormuz is now nothing but a deserted nest.
9.7
The reason why the chief English factory, as well as ours, is located in Surat is not to be found in the extent of the market or of the sale of goods, but in the fact that the ships must be unloaded and left there, and the goods forwarded thence to the places where they are wanted. If an adequate supply of cash were sent there in addition to the goods, it would be unnecessary, or at any rate it would be a serious loss to the Company, to sell anything worth mentioning in Surat, for the banian merchants who buy from us there despatch the goods promptly to Ahmadabad, Burhanpur, or Agra, where we have factories, and have to pay the cost of the staff which we employ. Profits should be credited in the place where they are made, unless the empty distinction were coveted to show the gains arising from our sales in the general accounts of the Surat factory, instead of in those of Agra, Ahmadabad, or Burhanpur (if a factory is to be established there). Further, there is nothing to be bought in Surat (except at a loss to the Company), apart from a few baftas which are woven at Navsari and also at Rander. Absolutely no other merchandise is to be had in Surat, but much is brought there when the ships arrive, and we may be forced to purchase baftas, candekins, chelas, etc., retail, because we have not the money to buy these in Broach or Ahmadabad during the rains, unless in order to do so we should have to be constantly involved in debt for loans carrying interest.
9.8
The banians are now beginning to make a large profit in this way, and have raised the monthly rate of interest from 1 to 1½ per cent.; if loans are taken yearly, they will raise it much higher, and the amount of interest, or loss, is a matter of great importance. Customs duties are here 3½ per cent. on all imports and exports of goods, and 2 per cent. on money, either gold or silver. At present these duties are collected for the King by the Governor, Mir Jahan Kuli Beg, but formerly they were assigned to various lords as salary; the arrangement has been altered as often as twice or thrice in the year. Weights and measures are smaller here than in Hindustan. The Gujarat gaz is eight per cent. shorter than a Holland ell, and a ser weighs only 18 pice or ¾ lb. (Holland), 24 pice weighing 1 pound; these units are used in Surat, and practically throughout Gujarat. Formerly mahmudis, and not rupees, were current here; the mahmudi is smaller, and worth only 10 stivers by our reckoning. Rupees have come into circulation during the last five or six years; the mahmudi is still the nominal unit for sales and purchases, but the actual payment is generally made in rupees, which we take as 24 stivers. The King has now a mint in Surat, as in Ahmadabad and all other capital cities. Broach, 20 kos landward from Surat, is a small town, but it is splendidly situated on moderately high ground. The town is surrounded by a wall of white stone, and looks more like a fort than a city;
9.9
it is a kos in circuit, and from a distance is very picturesque. It enjoys a much better and more agreeable climate than other towns, chiefly because of its elevation, owing to which it escapes all dangerous vapours; and further the well-known river Narbada, here a fine and broad stream, runs under the walls. This river flows past the fort of Handia, beyond Burhanpur, and separates Hindustan from the Deccan. The town depends on the weaving industry, and produces the best-known fine baftas; all other sorts of cloth, for Mocha, Mozambique, and the South [Java, etc.], are also woven there, as well as in Baroda, and other neighbouring places. Consequently a factory is badly required there for purchases for the South, but nothing can be sold, for the people are mostly poor, or artisans. Tolls are levied here on goods, whether brought here for consumption, or merely in transit; the rate is per cent., but it is calculated for all kinds of goods on a valuation made by the Kazi, or lawyer, of the town, and is in fact merely a knavish method of draining poor merchants dry. If for instance cloves are brought there on the way to Ahmadabad or Agra, the toll will be charged on the retail price which a local shop-keeper would charge for a pice-weight or ounce, without allowing for the heavy expense required to bring the goods into the shop, or for the seller’s profit.
9.10
It is the same for all kinds of goods in proportion, and, if this toll did not exist to stop us, we could bring all our goods from and to Agra much more conveniently than by way of Burhanpur, and at half the cost. It would therefore be an excellent thing if we could contract for this toll, or obtain an exemption from the King; the advantage and profit of this course can be readily inferred from what has been said above.