Travels in India (Tavernier) 6.1.1

6.1.1

In order to avoid repetition, which one cannot escape in the course of a long journey, it is desirable to make the reader acquainted from the first with the practice in India in reference to customs, money, exchange, measures, and weights. As soon as merchandise is landed at Surat it has to be taken to the custom-house, which adjoins the fort. They are very strict and search persons with great care. Private individuals pay as much as 4 and 5 per cent duty on all their goods; but as for the English Company and the Dutch Company, they pay less. But I believe likewise that, taking into account what it costs them in deputations and in presents, which they are obliged to make every year at court, the goods cost them scarcely less than they do private persons.