Travels in India (Tavernier) 82.1

82.1

All the cotton cloths, both fine and coarse, which the Dutch company order to be made in the Provinces of the Empire of the Great Mogul, are brought in bales to the storehouse at Surat, and delivered to the broker about the months of October and November. The frauds commonly perpetrated are in respect of the fineness, the length, and the breadth. Each bale may contain about 200 pieces, among which five or six and up to ten pieces can be inserted of less fine quality, thinner, shorter, or narrower than the sample of the bale; this cannot be ascertained without examination piece by piece. The fineness is judged by the eye, the length and breadth by measurement. But they practise in India a still greater refinement, which is to count the number of the threads which ought to be in the breadth according to the fineness of the sample. When the number is lacking it is thinner or narrower or coarser. The difference is sometimes so imperceptible to the eye that it is difficult to discern it without counting the threads, nevertheless this difference amounts to a considerable sum in the price of a large quantity, for it requires but little to abate an écu or even two écus on a piece when the price is from 15 to 20 écus the piece. Those who bleach these cloths, in order to save something for their profit on the quantity of lemons which are required, beat the cloths on stones, and when they are fine the beating does them much injury and diminishes their price.