[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier) › [Travels in India (Ball)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball) › 82 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 82: Frauds in Cotton Cloths, and, firstly, in White Cloths. Travels in India (Ball) 82 - **Language:** English ### Frauds in Cotton Cloths, and, firstly, in White Cloths. ### [82.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.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. ### [82.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.82.2) But it should be remarked that the Indians, when making their cloths, if the piece is worth more than 2 écus, insert at either end threads of gold and silver, and the finer the cost, the more of these threads do they insert, the price of which mounts to nearly as high a figure as that of the cloth itself. It is for this reason that it is necessary to forbid the workers to insert these threads of gold in cloths ordered to be made for export to France — this gold and silver, which the Indians insert as an ornament in their cloths and garments, being of no use to the French. But for the cloths which are ordered for Poland and Muscovie, it is necessary to have this gold and silver in the Indian style, because the Poles and Russians will have nothing to do with the cloths if they have not got the threads of gold and silver. It is necessary also to take care that they do not become black, because these peoples are unwilling to buy cloths when the gold and silver are black. As for the cloths dyed with indigo, either violet or black, it is necessary to take care that the workers do not blacken the threads of gold at the ends of the pieces, and that they do not beat the pieces too much after being folded, because they sometimes beat them so much, in order to make them smooth, that when one comes to unfold them he finds them broken at each fold. ### [82.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.82.3) It should also be remarked that upon the fag end of the pieces of cloth the Indians print with a seal and gold leaf an Arabesque flower, which extends the whole width of the piece. But if these pieces are destined for France, it is necessary to forbid the workers to impress this flower, which costs a half piastre, and to save this sum on the price of the piece. But if it is for exportation to the Indian islands, anywhere in Asia, or even to a certain part of America, it is necessary that this flower should be on the fag end of the pieces, and that it should be preserved entire, because otherwise one is unable to sell them. As for coloured and printed cloths, they are coloured and printed while crude, and it is requisite to take care that the work is accomplished before the end of the rains, because the more the waters where they are washed are disturbed, so much the more do the colours applied with a brush or printing block remain vivid. It is easy to distinguish the cloths which are printed from those done with a brush, and if the broker is intelligent he will distinguish the difference in the beauty of one painted cloth from another by the cleanness of the work. But for the fineness and other qualities of the stuff, they are more difficult to distinguish in them than in the white cloths, and consequently it is necessary to observe more precaution. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.82](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.82) · Pramāṇa