Travels in India (Tavernier) 85.2.5

85.2.5

It should forbid the merchants, sub-merchants, the scribes, and sub-scribes, who serve under the Commanders, and the brokers, and also these superior officers, from doing any trade on their own private accounts, because having communication with all the artisans, and obtaining by the correspondence from the other factories information as to the articles of merchandise which will be good for sale in the following year, they do not fail to purchase them on their own account, and ship them on the vessels of the Company to the address of their correspondents, who share the grain therefrom. The Commander being himself interested, either by closing his eyes, or by a too great laxity, permits them to make this profit on account of their poor salaries. The captain of the vessel is in league with them, because he secretly derives some advantage for allowing them to load and unload. And inasmuch as these officers have but little capital, and desire to receive the price on the return of the vessel, they direct their correspondents to sell at from 8 to 10 per cent below market price, which they can easily do, because, as I shall say further on, they do not pay custom dues either at Surat or at Gombroon, and because they gain by this means about 26 per cent ; and so this causes a considerable injury to the Company, and particularly to foreign merchants.