Travels in India (Tavernier) 87.1.6

87.1.6

I come to the government at the mines. Business is conducted with freedom and fidelity. Two per cent on all purchases is paid to the King, who receives also a royalty from the merchants for permission to mine. These merchants having prospected with the aid of the miners, who know the spots where the diamonds are to be found, take an area of about 200 paces in circumference, where they employ fifty miners, and sometimes a hundred if they wish the work to proceed rapidly. From the day that they commence mining till they finish the merchants pay a duty of 2 pagodas per diem for fifty men, and 4 pagodas when they employ a hundred men. These poor people only earn 3 pagodas per annum, although they must be men who thoroughly understand their work. As their wages are so small they do not manifest any scruple, when searching in the sand, about concealing a stone for themselves when they can, and being naked, save for a small cloth which covers their private parts, they adroitly contrive to swallow it.