"In This Year He Reported That He Had Returned Thanks To Sultan Churrum
For The Protection Which He Had Afforded
To the English in relieving
them from the extortions of Zulfeccar Khan, the late governor of Surat,
and had remonstrated
Against the partiality which had been shown to the
Portuguese; representing to the Mogul that the king of Portugal had
assumed the title of king of India, and that the Portuguese trade could
never be so beneficial as that of England, as the English annually
exported from India calicoes and indigo to the amount of 50,000 rials.
To strengthen this remonstrance, Sir Thomas offered to pay to the sultan
12,000 rupees yearly, on condition that the English should be exempted
from the payment of customs at the port of Surat; and then gave it as
his opinion, that the plan of the agency at Surat, of keeping permanent
factories at Surat, and other parts of the Mogul dominions, ought to be
abandoned, as it would be preferable to make the purchases of goods
inland, by the natives, [particularly the indigo from Agra, and the
Bengal goods] who could obtain them at reasonable rates. But if the
court were of opinion that English factors ought to be stationed at
Agra, he recommended sending the goods in carts rather than on camels.
He concludes this part of his report by advising that agents should
reside at Cambay and Baroach, because the best cloths in India could be
procured at these towns.
"Though Sir Thomas Roe appears to have procured a phirmaund through the
means of Noor-Mahal, the favourite sultana or empress, for the general
good treatment of the English at Surat, and had desired that an
assortment of English goods, perfumes, &c. should be forwarded to him as
presents to her and to her brother, Asaph Khan, he yet describes, in
1618, the governor of Surat as reluctant to shew that favour to the
English which the phirmaund had enjoined. It therefore became a question
with him, as the governor of Surat would not allow the English to
strengthen or fortify their factory for the protection of their goods
and servants, whether it might not be expedient to remove to some other
station, where the means of self-defence might be more practicable. At
one time he thought of Goga, and subsequently of Scindy; but, after a
review of the whole, decided that it would be more expedient to remain
at Surat, though, from the character of the natives, and the instability
of the Mogul government, all grants of privileges must be considered as
temporary, and any agreement or capitulation which might be procured,
ought not to be depended on as permanent. He concludes, that, though a
general phirmaund for trade in the Mogul dominions had been obtained,
and of course a foundation laid for the English intercourse with the
rich provinces of Bengal, yet the attempt to enter on that trade would
be unwise, from being in the exclusive possession of the Portuguese.
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