A Geographical Account of Countries Round the Bay of Bengal, 1669 to 1679 (Volume 12)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Noe Commodities this countrey affordeth are any ways prohibited to be Sold to men of any Nation, the Seller thereof Payinge the Kings Duties, which is about 4 per Cent. Onely tobacco that hath its growth in any part of this Kingdome is not admitted to be Sold to any Save to the Commissioners that have farmed it from the Kinge for more then 100 miles round the towne of Metchlipatam, and what Merchants or Others doe buy of them by wholesale may then with freedome goe to any Bazar and there Vend in Publique1. They are Soe Severe in it, that in most places of note in the Countrey they keep waiters to Search any travailer, and if they find more tobacco then what they judge convenient for his journey, they Seize upon it, and perhaps he Escapes not Unpunished. The Natives in Generall Smoke much tobacco, in soe much t[h]at children of 3 or 4 years of age frequently take it, and it is made as frequent amongst them as meat and drinke. Now before I leave this Coast, I shall Speake Some- thinge of the Metropolitan Citty. GOLCONDAH. These beforementioned places, (with many more I have not discoursed of) are Scituate Upon the Coast of Choro- 1 I can find no contemporary confirmation that tobacco was a government monopoly in this district. In Fort St George, at any rate, in Lockyers time, the tobacco farm was in the hands of the Company. Vide Lockyer, Trade in India, p. 12. However, the following extract in a letter from the Braminy at Golconda to Fort St George, dated 2ist June, 1680 (Factory Records, Fort St George, No. 28), seems to support T.B.'s statement, Futty Cawn hath of late wrote from thence [Fort St George] to his Excellency the Sharlaskar [Governor of the Golconda Coast] that Chinnapatnam [Madras town] is not now as formerly but is mightily encreased, and th...