Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/15

Book VI however is satisfied in procuring by his daily labour, his daily bread; and the dread of extortion or violence from the officers of the district to which he belongs, makes it prudence in him to appear, and to be poor; so that the chapman who sets him to work, finds him destitute of every thing but his loom, and is therefore obliged to furnish him with money, generally half the value of the cloth he is to make, in order to purchase materials, and to subsist him until his work is finished; the merchant who employs a great number of weavers, is marked by the higher officers of the government, as a man who can afford to forfeit a part of his wealth, and is therefore obliged to pay for protection, the cost of which, and more, he lays upon the manufactures he has to sell, of which, by a combination with other merchants, he always regulates the price, according to the necessity of the purchaser to buy. Now the navigation to India is so very expensive, that nothing can be more detrimental to this trade than long protractions of the voyage; and loss, instead of profit, would ensue, if ships were sent on the expectation of buying cargoes on their arrival; for either they would not find these cargoes provided, and must wait for them at a great expence; or if ready, would be obliged to purchase them too dearly. Hence has arisen the necessity of establishing factories in the country, that the agents may have time and opportunity to provide, before the arrival of the ships, the cargoes intended to be returned in them. The English company, either in the first voyage or soon after, built a factory at Hughley, the principal port of the province, lying about one hundred miles from the sea on the river to which it gives its name, and which is the western arm of the ganges; but the officers of the government superintended the buildings, and objected to every thing which resembled or might be converted into a station of defence; the Mogul empire, at that time, disdaining to allow in any part of its dominions, the appearance of any other sovereignty than its own: for whatsoever forts the Portugueze or other Europeans possessed on the sea-coasts of Indostan, the territory on which they stood, and many of the forts themselves, were either wrested or purchased from princes at that time not conquered by the Mogul, in whose