Page:Fiscal Policy in India.djvu/18



The East India Company was, for about a century and a half since its foundation, a trading corporation, pure and simple. Commercial expansion in the East was its only objective during this period. The Company gradually acquired various commercial privileges from the rulers of the different parts of India. In 1716, a firman was granted by the Emperor of Delhi, exempting the Company's trade from duties, on the payment of a peshcush of 10,000 rupees a year. This firman recited, "That Customs on English goods are only payable at Surat; that in Shah Jehan's time these were only two per cent.; in the time of Auranzebe 3½ at Surat, and none at other places; in Bahadur Shah's time they were 2½; that by reason of the government officers' oppressions, it is three years since they have withdrawn their factory.