Volume 2

Materials towards a statistical account of the town and island of Bombay in three volumes.

  • Bombay Presidency
Date:
1893-1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materials towards a statistical account of the town and island of Bombay in three volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/558 (page 49)
    AND ISLAND. 49 had. And, as I said before, the j^oor people will be averee to complain of a Eui’opean whereas complaints were often made of the Moormen to the clerk of the market who was doubtless ready to hear them and to fine the offenders, since the said fines are given to himself as a 2}erquisite of his office. The reason why I proposed the warehouse-keeper should get the batty made into unbeaten rice, was to prevent any fraud in the sole kachara or person appointed to sell it out to the poor, who if a bad man might make a nruda of batty jDroduce him fourteen or fifteen phards by not cleansing or grinding it to a proper standard, clear of husk and dirt. I hope the i)roposition will not be attended with any inconvenience so as to require a future remedy. If it should I shall I^e very ready to retract my proposal and come into any other method that may be esteemed more for the public benefit. I must crave liberty to make another proposition to this Honourable Board which is that the daily rates or prices of batty at the custom house, as also the l^u’ices fixed on unbeaten rice by the President and Council, be declared 2^ubliely in the English and country languages by a written p)a2)er afiixed every morning (or as often as the j)riees. chang^e) on the custom house gates, for the information of the 2)nblic and as a guide to the justices of die ^leace in the execution of their office, when com2)laints come before them against the/mc/mra. Unless the price of unbeaten rice is daily ascertained and communicated to the public, it will be known to very few with any exactness excej)t the custom master and the peojfie belonging to his office. Consequently the buyers of the said unbeaten rice will be rendered unable to judgn whether the demanded from them by the kachara is the same that he is jiermitted to take or whether he exceeds the price fixed. Moreover if the rates of batty and rice are not brought to such a public certainty, no 2)ublic and open complaint can so well be made, nor justice so im^iartially and quickly administered, as the market price changes sometimes twice a day.i ^ A week later, the 23rd March 1744, Mr. Thomas Marsh wrote to the President : As the rest of the Members have all addressed this Boaid with regard to the kachara business, I shall likewise give my reasons (but with all brevity) why I am for the method proposed for supjilying the ^ bazar with unbeaten rice. It is I believe pretty , evident that whilst the supply was in their hands, the Moormen kachards \ did grievously oi^jmess the p)oor and I apjorehend if a general liberty should bo granted (or in other terms kachards be multi2)lied) the thing ] must be still worse, for the clerk of the market whose duty it is could : not so well inspect over a large number as a few, and this it may be j presumed was the reason why a set of men were first ajipointed. It is i likewise evident that the Honourable Com2)any have in times of scarcity ( been obliged to issue batty out of their own warehouses for sup2)lying j the market. Indeed this was the case no longer ago than the last 3 season. Why then, as they will know the ex2)ense, shall they not be at [' some certainty in disjiosing of the quantity they so jirovide (over and K above what is wanted for the current service) by issuing it at all n times, when their warehouses will have a due clearance. As to a n single 2)GrsoiPs being aj)p>ointed, who is at the same time clerk of the ^ Pub. Diary 17 of 1744, 108 • 121. B 48.3—7 Chapter II. Trade. Pice for tlic Poor, 1744. Mr, Dmlley'a Vieiv, Mr, Marsh’’s View.