ABSTRACT
The English EIC took into consideration the broad aspects of trade and profits in the long run and shipped into Chennai large quantities of precious metals to the satisfaction of the merchants and weavers of Chennai (see Furber, 1948; Rea, 1998). The EIC trade of Chennai was not much different from that of other places on the coast that functioned around Chennai. ‘Buying cheap and selling dear’ seems to have been their chief objective. They bought the bright cotton piece goods cheap in the coast for selling them dear in the East Indies and Europe, where they were in great demand and fetched attractive prices. Most of their early purchases in and around Chennai had to be paid for in precious metals since the English did not produce any commodities that were in demand in Chennai and surrounding Indian markets. Only a part of it was paid for by some minerals and chemicals brought from other countries. Consequently, a large quantity of precious metals like gold and silver were imported into Chennai during the early times when the mercantilists were equating the national wealth to the quantity of the precious metals stored by that nation. Moreover, the ships from England had to return to Chennai almost empty. To overcome these problems, the Company put pressure on their servants in Chennai and on the coast to push the sales of woollens. They in turn passed on this burden conveniently to the local joint-stock merchants that supplied them cotton goods. They had no other go but to purchase in return the English woollen goods. Even then, the English imports of precious metals into old Chennai continued. In fact, the overall profit had been their chief objective in the long run and not the dead storage of the precious metals.
