17世紀インドのアイ産と政治權力

イギリス東インド會社史料の一檢討

抄録

In the first half of the seventeenth century, indigo was especially sought after by the factors of the East India Company at Sarkhej, Biana and many other places in India. These European merchants wrote in their transactions a lot of letters, from which we can form an idea of its producers, its buyers, and the Mughal authorities who oppressed and exploited them. W. H. Moreland, in his celebrated “From Akbar to Aurangzeb”, gave some instances of the “official interference”, which had put a great hindrance on the trade in indigo, and which he considered to have been one of the two characteristics that distinguished the Indian markets in general from those of modern times (pp. 113-114, 146-149). No doubt he is right in saying so, but after minutely investigating a number of such instances, we can advance a step farther and analyze the nature of this “interference” and oppression of the indigo trade. The author's conclusion may be summed up as follows.
1. There seems to have been a considerable local disparity in the social relations between the cultivators of the indigo plant and the manufacturers of the dye. Nevertheless, the production had to start as an agriculture in any case, and land revenue to be levied by the officials ensued. Although indigo was among the most valuable crops in those days, the revenue demand on it was so high, that there was scarcely any profit left for the peasants who cultivated it, causing them sometimes to abandon this valuable crop. The revenue demand was thus the first and perhaps the most fundamental oppression by the Mughal authorities.
2. When Moreland talked about his “official interference”, he had probably in his mind chiefly those events which would fall under the second category, oppression When entering the market as buyer or seller, a Mughal official often claimed priority over all the merchants, and this claim being, in some degree, admitted by usage, he could bring about a standstill in the market and keep it by force till his dealings were carried out as he pleased. Under this official right of priority, the trade in indigo, particularly that in Gujarat, repeatedly experienced heavy oppression and exploitation, severely affecting the producers as well as the merchants.
3. It was usually with the concrete intention of buying or selling that the controlling power of Mughal authorities over the indigo market was wielded. An official in the market was a whimsical merchant wearing a sword at his side. It is true, an abstract power of the sovereign to confer an exclusive privilege or a right of monopoly, not as a temporary measure but as a lasting system, was not quite unknown in those days, but so far as the indigo trade was concerned, there was only one instance of this kind, and even this was a rather exceptional case, not typical at all. The Emperor granted a monopoly without full confidence, partly because it was not well rooted in the social usage, and to his regret, the design failed.
4. Under. all these burdens, the beautiful blue colour was produced, sold and brought to the European market. The producers were living in utter poverty, swarmed upon by the parasites who knew no satiety. Their desire and demand that had no connection with production were really a great handicap, when rivalry began with the indigo planters of the West Indies. This inability on the part of the ancient Indian industry to meet the challenge was at least one reason for its defeat, a point overlooked by Moreland (p. 113). It will be of interest to consider how this handicap was changed when India resumed her indigo production under the colonial government in the nineteenth century.