The East India Company set up its first factory in 1612 at Surat in order to keep trading its goods which were delivered to England. The factory workers’ duty was to visit the cities of Bharuch and Allahabad and with the help of local agents making contacts with artisans and weavers to get the cloths prepared according to their requirements.

The building at Surat was commonly known as the English kothi. The company established its second factory in Bharuch. The in-charge of the factory was known as the ‘President’. All the workers were under his supervision.

The workers, along with their routine job, were also engaged in private businesses. This concession was given to them because their salaries were very low. The company granted them incentive of private trade to earn more. The president and workers resided within the premise of factory. Each person had a separate room. However, they ate together in a mess. The president had the privilege of traveling in a horse-drawn carriage while other servants used bull carts. Whenever the president had to go out, he was accompanied by his staff. The other category of servants included local people. Their salary was one rupee a month.

The daily routine of the company’s servants is rather interesting. They worshiped twice a day in the factory, while on Sundays they had to worship three times. They also heard a sermon and after that they were free to go out for recreation.

The building of the factory was built by stones. The residential and working areas were built separately. There was a special hall for prayer. The servants kept pets and birds in the premise of the factory. Working hours were from 10 am to 12pm, then after a break work restarted from 4pm to 8pm. The administration of the factory was supervised by a council of 15 members.

It was chaired by the president.

The other important post was of the accountant whose duty was to keep the inventory of the goods traded and send it to England. There used to be a secretary too whose responsibility was to supervise the day-to-day working of the factory.

Those who initially joined the company were called apprentice and after serving for a specific period, they were promoted to the post of writer. Their annual salary was 10 pounds. After completing five years in the company, they were designated as workers.

Another important post was of merchants. The president was included in this category. Half of the salary of the servants, except the accountant and the writer, was deposited in London. A local teacher or munshi was appointed to teach them local languages.

Later on the Surat factory was converted into a fort. A contingent of soldiers was employed to guard it. Whenever a ship arrived at the port, the custom officers immediately sent armed soldiers to the ship to keep a check on smuggling. When goods were unloaded, the custom officers levied duties.

English traders tried to smuggle goods without paying duties. Sometime they hid small things in their wigs. They also bribed the custom staff members in order to take away their goods without paying any taxes. The traders had their representatives at the Mughal court where they used to get royal Farman for waiving of custom duties by bribing the Mughal officials.

British India The English factory