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...it is concentrated in two main areas: upcountry from Bombay in the west for Malwa opium and ...
The Muslim rulers of Gujarat had in 1348 annexed the seven islands of Bombay, which were later governed by the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1534.
The Mughal Empire, founded in 1526 and based in the north, became the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent during the mid-sixteenth century.
Gujarati Sultan Bahadur Shah, growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, had been obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein with Portuguese settlers on December 23, 1534.
According to the treaty, Bombay’s seven islands, the nearby strategic town of Bassein and its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese and surrendered on October 25, of the following year.
The Portuguese were actively involved in the foundation and growth of their Roman Catholic religious orders in Bombay, building such churches in the city such as the St. Michael's Church at Mahim (1534), St. John the Baptist Church at Andheri (1579), St. Andrew's Church at Bandra (1580), and Gloria Church at Byculla (1632), On May 11, 1661, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, places the islands in possession of the British Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles.
However, Salsette, Bassein, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala still remain under Portuguese possession.
The Royal Charter of March 27, 1668, leads to the transfer of Bombay from Charles II to the British East India Company on September 21, 1668, for an annual rent of ten pounds (equivalent retail price index of twelve hundred and twenty-six pounds in 2007).
Two days later, George Oxenden becomes the first Governor of Bombay under the British East India Company, which immediately sets about the task of opening up the islands by constructing a quay and warehouses.
A customs house is also built, and fortifications are built around Bombay Castle.
A Judge-Advocate is appointed for the purpose of civil administration.
The island-city of Bombay on India’s west coast, ceded to the Portuguese in 1534, had in 1661 come under British control as part of the marriage settlement between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, sister of the king of Portugal; the Crown had in turn ceded it to the East India Company in 1668.
Richard Keigwin, who in 1673 had, as a lieutenant aboard HMS Assistance, led the English assault on the Dutch-held island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, had come to Bombay in 1676 as a free merchant but soon entered the East India Company's service.
Becoming a commandant and distinguishing himself in battle against the Maratha navy in 1679, his refusal to reduce the Bombay regiment and disband the cavalry, despite orders from the company's headquarters in London, led to his recall.
He had returned to Bombay as a captain lieutenant and a member of the East India Company's governing council, but continuing bad relations with the company had resulted in his eventual exclusion from the council, and in December 1683 he had headed a revolt against company rule.
He has ruled Bombay vigorously in the king's name for nearly a year, but finally, in November 1684, after obtaining a free pardon for himself and his followers, he surrenders the island-city to the company on the king's orders.
(Today the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra, Bombay, or Mumbai, with an estimated population of thirteen million, is the most populous city in India and the most populous city in the world.)
The Mughal convoy includes the treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai, reported to be the greatest in the Mughal fleet and the largest ship operational in the Indian Ocean, and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed.
They are spotted passing the straits en route to Surat.
The pirates give chase and catch up with Fateh Muhammed some days later, and meeting little resistance, take some £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure.
Every continues in pursuit and manages to overhaul Ganj-i-Sawai, which resists strongly before eventually striking.
Ganj-i-Sawai carries enormous wealth and, according to contemporary East India Company sources, is carrying a relative of the Grand Mughal, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue.
The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai has a total value between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and has become known as the richest ship ever taken by pirates.
In a letter sent to the Privy Council by Sir John Gayer, governor of Bombay and head of the East India Company, Gayer claims that "it is certain the Pirates ... did do very barbarously by the People of the Ganj-i-Sawai and Abdul Ghaffar's ship, to make them confess where their money was."
The pirates set free the survivors who are left aboard their emptied ships, to continue their voyage back to India.
When the news arrives in England it causes an outcry.
In response, a combined bounty of £1,000 is offered for Every's capture by the Privy Council and East India Company, leading to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history.
The plunder of Aurangzeb's treasure ship has serious consequences for the English East India Company.
The furious Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb orders Sidi Yaqub and Nawab Daud Khan to attack and close four of the company's factories in India and imprison their officers, who are almost lynched by a mob of angry Mughals, blaming them for their countryman's depredations, and threatens to put an end to all English trading in India.
To appease Emperor Aurangzeb and particularly his Grand Vizier Asad Khan, Parliament exempts Every from all of the Acts of Grace (pardons) and amnesties it will subsequently issue to other pirates.
Jews known as the Bene-Israel, or Sons of Israel in Hebrew, have lived for centuries in Bombay and adjacent regions totally isolated from other Jewish influences.
Their arrival in India, according to tradition, had been precipitated by a shipwreck some seventeen hundred years earlier (but this cannot be substantiated any more than the theory that the Bene-Israel are remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel).
The Jewish community in India, when the group's existence first attracts public attention in the eighteenth century, still adheres to such Jewish practices as circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, certain dietary laws, and the celebration of several major festivals.
Malwa opium grown in the princely states of west India is the major threat to the British East India Company's opium monopoly.
The East India Company in 1805 prohibits transit of Malwa Opium or any other non-East India company opium through its territories, including the port of Bombay.
Meanwhile, Americans have entered the opium trade with less expensive but inferior Turkish opium and by 1810 have around ten percent of the trade in Canton. (Layton, Thomas N. (1997). The Voyage of the 'Frolic': New England Merchants and the Opium Trade. Stanford University Press.
In the same year the Qing Emperor issues a further imperial edict calling for a total ban on opium in China.
The decree has little effect.
The Qing government, far away in Beijing in the north of China, will be unable to halt opium smuggling in the southern provinces.
Portuguese traders also bring opium to China from the independent Malwa states of western India.
The British, however, are able by 1820 to restrict this trade by charging "pass duty" on the opium when it is forced to pass through Bombay to reach an entrepôt.
The paper will publish on Wednesdays and Saturdays under the direction of Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a Maharashtrian Reformist, and contains news from Britain and the world, as well as the Indian Subcontinent
J.E. Brennan is its first editor.