Urban Economic Life | Goa State PSC (GPSC) Preparation - GPSC (Goa) PDF Download

 Page 1


T
HE PORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the where-
withal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administra-
tive bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.
1
Without
any signi?cant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.
2
In the seventeenth century we
?nd this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.
3
The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new ?eld of action in the context of diminish-
ing success in the missionary ?eld by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.
4
With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.
5
The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage in?ation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check pro?t in?ation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
Page 2


T
HE PORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the where-
withal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administra-
tive bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.
1
Without
any signi?cant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.
2
In the seventeenth century we
?nd this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.
3
The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new ?eld of action in the context of diminish-
ing success in the missionary ?eld by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.
4
With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.
5
The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage in?ation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check pro?t in?ation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
Labour organisation
The expression “labour organisation” is not limited here to its current popu-
lar meaning of organised labour in the context of industrial capitalism. It
may be surprising, however, to note that this meaning was not altogether
inapplicable to the economic situation of the Goa city in the seventeenth
century. An incident which took place on October 8, 1694, certainly points
to the existence of somewhat organised industrial proletariat in the State-
owned and managed industrial concerns. The chief revenue superintendent
(vedor geral da fazenda) sent a communication to the viceroy on the above
date reporting that a crowd of 500 poor artisans employed in the State
shipyard was shouting outside his residence denouncing that they had not
received their wages for seven consecutive weeks.
6
In the gunpowder manufactory, where much skilled work was not required,
the great majority of the workers were slaves and those condemned to
forced labour. Neither of these types of labourers could express their protest
in any other form than sabotage. Outbreaks of ?re and explosions in the
gunpowder house were not unusual.
7
It was because of such incidents that
the general manager of that establishment proposed to the Public Revenue
Council in 1689 that only negro couples should be employed there. He was
convinced that the Hindus and others condemned to forced labour were
responsible for all the mischief.
8
Going beyond the consideration of labour organisation of the types just
described, the present analysis proposes to delve into the structural pattern
of the labour market in general. The State was one single giant customer in
the labour market, but there were also many private enterprises consisting of
workshops-cum-shops owned by petty independent artisans and craftsmen,
who catered for the necessities and for the ostentatious tendencies of the
city population.
Patternofdemandandsupply: Beginning with the public sector, we have
the Government owning a large service industry to look after the administra-
tion, defence and the spiritual welfare of the Portuguese State of India. The
Matricula Geral was the department which maintained the service books of
all employees on the State pay-roll. The exact number of the Portuguese ser-
ving in India, particularly in the armed forces, was kept a jealously guarded
secret for reasons of security.
9
Unfortunately we do not have the records of
the Registration Of?ce, but even if these records had been available, they
were likely to be misleading, because there was a permanent complaint
to the Crown from the more scrupulous of?cials in Portuguese India that
the registers contained more names of the dead or absentees than of those
actually serving.
10
In the administrative set-up, the higher cadre came with appointments
from Portugal, but most of the subordinate posts were ?lled by Portuguese
Page 3


T
HE PORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the where-
withal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administra-
tive bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.
1
Without
any signi?cant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.
2
In the seventeenth century we
?nd this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.
3
The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new ?eld of action in the context of diminish-
ing success in the missionary ?eld by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.
4
With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.
5
The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage in?ation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check pro?t in?ation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
Labour organisation
The expression “labour organisation” is not limited here to its current popu-
lar meaning of organised labour in the context of industrial capitalism. It
may be surprising, however, to note that this meaning was not altogether
inapplicable to the economic situation of the Goa city in the seventeenth
century. An incident which took place on October 8, 1694, certainly points
to the existence of somewhat organised industrial proletariat in the State-
owned and managed industrial concerns. The chief revenue superintendent
(vedor geral da fazenda) sent a communication to the viceroy on the above
date reporting that a crowd of 500 poor artisans employed in the State
shipyard was shouting outside his residence denouncing that they had not
received their wages for seven consecutive weeks.
6
In the gunpowder manufactory, where much skilled work was not required,
the great majority of the workers were slaves and those condemned to
forced labour. Neither of these types of labourers could express their protest
in any other form than sabotage. Outbreaks of ?re and explosions in the
gunpowder house were not unusual.
7
It was because of such incidents that
the general manager of that establishment proposed to the Public Revenue
Council in 1689 that only negro couples should be employed there. He was
convinced that the Hindus and others condemned to forced labour were
responsible for all the mischief.
8
Going beyond the consideration of labour organisation of the types just
described, the present analysis proposes to delve into the structural pattern
of the labour market in general. The State was one single giant customer in
the labour market, but there were also many private enterprises consisting of
workshops-cum-shops owned by petty independent artisans and craftsmen,
who catered for the necessities and for the ostentatious tendencies of the
city population.
Patternofdemandandsupply: Beginning with the public sector, we have
the Government owning a large service industry to look after the administra-
tion, defence and the spiritual welfare of the Portuguese State of India. The
Matricula Geral was the department which maintained the service books of
all employees on the State pay-roll. The exact number of the Portuguese ser-
ving in India, particularly in the armed forces, was kept a jealously guarded
secret for reasons of security.
9
Unfortunately we do not have the records of
the Registration Of?ce, but even if these records had been available, they
were likely to be misleading, because there was a permanent complaint
to the Crown from the more scrupulous of?cials in Portuguese India that
the registers contained more names of the dead or absentees than of those
actually serving.
10
In the administrative set-up, the higher cadre came with appointments
from Portugal, but most of the subordinate posts were ?lled by Portuguese
married settlers, and others by the native Christians. While the strength of
the Portuguese soldiers available for service in Goa at any one time during
the seventeenth century never exceeded 1,500, the administrative services
could not have absorbed more than half that number.
11
The State demand for labour was chie?y for ?eet-manning and for combat,
particularly in the seventeenth century when there was a chronic shortage
of Portuguese manpower. This shortage was remedied by drafting the Por-
tuguese married settlers and the native people, neither of which groups took
the measures willingly. Their reluctance is revealed by the fact that high-
handed methods were adopted: skilled sailors were detained for months
prior to a planned expedition.
12
Village communities were pressurised to
supply a de?nite number of men.
13
Portuguese settlers were deprived of
their slaves,
14
and the work in the galleys and gun-powder manufactory
was introduced as a form of judicial punishment for the law-breakers and
vagrants.
15
It was only when all these methods failed to yield satisfactory
results and when the threats of the Marathas close at home forced the Gov-
ernment to review the labour situation that the administration realised that
wage-raising was the best attraction for labour.
16
As regards the State-owned defence industries, their employment poten-
tiality can be gauged from the nature and volume of their production. The
shipyard was a vast complex including a carpentry section, rope manu-
factory, smithery, foundry and cooperage departments. Giant carracks of
nearly 2,000 tons burthen as well as a variety of smaller s were built and
equipped there.
17
There was a gun foundry with three large kilns and all
the required apparatus for casting guns as well as for minting currency.
18
Pyrard de Laval, who has left the fairest description of the whole complex,
was impressed by the large number of workers employed there. He remarks
that with the exception of the general superintendent and the heads of the
various departments, most skilled and unskilled labourers were recruited
from among the natives of the locality.
19
The gunpowder manufactory supplied gunpowder to all the Portuguese
settlements in the East and was even sending annually about 500 quintals
as a ballast of the Carreira ships.
20
In 1630, it had six grinders and could
manufacture 500 lbs. of gunpowder each day. The viceroy Count of Linhares
raised the production capacity to 700 lbs. in 1634.
21
A decade later the house
had acquired a new grinder and the production capacity had been further
increased to 800 lbs. a day.
22
Before passing on to the demand for labour in the private sector something
may still be said about the employment procedure in the public sector. To
what has been said about the pressure methods of drafting, it may be added
that those who arrived as soldiers from Portugal were generally criminals
and convicts, sent straight from the prisons of Portugal.
23
Page 4


T
HE PORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the where-
withal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administra-
tive bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.
1
Without
any signi?cant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.
2
In the seventeenth century we
?nd this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.
3
The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new ?eld of action in the context of diminish-
ing success in the missionary ?eld by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.
4
With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.
5
The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage in?ation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check pro?t in?ation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
Labour organisation
The expression “labour organisation” is not limited here to its current popu-
lar meaning of organised labour in the context of industrial capitalism. It
may be surprising, however, to note that this meaning was not altogether
inapplicable to the economic situation of the Goa city in the seventeenth
century. An incident which took place on October 8, 1694, certainly points
to the existence of somewhat organised industrial proletariat in the State-
owned and managed industrial concerns. The chief revenue superintendent
(vedor geral da fazenda) sent a communication to the viceroy on the above
date reporting that a crowd of 500 poor artisans employed in the State
shipyard was shouting outside his residence denouncing that they had not
received their wages for seven consecutive weeks.
6
In the gunpowder manufactory, where much skilled work was not required,
the great majority of the workers were slaves and those condemned to
forced labour. Neither of these types of labourers could express their protest
in any other form than sabotage. Outbreaks of ?re and explosions in the
gunpowder house were not unusual.
7
It was because of such incidents that
the general manager of that establishment proposed to the Public Revenue
Council in 1689 that only negro couples should be employed there. He was
convinced that the Hindus and others condemned to forced labour were
responsible for all the mischief.
8
Going beyond the consideration of labour organisation of the types just
described, the present analysis proposes to delve into the structural pattern
of the labour market in general. The State was one single giant customer in
the labour market, but there were also many private enterprises consisting of
workshops-cum-shops owned by petty independent artisans and craftsmen,
who catered for the necessities and for the ostentatious tendencies of the
city population.
Patternofdemandandsupply: Beginning with the public sector, we have
the Government owning a large service industry to look after the administra-
tion, defence and the spiritual welfare of the Portuguese State of India. The
Matricula Geral was the department which maintained the service books of
all employees on the State pay-roll. The exact number of the Portuguese ser-
ving in India, particularly in the armed forces, was kept a jealously guarded
secret for reasons of security.
9
Unfortunately we do not have the records of
the Registration Of?ce, but even if these records had been available, they
were likely to be misleading, because there was a permanent complaint
to the Crown from the more scrupulous of?cials in Portuguese India that
the registers contained more names of the dead or absentees than of those
actually serving.
10
In the administrative set-up, the higher cadre came with appointments
from Portugal, but most of the subordinate posts were ?lled by Portuguese
married settlers, and others by the native Christians. While the strength of
the Portuguese soldiers available for service in Goa at any one time during
the seventeenth century never exceeded 1,500, the administrative services
could not have absorbed more than half that number.
11
The State demand for labour was chie?y for ?eet-manning and for combat,
particularly in the seventeenth century when there was a chronic shortage
of Portuguese manpower. This shortage was remedied by drafting the Por-
tuguese married settlers and the native people, neither of which groups took
the measures willingly. Their reluctance is revealed by the fact that high-
handed methods were adopted: skilled sailors were detained for months
prior to a planned expedition.
12
Village communities were pressurised to
supply a de?nite number of men.
13
Portuguese settlers were deprived of
their slaves,
14
and the work in the galleys and gun-powder manufactory
was introduced as a form of judicial punishment for the law-breakers and
vagrants.
15
It was only when all these methods failed to yield satisfactory
results and when the threats of the Marathas close at home forced the Gov-
ernment to review the labour situation that the administration realised that
wage-raising was the best attraction for labour.
16
As regards the State-owned defence industries, their employment poten-
tiality can be gauged from the nature and volume of their production. The
shipyard was a vast complex including a carpentry section, rope manu-
factory, smithery, foundry and cooperage departments. Giant carracks of
nearly 2,000 tons burthen as well as a variety of smaller s were built and
equipped there.
17
There was a gun foundry with three large kilns and all
the required apparatus for casting guns as well as for minting currency.
18
Pyrard de Laval, who has left the fairest description of the whole complex,
was impressed by the large number of workers employed there. He remarks
that with the exception of the general superintendent and the heads of the
various departments, most skilled and unskilled labourers were recruited
from among the natives of the locality.
19
The gunpowder manufactory supplied gunpowder to all the Portuguese
settlements in the East and was even sending annually about 500 quintals
as a ballast of the Carreira ships.
20
In 1630, it had six grinders and could
manufacture 500 lbs. of gunpowder each day. The viceroy Count of Linhares
raised the production capacity to 700 lbs. in 1634.
21
A decade later the house
had acquired a new grinder and the production capacity had been further
increased to 800 lbs. a day.
22
Before passing on to the demand for labour in the private sector something
may still be said about the employment procedure in the public sector. To
what has been said about the pressure methods of drafting, it may be added
that those who arrived as soldiers from Portugal were generally criminals
and convicts, sent straight from the prisons of Portugal.
23
Once they arrived in India there was nothing like an organised army to offer
them necessary protection. When the summer season approached and the
coastguard ?eets had to begin their patrolling duties, individual ?dalgos or
noblemen appointed as ?eet captains would recruit the men they needed
and submit the lists to the Government Registration Of?ce.
24
For the rest
of the year they were left high and dry on the shore to eke out their living,
which they generally did by begging at the Convent doors, or by joining
the retinue of some Portuguese brave, or by seeking some complaisant
women (married or unmarried) who would keep them, or by seeking out
and imposing themselves on any of their relatives found anywhere in the
East, or by crossing the borders and taking up jobs with some native ruler,
or by joining the ranks of the religious orders.
25
Those employed in the fort
garrisons were somewhat luckier because they could more easily make a
living during the rainy season as well by preying upon the neighbouring
villages.
26
Only married settlers and wounded soldiers were free to seek a non-military
occupation. However, all the posts in the administrative service and the high
positions in the military service were granted by way of reward. Anyone who
applied for such a post or for a cash pension had to present certi?cates of his
service covering at least eight years in the ?eets.
27
Only jobs connected with
the city administration were granted independently by the city councillors,
and certain low grade posts of clerks, interpreters and legal solicitors were
granted to the native Christians at the recommendation of the Father of
Christians.
28
Another exception was in favour of those who were willing to
marry the orphan girls sent from Portugal or the orphan daughters of the
noblemen who died while serving in India. The posts offered by the State as
dowry to the orphan girls were also below the grade of factor and did not
require con?rmation of the appointment by the home Government. Also
for males who married orphan girls service requirements were reduced by
four years.
29
The of?ces were generally granted for three-year terms. But there were some
jobs, such as those of public notaries, bailiffs and chief constables, which
the viceroys could grant directly in India for the period when the granting
viceroy continued in of?ce.
30
However, almost all the higher category of jobs
were sanctioned (despachados) from Portugal after the lists of candidates
and their service ?les (consultas) had been submitted through the Secre-
tariat in India. One single of?ce was often granted to more than one person,
and a grantee had thus to wait until all those who preceded him had enjoyed
the grant or died. The time-lag could sometimes be of one generation or
more, but it was permitted to the grantees to renounce the of?ce granted
in favour of someone else, or even to sell it.
31
However, more than once
the State itself took the initiative of auctioning various administrative posts
and captaincies to the highest bidders.
32
It was meant to raise funds for
the war expenses, but such interference must have made the situation of
Page 5


T
HE PORTUGUESE ECONOMY of Goa had been geared to provide the where-
withal for defending the Portuguese eastern empire and trade and to
supply for the personal tastes and the domestic needs of the administra-
tive bureaucracy, as well as ecclesiastical labourers and parasites.
1
Without
any signi?cant local production for exchange, the economic prosperity was
maintained as long as the power of the Portuguese men-of-war remained
unrivalled controller of the Asiatic trade.
2
In the seventeenth century we
?nd this economic base crumbling and the city of Goa beginning to face
the grim situation of feeding a population of consumers, whose services
were paying less and less for the habits it had developed in more prosperous
times. The prevailing mode of production based on slave labour and the
consequent low level of technology reduced the living standard to that of
subsistence and made the downfall of the city a logical inevitability.
3
The
economic base was further undermined by the well entrenched Catholic
Church, which tried to seek a new ?eld of action in the context of diminish-
ing success in the missionary ?eld by preaching about the human dignity
of the slaves close at home and demanding their freedom.
4
With its trade
disrupted and with its slave population on a spree of rowdyism, the city of
Goa in the seventeenth century was becoming more and more a shadow of
its past glory.
If the decline of the city was gradual and the breakdown was never complete,
this was due to the resilience of the organisation it had achieved. It was
the constitutionally in-built corruption that kept the Estado da India from
falling apart, but it made strategic co-ordination with imperial interests
impossible.
5
The nature of the labour organisation, which could check the
wage in?ation, and the nature of controls over money and commodities,
which could check pro?t in?ation, helped the city to minimise the pressure
of the waning economy.
Labour organisation
The expression “labour organisation” is not limited here to its current popu-
lar meaning of organised labour in the context of industrial capitalism. It
may be surprising, however, to note that this meaning was not altogether
inapplicable to the economic situation of the Goa city in the seventeenth
century. An incident which took place on October 8, 1694, certainly points
to the existence of somewhat organised industrial proletariat in the State-
owned and managed industrial concerns. The chief revenue superintendent
(vedor geral da fazenda) sent a communication to the viceroy on the above
date reporting that a crowd of 500 poor artisans employed in the State
shipyard was shouting outside his residence denouncing that they had not
received their wages for seven consecutive weeks.
6
In the gunpowder manufactory, where much skilled work was not required,
the great majority of the workers were slaves and those condemned to
forced labour. Neither of these types of labourers could express their protest
in any other form than sabotage. Outbreaks of ?re and explosions in the
gunpowder house were not unusual.
7
It was because of such incidents that
the general manager of that establishment proposed to the Public Revenue
Council in 1689 that only negro couples should be employed there. He was
convinced that the Hindus and others condemned to forced labour were
responsible for all the mischief.
8
Going beyond the consideration of labour organisation of the types just
described, the present analysis proposes to delve into the structural pattern
of the labour market in general. The State was one single giant customer in
the labour market, but there were also many private enterprises consisting of
workshops-cum-shops owned by petty independent artisans and craftsmen,
who catered for the necessities and for the ostentatious tendencies of the
city population.
Patternofdemandandsupply: Beginning with the public sector, we have
the Government owning a large service industry to look after the administra-
tion, defence and the spiritual welfare of the Portuguese State of India. The
Matricula Geral was the department which maintained the service books of
all employees on the State pay-roll. The exact number of the Portuguese ser-
ving in India, particularly in the armed forces, was kept a jealously guarded
secret for reasons of security.
9
Unfortunately we do not have the records of
the Registration Of?ce, but even if these records had been available, they
were likely to be misleading, because there was a permanent complaint
to the Crown from the more scrupulous of?cials in Portuguese India that
the registers contained more names of the dead or absentees than of those
actually serving.
10
In the administrative set-up, the higher cadre came with appointments
from Portugal, but most of the subordinate posts were ?lled by Portuguese
married settlers, and others by the native Christians. While the strength of
the Portuguese soldiers available for service in Goa at any one time during
the seventeenth century never exceeded 1,500, the administrative services
could not have absorbed more than half that number.
11
The State demand for labour was chie?y for ?eet-manning and for combat,
particularly in the seventeenth century when there was a chronic shortage
of Portuguese manpower. This shortage was remedied by drafting the Por-
tuguese married settlers and the native people, neither of which groups took
the measures willingly. Their reluctance is revealed by the fact that high-
handed methods were adopted: skilled sailors were detained for months
prior to a planned expedition.
12
Village communities were pressurised to
supply a de?nite number of men.
13
Portuguese settlers were deprived of
their slaves,
14
and the work in the galleys and gun-powder manufactory
was introduced as a form of judicial punishment for the law-breakers and
vagrants.
15
It was only when all these methods failed to yield satisfactory
results and when the threats of the Marathas close at home forced the Gov-
ernment to review the labour situation that the administration realised that
wage-raising was the best attraction for labour.
16
As regards the State-owned defence industries, their employment poten-
tiality can be gauged from the nature and volume of their production. The
shipyard was a vast complex including a carpentry section, rope manu-
factory, smithery, foundry and cooperage departments. Giant carracks of
nearly 2,000 tons burthen as well as a variety of smaller s were built and
equipped there.
17
There was a gun foundry with three large kilns and all
the required apparatus for casting guns as well as for minting currency.
18
Pyrard de Laval, who has left the fairest description of the whole complex,
was impressed by the large number of workers employed there. He remarks
that with the exception of the general superintendent and the heads of the
various departments, most skilled and unskilled labourers were recruited
from among the natives of the locality.
19
The gunpowder manufactory supplied gunpowder to all the Portuguese
settlements in the East and was even sending annually about 500 quintals
as a ballast of the Carreira ships.
20
In 1630, it had six grinders and could
manufacture 500 lbs. of gunpowder each day. The viceroy Count of Linhares
raised the production capacity to 700 lbs. in 1634.
21
A decade later the house
had acquired a new grinder and the production capacity had been further
increased to 800 lbs. a day.
22
Before passing on to the demand for labour in the private sector something
may still be said about the employment procedure in the public sector. To
what has been said about the pressure methods of drafting, it may be added
that those who arrived as soldiers from Portugal were generally criminals
and convicts, sent straight from the prisons of Portugal.
23
Once they arrived in India there was nothing like an organised army to offer
them necessary protection. When the summer season approached and the
coastguard ?eets had to begin their patrolling duties, individual ?dalgos or
noblemen appointed as ?eet captains would recruit the men they needed
and submit the lists to the Government Registration Of?ce.
24
For the rest
of the year they were left high and dry on the shore to eke out their living,
which they generally did by begging at the Convent doors, or by joining
the retinue of some Portuguese brave, or by seeking some complaisant
women (married or unmarried) who would keep them, or by seeking out
and imposing themselves on any of their relatives found anywhere in the
East, or by crossing the borders and taking up jobs with some native ruler,
or by joining the ranks of the religious orders.
25
Those employed in the fort
garrisons were somewhat luckier because they could more easily make a
living during the rainy season as well by preying upon the neighbouring
villages.
26
Only married settlers and wounded soldiers were free to seek a non-military
occupation. However, all the posts in the administrative service and the high
positions in the military service were granted by way of reward. Anyone who
applied for such a post or for a cash pension had to present certi?cates of his
service covering at least eight years in the ?eets.
27
Only jobs connected with
the city administration were granted independently by the city councillors,
and certain low grade posts of clerks, interpreters and legal solicitors were
granted to the native Christians at the recommendation of the Father of
Christians.
28
Another exception was in favour of those who were willing to
marry the orphan girls sent from Portugal or the orphan daughters of the
noblemen who died while serving in India. The posts offered by the State as
dowry to the orphan girls were also below the grade of factor and did not
require con?rmation of the appointment by the home Government. Also
for males who married orphan girls service requirements were reduced by
four years.
29
The of?ces were generally granted for three-year terms. But there were some
jobs, such as those of public notaries, bailiffs and chief constables, which
the viceroys could grant directly in India for the period when the granting
viceroy continued in of?ce.
30
However, almost all the higher category of jobs
were sanctioned (despachados) from Portugal after the lists of candidates
and their service ?les (consultas) had been submitted through the Secre-
tariat in India. One single of?ce was often granted to more than one person,
and a grantee had thus to wait until all those who preceded him had enjoyed
the grant or died. The time-lag could sometimes be of one generation or
more, but it was permitted to the grantees to renounce the of?ce granted
in favour of someone else, or even to sell it.
31
However, more than once
the State itself took the initiative of auctioning various administrative posts
and captaincies to the highest bidders.
32
It was meant to raise funds for
the war expenses, but such interference must have made the situation of
the grantees still more hopeless. One factor which probably minimised the
frustration was the eagerness of the wealthy Eurasian parents to seek white
partners for their nubile daughters.
33
Concerning the demand for labour by the city municipality much has been
said already in the last chapter, but there were projects of public works, such
as building and repairing of roads, drainage, canals, wharfs, and such like,
which surely required skilled and unskilled artisans and menial labour. Just
like the recruitment of labour for the State defence industries, in this case
also the recruitment of labour was left to the artisan-cum-contractor who
undertook to do the job.
34
In the private sector there was ?rst and foremost the institutional demand
of the religious houses. The craze of the various religious orders to outdo
each other with “monumental display” surely implied mass employment of
artisans connected with building and decorating work. The employment
potentialities were further raised by the reconstruction works that had to be
undertaken due to frequent ?re accidents caused by the abundant use of
combustible building material and the lack of ?re ?ghting equipment.
35
The needs of the individual citizens were many and highly diversi?ed. They
could, however, be classi?ed under housing, food, dress, personal care
and transport. As regards housing there were the sumptuous mansions of
the Portuguese settlers in the city and also magni?cent outhouses in the
suburbs. However, although the houses of natives were largely made of
stone and lime, there were residences of the natives in the close suburbs
which the contemporary missionary reports have compared to pigsties.
36
From the point of view of labour demand, it is important to note that most of
the building material was obtained locally: The laterite stones were quarried
in the surrounding villages, the lime was manufactured out of oyster shells
in the kilns working in some other neighbouring villages, where also the
roof-tiles were manufactured. The illumination of the houses was effected
with torches and lamps fed with coconut oil, while it was common to use
wax-candles for the church services.
37
The food needs of the city population were largely satis?ed with imported
rice and wheat. Green vegetables, coconuts and coconut oil, and ?sh were
also important ingredients of the diet and were obtained from local sup-
pliers. Several city dwellers had their own kitchen gardens and their own
palm groves where they set their slaves to work and to grow enough for
themselves and a surplus for the market.
38
Beef was consumed regularly
by the inmates of the monasteries and also by the Christian city dwellers;
the cattle for slaughter was imported from the mainland.
39
Fresh drinking
water was supplied by slaves who brought it in earthern vessels from the
Bangany spring and sold it at the road junctions of the city.
40
As regards
eating utensils, the Portuguese had Chinese crockery imported from Macau,
while clay pottery manufactured in Bardez served the needs of the Christian