Previous 2/798'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎297v] (601/798)
602/798 Next'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎298v] (603/798)
View all items
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎298r] (602/798)
Previous 2/798'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎297v] (601/798)
602/798 Next'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎298v] (603/798)
Skip to item: of 798
See full record
Information about this record Back to top
Open in Universal viewer
Open in Mirador IIIF viewer

'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎298r] (602/798)

This item is part of
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
798 images
Ref: IOR/L/PS/20/CA10

The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

Transcription

This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.

Apply page layout

that the Dutch so understood them, because they took good care to
secure from each successive Emperor a renewal of their privileges,
based on similar firmans. It will hardly be pretended that these privi
leges, the grant of which was revocable at the pleasure of the Mogul
Emperors, must be continued against the pleasure of the British
Power, their successors in the government of the country. Still less,
we conceive, can it be pretended that documents, the object of which
was to put certain foreign traders on the same footing as the most
favoured subjects of the Government of that day, can be of force to
put them, and not only them, but, as a consequence, foreign traders
generally, on a footing superior to that occupied by the subjects of the
Government of this day.
Secondly, as to our admissions ,—They are contained in Acts of
1838 and 1852, but there is no allusion to these privileges in the Con
solidated Customs Act VI. of 1863, by which the previous Acts were
repealed. The privileges are now continued by an Executive Order
of the Local Government passed under the empowering section 19 of
the Consolidated Act. It is, to our mind, clear that these enactments
admitted nothing more than the fact of the existence of the firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
privileges, without in any way affecting their revocable character,
which had, indeed, been asserted in the most unmistakeable terms in
our predecessor’s letter, dated 6 th April 1821, to the Government of
Bombay.
In a few words, then, the matter stands thus. The Mogul Em
peror granted to the Portuguese at Surat in 1714 a revocable privilege,
which survived and retained its revocable character when the British
Government took the place of the Mogul. The Acts of the Indian
Legislative Council in substance ordered the officers of Government
to respect it; Those Acts have since been repealed, but the Executive
Government have been empowered to exempt, and have exempted,
the Portuguese from the payment of duties higher than those specified
in the firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). . If that order be rescinded, the duty will be leviable
under the general law of the Empire. The question then arises,—
Whether the revocation of the firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). or the rescission of the exemp
tion would be a breach of the treaty obligations of England to
Portugal ? We think not. The treaty now in force is that of 1842,
which provides that each Power is to put the other on the footing of
the most favoured nation, a provision which in no way imposes upon
us the obligation to maintain, in favour of the Portuguese, any
exceptional revocable privilege granted by the former Sovereigns of
India.
Unless, therefore, you should take a view of the matter different
to our own, we purpose to inform the Government of Goa that the
exemption in question will cease on the 1st April 1872, and we*
therefore, solicit the favour of an early reply to this Despatch.

About this item

Content

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

  • Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:

  • Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
  • Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
  • Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
  • Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
  • Education
  • Banking
  • Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
  • Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
  • Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
  • Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
  • Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
  • Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
  • Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
  • Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
  • Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
  • Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
  • Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
  • Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
  • Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].

The primary correspondents are:

Extent and format
1 volume (395 folios)
Arrangement

The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.

Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
View the complete information for this record

Use and share this item

Share this item
Cite this item in your research

'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎298r] (602/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113394.0x000003> [accessed 21 August 2026]

Link to this item

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113394.0x000003

Embed this item

Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image. 

<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113394.0x000003">'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [&lrm;298r] (602/798)</a>
<a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113394.0x000003">
	<img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/IOR_L_PS_20_CA10_0602.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
IIIF details

This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images

Use and reuse
Download this image
Reference
IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
Title
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
Pages
front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
Author
East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
Usage terms
Open Government Licence