Richard Craddock's Career with the East India Company - Man Family

18
1656
In March 1656 the East India Company in London experienced
one of its occasional economic downturns ‘… the large
quantities of East India commodities which are arrived in
to England have much declined in value’ (EFI 55-60 p. 61).
This crisis prompted a letter to be sent out to Surat on
the 27th of that month ordering the closure of all the
company’s factories except the one at Surat and the
dismissal of all the company’s factors except a handful who
were to remain at Surat v . Among those who were slated for
dismissal was Richard Craddock although this was dependent
on any of those who had been retained not being available
in which case Craddock was to replace that person. However
if all those who were asked to stay could stay then
Craddock was not to be kept on in expectation of a vacancy.
Indeed, all those who were dismissed, including Craddock,
were to return to London at their own expense or were to be
‘absolutely discharged and dismissed’. (EFI 55-60, p. 60)
Long before the above letter was received (when), Craddock
had already decided to quit Ahmadabad which he did on
February 25 1656. He did so because the Ahmadabad factory
was experiencing one of the cyclical downtowns in the price
of indigo and it was no longer economically viable to
continue there. Unfortunately he did not get far. Barring
his way was a mob of indignant indigo makers who insisted
that before Craddock left Ahmadabad he was to personally
weigh the Indigo that he intended to send after him. What
sparked the indigo makers suspicion we can gather from
Craddock’s letter:
Notwithstanding I told them that the brokers, after my
departure, would have order to weigh it, yet they were not
content therewith, saying that, while there was an
Englishman here, there was some hope, but if I went, they
then knew not what to trust to. (Letter from Craddock, EFI
55-60, p. 74)
As a result Craddock was forced to write to Surat for
permission to remain at Ahmadabad until the indigo was
weighed and packed. As a matter of fact he did not quit the
city until the middle of June 1656, when he was relieved by
Anthony Smith, whose principal business on behalf of the
company was to recover debts. [see the letter from
Ahmadabad to Surat 18 June 1656 – (J 124) in Factory
Records, Surat Vol. 103]