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

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In fact so unsettled was the situation in the countryside
around Ahmadabad that the company headquarters in Surat was
advised that it would be unsafe to count upon procuring any
goods from Ahmadabad in time for dispatch to England by the
next fleet. (EFI 55-60, p. 121).
Craddock and his colleagues stationed in Ahmadabad faced
considerable challenges some of which were described in a
letter sent to Surat:
… all trade is laid aside … and many robberies committed,
and several armies abroad; which hath caused such
distraction in the course of trade that there is at present
nothing be done but calling in what cloth was delivered by
the washers, and hiding and securing other goods from the
danger of the times; and all persons so amazed that none
think of anything more than to secure what they already
have, by hiding it underground and flying away themselves
with their wives and children, leaving only their walls in
this city[Ahmadabad]standing to defend what they have
within. And in this condition is this city at present; and
for certain the king [Shah Jehan] is dead by the common
report of all men[a rumor which proved not true]. What the
event of these civil dissentions will be we cannot
foretell, but thus much we know; if the three youngest sons
will not subordinate themselves to the elder, it will not
be a year, two or three that will end the difference; and
then all trade will be spoiled, both inland and foreign.
[Letter from Ahmadabad to Surat, EFI 55-60, p 121]