Virji Vora
Encyclopedia
Virji Vora was an Indian merchant from the Surat
during the Mughal era
. The East India Company
Factory Records
records describe him as the richest merchant in the world at the time. According to the English records, his personal worth is estimated to be worth 8 million rupee
s, a substantial amount of money in those days. He has been variously described as a "merchant prince" and a "plutocrat
".
The business activities of Virji Vohra included wholesale
trading, money lending
and banking. He established a monopoly
over certain imports in Surat, and dealt with a wide range of commodities including spices
, bullion, coral, ivory, lead and opium. He was a major credit supplier and customer of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company
.
/Jain and a Muslim
. In 1968, Prof. K H Kamdar wrote a paper on him based on material from the Bombay Archives and Jain documents in Surat and Baroda. According to this research, Virji was a Sthanakvasi
Jain of the Lonkagacchiya group. He may have been a member of the Srimali Oswal
Porwal caste group. He was deeply involved in religious affairs, and held the title of Samghapati/Sanghavi
, which is given to a lay leader who makes a major contribution like building a temple or organizing a mass pilgrimage.
John F. Richards, writing in 1996, mentions him as "Baharji Bohra" and describes him as a Muslim
Ismaili
merchant, belonging to the Bohra
community. He owned a very large merchant fleet of Dhow
s that bought Arabian horse
s from the Persian Gulf
and sold it to the Mughal
s. He is also known to have transported Muslim
pilgrims to Mecca
and Medina
. According to the British East India Company
: "His name was famous in the ports of the Arabian peninsula
even Aurangzeb
respected him".
The earliest mention of Virji appears in an East India Company record dated 22 March 1619, which recommends that his servant "Hacka Parrache" (probably Hak Parekh
) should be given "courteous usage" of all English ships at the Swally (Suvali) harbour of Surat. This meant that Virji's agent was given a permit, authorizing him to visit English ships for making commercial transactions. This indicates that he was already a well-established merchant by 1619.
, the Red Sea
and the South-East Asia. Virji had agents at most important commercial centers of India, including:
Within Gujarat, his agents were spread across various towns including Ahmedabad
, Baroda and Broach
.
1625
1629
1629
1633
1641
1648
1649
1650
1650
1650
1651
1668
Virji Vora also bought opium
and cotton
from the local merchants, and exchanged them for pepper in the South India or in the Spice islands
.
He would often purchase the entire quantity of a particular commodity and then dictate terms to the other merchants, including Indians and foreigners. According to WH Moreland, the syndicate
s dominated by Virji bought the entire cargoes valued from 5 to 10 lakh of rupees. An English factor record dated 18 July 1643 mentions him as the "the sole monopolist
of all European commodities". It further states that the deals between the Europeans and the smaller local merchants were restrained by him, and the "time and price" of the deals was decided at "his will and at his own disposure".
(EIC) at times, but he was also their biggest creditor and customer in Surat. The two often sent gifts and letters to each other:
The English often complained about the high interest rates charged by Virji Vora (1-1.5% per month). One English record states that "the town (Surat) is very empty of moneys; Virji Vora is the only master of it" and "none but Virji Vora had money to lend or will lend." Some of his credits to the English include:
Most of the capital lent to the Dutch East India Company
(VOC) in India also came from Virji Vora and his close associate Shantidas Jhaveri
. Virji also lent money to individual Englishmen to finance their own private trade, a practice denounced by the Company's London office.
The Dutch and the English often used his facilities for transmitting large amounts of money from Surat to Agra through hundi
s (similar to demand drafts or traveler's cheque
s).
s (Governors) of Surat were mostly cordial. By 1623, Virji had become influential with Ishaq Beg, the Mughal Subahdar of Surat. He was an important figure in the civic affairs of Surat, and was part of the committies formed to discuss important public issues. In July 1624, he was a member of the committee formed to grant certain trading and religious rights to the English. Other members of the committee included Saif Khan (Subahdar of Surat), Thomas Rastell (President of English factory), Jam Quli Beg (Commander of the Surat castle), Mahmud Kasim (Chief Qazi) and Hari Vaishya. In 1636, he was on a commitee set by the Subahdar to settle the claims of the merchants who had lost their goods to English pirates.
Mir Musa (also known by his title Muiz-Ul-Mulk), the Subahdar of Surat in the 1630s, himself traded with the English. In order to maintain good relations with him, Virji did not deal with the English in the commodities in which Mir Musa traded. Later in 1642, Mir Musa helped Virji corner to coral stock. Virji later used his friendship with Mir Musa to monopolize coral, pepper and other commodities in 1643.
Hakim Sadra (Masih-Uz-Zaman), who briefly replaced Mir Musa as the Subahdar in 1635, seized all the available supplies of pepper in Surat in 1638. He extorted money from the merchantile communities of Surat, and consequently, ran into a conflict with Virji Vora. In the early months of 1638, he put Virji in a jail at Surat. He charged Virji with as many as 50 offences, and sent a list of these offences to the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
. Virji denied all the charges, and was summoned by the emperor. The emperor set him free and removed Hakim from the office.
chief Shivaji raided Surat in 1664
. On 7 January 1664, the Maratha soldiers demolished his residence and warehouses, and looted a large amount of money along with pearls, rubies
, emerald
s and diamond
s. Volquard Iverson, a Dutch eye-witness states that Shivaji got "six barrels of gold, money, pearls, gems and other precious wares" from Virji. The French traveler Jean de Thévenot
, who visited Surat in the 1660s and developed a friendship with Virji, also wrote about the huge monetary loss suffered by him during the Shivaji's raid. William Foster
estimates this loot to be worth £50,000.
Even after the Maratha raid, Virji wasn't completely ruined — his assets were distributed across a number of centers outside Surat. The Subahdar of Surat sent Virji and Haji Zahid Beg to the Mughal Court at Agra to convince the authorities to fortify the town. An English letter dated 27 November 1664 states: "Haji Zahid Beg and Virji Vora, the two greatest merchants of this town, hold up their heads still and are for great bargains; so that is seems Shivaji hath not carried away all, but left them a competency to carry on their trade.
The last references to Virji occur in the English records of 1670, which talk about an Armenian merchant called Khwaja Minaz buying broad cloth on behalf of Virji Vora, and Virji's grandson Nanchand purchasing tin and copper. Virji had grown old by 1670, and suffered another setback during Shivaji's second raid of Surat in 1670. The English and Dutch records of Surat's merchants and brokers do not mention him after 1670.
François Martin
, who served as the head of the French operations in Surat during 1681-1686, wrote about a set of banker-cum-merchants whom he always referred to as "the brothers Boras". Lotika Varadarajan, writing in 1976, wrote "In sifting through the material it appears more than probable that one of the two brothers was Virji Vora". However, Makrand Mehta (1991) believes that the English records would have certainly mentioned Virji, if he had lived beyond 1970; he, therefore, speculates that Virji probably died in 1670. BG Gokhale assumes that Virji might have retired from the business after his grandson Nanchand took over the business, and might have died in 1675. Paul Dundas
also believed that Virji died in 1675.
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
during the Mughal era
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
. The East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
Factory Records
India Office Records
The India Office Records are a very large collection of documents relating to the administration of India from 1600 to 1947, the period spanning British rule in India...
records describe him as the richest merchant in the world at the time. According to the English records, his personal worth is estimated to be worth 8 million rupee
Rupee
The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
s, a substantial amount of money in those days. He has been variously described as a "merchant prince" and a "plutocrat
Plutocracy
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...
".
The business activities of Virji Vohra included wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
trading, money lending
Moneylender
A moneylender is a person or group who offers small personal loans at high rates of interest.-See also:* Microfinance - provision of financial services to low-income individuals....
and banking. He established a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
over certain imports in Surat, and dealt with a wide range of commodities including spices
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
, bullion, coral, ivory, lead and opium. He was a major credit supplier and customer of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
.
Early life
The records of the East India Company frequently mention the business activities of Virji Vora, but little is known about his origins or family background. He has been variously described as a HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
/Jain and a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. In 1968, Prof. K H Kamdar wrote a paper on him based on material from the Bombay Archives and Jain documents in Surat and Baroda. According to this research, Virji was a Sthanakvasi
Sthanakvasi
Sthānakavāsī is a sect of Jainism founded by a merchant named Lavaji about 1653 CE that believes that God is nirakar "without form", and hence do not pray to any statue...
Jain of the Lonkagacchiya group. He may have been a member of the Srimali Oswal
Oswal
The Oswal are a social group of people from the Indian States of Rajasthan and Punjab. Oswals are primarily adherents of Svetambara Jainism, but a few are Digambaras and some are Hindu adherents of Vaishnavism....
Porwal caste group. He was deeply involved in religious affairs, and held the title of Samghapati/Sanghavi
Singhai
Singhai is a hereditary title awarded in the past to leaders of the Jain Sangha ....
, which is given to a lay leader who makes a major contribution like building a temple or organizing a mass pilgrimage.
John F. Richards, writing in 1996, mentions him as "Baharji Bohra" and describes him as a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Ismaili
Ismaili
' is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest branch of Shia Islam, after the Twelvers...
merchant, belonging to the Bohra
Bohra
Bohra, Borah or Bohora, from the Gujerati word meaning 'trader', may refer to:*A Mustaali trading community:**Alavi Bohra, a branch of the Mustaali community**Dawoodi Bohra, a branch of the Mustaali community...
community. He owned a very large merchant fleet of Dhow
Dhow
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...
s that bought Arabian horse
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
s from the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
and sold it to the Mughal
Mughal
Mughal, a word related to the Mongols, may refer to the:* Mughal Empire of South Asia* Mughal emperors* Mughal , the central Asian tribe from which the rulers of the Mughal Empire hailed* Mughal architecture* Mughal painting* Mughlai cuisine...
s. He is also known to have transported Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
pilgrims to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
and Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
. According to the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
: "His name was famous in the ports of the Arabian peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
even Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
respected him".
The earliest mention of Virji appears in an East India Company record dated 22 March 1619, which recommends that his servant "Hacka Parrache" (probably Hak Parekh
Parekh
Parekh is a widely used surname amongst Gujarati Hindu people. However, it can also be seen in the Jain and Swaminarayan religions, which were also founded in India...
) should be given "courteous usage" of all English ships at the Swally (Suvali) harbour of Surat. This meant that Virji's agent was given a permit, authorizing him to visit English ships for making commercial transactions. This indicates that he was already a well-established merchant by 1619.
Expanse
The business house of Virji Vora had branches at several places in India, as well as at the port cities of the Persian GulfPersian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and the South-East Asia. Virji had agents at most important commercial centers of India, including:
- AgraAgraAgra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
, the imperial capital and the center of the indigo trade - BurhanpurBurhanpurBurhanpur is an important city in Madhya Pradesh state, India. It is the administrative seat of Burhanpur District. It is situated on the north bank of the Tapti River, southwest of Bhopal and northeast of Mumbai...
, major transportation and textile cente on the Agra-Surat route - GolcondaGolcondaGolconda may be:Places:* Golkonda, ruined city and fortress in India* Golconda, Illinois, town in the United States* Golconda, Nevada, former town in the United StatesOther:* Golconda...
in Deccan, where his agents bought spices (especially pepperPepper- Plants and plant products :The genus Piper of the pepper family , including for example:* Black pepper, white and green pepper, Piper nigrum* Cubeb, Piper cubeba, also known as Java pepper* Long pepper, Piper longum...
and cardamom) - GoaGoaGoa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, where his agenets bought spices used the Malabar frigates for coastal trade - CalicutHistory of KozhikodeKozhikode , also known as Calicut, is a city in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the third largest city in Kerala and the headquarters of Kozhikode district....
in MalabarMalabarMalabar and puram derived or westernised into bar. This part of India was a part of the British East India Company-controlled Madras State, when it was designated as Malabar District. It included the northern half of the state of Kerala and some coastal regions of present day Karnataka...
, center of trade for assorted spices - BiharBiharBihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
Within Gujarat, his agents were spread across various towns including Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
, Baroda and Broach
Bharuch
Bharuch , also known as Broach, is the oldest city in Gujarat, situated at the mouth of the holy river Narmada. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District and a municipality of more than 1,50,000 inhabitants. As Bharuch is a major seaport city, a number of trade activities have...
.
Business activities
A wholesale trader, Virji Vora dealt in a wide range of commodities. Some of his deals mentioned in historical records include:1625
- Virji bought the entire pepper stock brought by the Dutch to Surat. The English factory at Surat decided to purchase pepper worth £10,000 from Virji, at the rate of 16 mahmudis per maundMaundThe maund is the anglicized name for a traditional unit of mass used in British India, and also in Afghanistan, Persia and Arabia: the same unit in the Moghul Empire was sometimes written as mun in English, while the equivalent unit in the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia was called the batman...
. Virji, who owned the entire pepper stock in the city, demanded 16.25 per maund and also asked them to sell to him 25 chests of coral at a price lower than the market price. When the merchants from South India arrived at Surat with a fresh stock of pepper, Virji bought all the pepper from them. The English then sent an agent to the Deccan to buy pepper from there, but Virji asked his agents in Deccan to buy the pepper stock at a price slightly higher than the English were prepared to give. Ultimately, the English had to purchase pepper from Virji.
1629
- Bought coral from the English at a discount, after they found it difficult to sell it
1629
- Sold 20,000 mahmudis worth of pepper to the English
1633
- Traded 12000 tolas of gold with the English
1641
- Sold turmericTurmericTurmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20 °C and 30 °C and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive...
and cardamomCardamomCardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds...
s to the English
1648
- Bought cloveCloveCloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native to the Maluku islands in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world...
s from the Dutch at a cheaper rate than the English, thanks to his enormous liquid capital. He purchased the cloves at Rs. 45 per maund and sold them at Rs. 62-65 per maund.
1649
- Bought all the available quantities of mace and nutmegNutmegThe nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...
in Surat
1650
- Bought 20 maunds of teaTeaTea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
from the Dutch
1650
- Bought silver ingotIngotAn ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
s from the English at the previous year's rates, after the local shroffs (buillion traders) of Surat refused to take them
1650
- Bought all the goods brought by the Dutch to Surat, in alliance with the Mohandas Parekh (the broker for the Dutch)
1651
- Bought ivoryIvoryIvory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
from the English and coral from the Dutch
1668
- Virji Vora and Haji Zahid (another merchant of Surat) stored up thousands of maunds of vermilion and quicksilver, "sufficient to supply the whole country for many years".
Virji Vora also bought opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
from the local merchants, and exchanged them for pepper in the South India or in the Spice islands
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
.
He would often purchase the entire quantity of a particular commodity and then dictate terms to the other merchants, including Indians and foreigners. According to WH Moreland, the syndicate
Syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...
s dominated by Virji bought the entire cargoes valued from 5 to 10 lakh of rupees. An English factor record dated 18 July 1643 mentions him as the "the sole monopolist
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of all European commodities". It further states that the deals between the Europeans and the smaller local merchants were restrained by him, and the "time and price" of the deals was decided at "his will and at his own disposure".
Relations with the Europeans
Virji Vora competed with the British East India CompanyEast India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
(EIC) at times, but he was also their biggest creditor and customer in Surat. The two often sent gifts and letters to each other:
- 1635: Virji gifted nine pieces of white cloth to the Company
- 1643: The EIC gifted a German Iron Chest (manufactured at Nuremberg) to Virji
- 1654: Virji asked the Company directors to arbitrate on his disputes with their employees in India. The decision was not favorable to Vora, but the Company sent him gifted him several pieces of broad cloth and satin, two large looking-glasses and a piece of double glided plate engraved with Company's Coat of Arms.
- 1661: Virji gifted the company with calicoes.
The English often complained about the high interest rates charged by Virji Vora (1-1.5% per month). One English record states that "the town (Surat) is very empty of moneys; Virji Vora is the only master of it" and "none but Virji Vora had money to lend or will lend." Some of his credits to the English include:
- 1619: A record dated 25 August 1619, states that Virji lent 25,000 mahmudis to the English.
- 1630: Lent Rs. 50,000 to the English at Agra
- 1635: Lent Rs. 20,000 to the English
- 1636: Lent Rs. 30,000 to the English
- 1636: Lent Rs. 2 lakhs to the English
- 1642: A letter dated 27 January 1642 mentions him as the "greatest creditor" of the East India Company, and mentions that he offered a loan of Rs. 100,000 in "necessitous and calamitous times"
- 1647: Financed the East India Company's voyage to Pegu, Burma by providing 10,000 pagodasPagoda (coin)Pagoda was a unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half gold minted by Indian dynasties as well as the British, the French and the Dutch. It was issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India, including the Kadambas of Hangal, the Kadambas of Goa, and the Vijaynagar Empire.There were two...
(about 6000 £), at an interest of 1.17% per month, in GolcondaGolcondaGolconda may be:Places:* Golkonda, ruined city and fortress in India* Golconda, Illinois, town in the United States* Golconda, Nevada, former town in the United StatesOther:* Golconda... - 1650: Offered Rs. 100,000 to Merry, the President at English Factory at Surat
- 1669: The English borrowed Rs. 400,000 from a group of creditors, of which Virji was an important member
Most of the capital lent to the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
(VOC) in India also came from Virji Vora and his close associate Shantidas Jhaveri
Shantidas Jhaveri
Shantidas Jhaveri was an influential Indian jeweller, sarraf and sahukar during the Mughal era. He was the wealthiest merchant in the Ahmedabad city during the 17th century. He was also a philanthropist, who made donations to temples and schools.- Early life :Shantidas Jhaveri was an Oswal Jain...
. Virji also lent money to individual Englishmen to finance their own private trade, a practice denounced by the Company's London office.
The Dutch and the English often used his facilities for transmitting large amounts of money from Surat to Agra through hundi
Hundi
Hundis were legal financial instruments that evolved on the Indian sub-continent. These were used in trade and credit transactions; they were used as remittance instruments for the purpose of transfer of funds from one place to another. In the era of bygone kings and the British Raj these Hundis...
s (similar to demand drafts or traveler's cheque
Traveler's cheque
A traveler's cheque is a preprinted, fixed-amount cheque designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege.- Usage :As traveler's cheques can usually be replaced if lost or stolen A traveler's cheque...
s).
Relations with the Mughal authorities
Virji Vora's relationships with the Mughal SubahdarSubahdar
Subahdar was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah during the Mughal era of India who was alternately designated as Sahib-i-Subah or Nazim. The word, Subahdar is of Persian origin...
s (Governors) of Surat were mostly cordial. By 1623, Virji had become influential with Ishaq Beg, the Mughal Subahdar of Surat. He was an important figure in the civic affairs of Surat, and was part of the committies formed to discuss important public issues. In July 1624, he was a member of the committee formed to grant certain trading and religious rights to the English. Other members of the committee included Saif Khan (Subahdar of Surat), Thomas Rastell (President of English factory), Jam Quli Beg (Commander of the Surat castle), Mahmud Kasim (Chief Qazi) and Hari Vaishya. In 1636, he was on a commitee set by the Subahdar to settle the claims of the merchants who had lost their goods to English pirates.
Mir Musa (also known by his title Muiz-Ul-Mulk), the Subahdar of Surat in the 1630s, himself traded with the English. In order to maintain good relations with him, Virji did not deal with the English in the commodities in which Mir Musa traded. Later in 1642, Mir Musa helped Virji corner to coral stock. Virji later used his friendship with Mir Musa to monopolize coral, pepper and other commodities in 1643.
Hakim Sadra (Masih-Uz-Zaman), who briefly replaced Mir Musa as the Subahdar in 1635, seized all the available supplies of pepper in Surat in 1638. He extorted money from the merchantile communities of Surat, and consequently, ran into a conflict with Virji Vora. In the early months of 1638, he put Virji in a jail at Surat. He charged Virji with as many as 50 offences, and sent a list of these offences to the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) (Full title: His Imperial Majesty Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan...
. Virji denied all the charges, and was summoned by the emperor. The emperor set him free and removed Hakim from the office.
Last days
Virji Vora suffered a major setback when the MarathaMaratha Empire
The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....
chief Shivaji raided Surat in 1664
Battle of Surat
Battle of Surat was a land battle that took place on January 5, 1664 near the city of Surat, Gujarat, India between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Inayat Khan, a Mughal captain...
. On 7 January 1664, the Maratha soldiers demolished his residence and warehouses, and looted a large amount of money along with pearls, rubies
Ruby
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...
, emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
s and diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
s. Volquard Iverson, a Dutch eye-witness states that Shivaji got "six barrels of gold, money, pearls, gems and other precious wares" from Virji. The French traveler Jean de Thévenot
Jean de Thévenot
Jean de Thévenot was a French traveller in the East, who wrote extensively about his journeys. He was also a linguist, natural scientist and botanist....
, who visited Surat in the 1660s and developed a friendship with Virji, also wrote about the huge monetary loss suffered by him during the Shivaji's raid. William Foster
William Foster (historiographer)
Sir William Foster Knight , CIE , Register and Superintendent of Records in the India Office; historiographer; Hakluyt Society.-Works:* Letters Received By The East India Company...
estimates this loot to be worth £50,000.
Even after the Maratha raid, Virji wasn't completely ruined — his assets were distributed across a number of centers outside Surat. The Subahdar of Surat sent Virji and Haji Zahid Beg to the Mughal Court at Agra to convince the authorities to fortify the town. An English letter dated 27 November 1664 states: "Haji Zahid Beg and Virji Vora, the two greatest merchants of this town, hold up their heads still and are for great bargains; so that is seems Shivaji hath not carried away all, but left them a competency to carry on their trade.
The last references to Virji occur in the English records of 1670, which talk about an Armenian merchant called Khwaja Minaz buying broad cloth on behalf of Virji Vora, and Virji's grandson Nanchand purchasing tin and copper. Virji had grown old by 1670, and suffered another setback during Shivaji's second raid of Surat in 1670. The English and Dutch records of Surat's merchants and brokers do not mention him after 1670.
François Martin
François Martin
François Martin was the first Governor General of Pondicherry. He founded Pondicherry, the future capital of French India in 1674. He was Commissioner of French East India Company before holding this post and was preceded by François Baron and succeeded by Pierre Dulivier. There is a street named...
, who served as the head of the French operations in Surat during 1681-1686, wrote about a set of banker-cum-merchants whom he always referred to as "the brothers Boras". Lotika Varadarajan, writing in 1976, wrote "In sifting through the material it appears more than probable that one of the two brothers was Virji Vora". However, Makrand Mehta (1991) believes that the English records would have certainly mentioned Virji, if he had lived beyond 1970; he, therefore, speculates that Virji probably died in 1670. BG Gokhale assumes that Virji might have retired from the business after his grandson Nanchand took over the business, and might have died in 1675. Paul Dundas
Paul Dundas
Paul Dundas is a scholar and a senior lecturer in Sanskrit language and head of Asian Studies in the University of Edinburgh. His main areas of academic and research interest include Jainism, Buddhism, classical Sanskrit literature and Middle Indo-Aryan philology...
also believed that Virji died in 1675.