weighmen

At least one colonial officer advocated deducting the amount lost by the Peshawri fruit brokers and weighmen from the subsidy the British provided to Abd al-Rahman. 43 However, the opposite occurred only a year after the fruit monopoly was instituted.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The circumvented brokers and weighmen envisioned the declining fruit trade would also be reflected in diminishing Peshawar municipal octroi receipts.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The Peshawar brokers and weighmen depended on their relationships to kuchi carriers in order to distribute their capital investments in those localities. 45 During the first season of the monopoly the British recognized the likelihood of ongoing exclusion of Indian merchants from the fruit revenue structure of the Kabul-centered Durrani state.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The most common terms for brokers and weighmen are dalals and dharwais, respectively. back

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The disenfranchised Peshawri brokers and weighmen petitioned the British government.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

According to petitions filed with the British Indian Government the rates Jit Mal and his brother charged the kuchis for handling their fruit were double and in some cases triple the amounts charged for similar services provided by the remaining brokers and weighmen in Peshawar. 36 Furthermore, Jit Mal was instructed to inform Nur Muhammad of any kuchis carrying fruit who evaded the monopoly.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

Some one broached the subject of check-weighmen to him, and the whole table heard his scornful laugh.

King Coal : a Novel Upton Sinclair 1923

Abd al-Rahman felt that as owners of the Afghan fruit the kuchis, who were his subjects, should not have their resources diminished at the expense of the Peshawri brokers and weighmen who were British Indian subjects. 41 However, at the same time, Abd al-Rahman and his own officials corresponded with one another in full recognition that the kuchis did not want to partake in the fruit trade via the terms of the new state monopoly.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

28In his correspondence with the British about the matter, Abd al-Rahman justified the fruit monopoly as defending the kuchis 'interests. 40 He claimed the kuchis were having their justly earned profits siphoned by the brokers and weighmen of Peshawar.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

24A community of about thirty brokers and weighmen of Afghan fruit in Peshawar were cut out of the Afghan fruit export market by the Durrani state-appointed monopolist Nur Muhammad and his partners Jit Mal and Jit Mal's brother.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008