Chapter PIE to PIECE-GOODS of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PIE to PIECE-GOODS

PIE, s. Hind. pa’i, the smallest copper coin of the Anglo-Indian currency, being 1/12 of an anna, 1/192 of a rupee, =about ½ a farthing. This is now the authorised meaning of pie. But pa’i was originally, it would seem, the fourth part of an anna, and in fact identical with pice (q.v.). It is the H.—Mahr. pa’i, ‘a quarter,’ from Skt. pad, padika in that sense.

[1866.—“… his father has a one pie share in a small village which may yield him perhaps 24 rupees per annum.”—Confessions of an Orderly, 201.]

PIECE-GOODS. This, which is now the technical term for Manchester cottons imported into India, was originally applied in trade to the Indian cottons exported to England, a trade which appears to have been deliberately killed by the heavy duties which Lancashire procured to be imposed in its own interest, as in its own interest it has recently procured the abolition of the small import duty on English piece-goods in India.¹ [In 1898 a duty at the rate of 3 per cent. on cotton goods was reimposed.]

Lists of the various kinds of Indian piece-goods will be found in Milburn (i. 44, 45, 46, and ii. 90, 221), and we assemble them below. It is not in our power to explain their peculiarities, except in very few cases, found under their proper heading. [In the present edition these lists have been arranged in alphabetical order. The figures before each indicate that they fall into the following classes: 1. Piece-goods formerly exported from Bombay and Surat; 2. Piece-goods exported from Madras and the Coast; 3. Piece-goods: the kinds imported into Great Britain from Bengal. Some notes and quotations have been added. But it must be understood that the classes of goods now known under these names may or may not exactly represent those made at the time when these lists were prepared. The names printed in capitals are discussed in separate articles.]

1665.—“I have sometimes stood amazed at the vast quantity of Cotton-Cloth of all sorts, fine and others, tinged and white, which the Hollanders alone draw from thence and transport into many places, especially into Japan and Europe; not to mention what the English, Portingal and Indian merchants carry away from those parts.”—Bernier, E.T. 141; [ed. Constable, 439].

1785.—(Resⁿ. of Court of Directors of the E.I.C., 8th October) “… that the Captains and Officers of all ships that shall sail from any part of India, after receiving notice hereof, shall be allowed to bring 8000 pieces of piece-goods and no more … that 5000 pieces and no more, may consist of white Muslins and Callicoes, stitched or plain, or either of them, of which 5000 pieces only 2000 may consist of any of the following sorts, viz., Alliballies, Alrochs (?), Cossaes, Doreas, Jamdannies, Mulmuls, Nainsooks, Neckcloths, Tanjeebs, and Terrindams, and that 3000 pieces and no more, may consist of coloured piece-goods. …” &c., &c.—In Seton-Karr, i. 83.

[Abrawan, P. ab-i-ravan, ‘flowing water’; a very fine kind of Dacca muslin. ‘Woven air’ is the name applied in the Arabian Nights to the Patna gauzes, a term originally used for the produce of the Coan looms (Burton, x. 247.) “The Hindoos amuse us with two stories, as instances of the fineness of this muslin. One, that the Emperor Aurungzebe was angry with his daughter for exposing her skin through her clothes; whereupon the young princess remonstrated in her justification that she had seven jamahs (see JAMMA) or suits on; and another, in the Nabob Allaverdy Khawn’s time a weaver was chastised and turned out of the city for his neglect, in not preventing his cow from eating up a piece of abrooan, which he had spread and carelessly left on the grass.”—Bolt, Considerations on Affairs of India, 206.

3. ADATIS. 2.ALLEJAS.

3. Alliballies.—“Alaballee (signifying according to the weavers’ interpretation of the word ‘very fine’) is a muslin of fine texture.”—(J. Taylor, Account of the Cotton Manufacture at Dacca, 45). According to this the word is perhaps from Ar. a’la, ‘superior,’ H. bhala, ‘good.’

3. Allibanees.—Perhaps from a’la, ‘superior,’ bana, ‘woof.’

1. Annabatchies.

3. Arrahs.—Pe rhaps from the place of that name in Shahabad, where, according to Buchanan Hamilton (Eastern India, i. 548) there was a large cloth industry.

3. Aubrahs. 2. Aunneketchies. 3. BAFTAS. 3. BANDANNAS. 1. Bejutapauts.—H. be-jata, ‘without join,’ pat, ‘a piece.’ 1. BETEELAS. 3. Blue cloth. 1. Bombay Stuffs. 1. Brawl.—The N.E.D. describes Brawl as a ‘blue and white striped cloth manufactured in India.’ In a letter of 1616 (Foster, iv. 306) we have “Lolwee champell and Burral.” The editor suggests H. biral, ‘open in texture, fine.’ But Roquefort (s.v.) gives: “Bure, Burel, grosse étoffe en laine de couleur rousse ou grisâtre, dont s’habillent ordinairement