Editing East India Company (section)

==== Saltpetre trade ====
[[File:Potassium nitrate.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Potassium nitrate|Saltpetre]] used for [[gunpowder]] was one of the major trade goods of the company]]

Sir [[Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet|John Banks]], a businessman from [[Kent]] who negotiated an agreement between the king and the company, began his career in a syndicate arranging contracts for [[Victualling Commissioners|victualling the navy]], an interest he kept up for most of his life. He knew that [[Samuel Pepys]] and [[John Evelyn]] had amassed a substantial fortune from the [[Levant]] and Indian trades.

He became a director and later, as governor of the East India Company in 1672, he arranged a contract which included a loan of £20,000 and £30,000 worth of [[Potassium nitrate|saltpetre]]—also known as potassium nitrate, a primary ingredient in [[gunpowder]]—for the King "at the price it shall [[Candle auction|sell by the candle]]"—that is by auction—where bidding could continue as long as an inch-long candle remained alight.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Janssens|first1=Koen|title=Annales Du 17e Congrès D'Associationi Internationale Pour L'histoire Du Verre|publisher=Asp / Vubpress / Upa|isbn=978-90-5487-618-2|page=366|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ir6UHACu7zMC&pg=PA366|year=2009|access-date=19 August 2016|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727140752/https://books.google.com/books?id=ir6UHACu7zMC&pg=PA366|url-status=live}}</ref>

Outstanding debts were also agreed and the company permitted to export 250 tons of saltpetre. Again in 1673, Banks successfully negotiated another contract for 700 tons of saltpetre at £37,000 between the king and the company. So high was the demand from armed forces that the authorities sometimes turned a blind eye on the untaxed sales. One governor of the company was even reported as saying in 1864 that he would rather have the saltpetre made than the tax on salt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://salt.org.il/frame_saltpet.html|title=SALTPETER the secret salt – Salt made the world go round|publisher=salt.org.il|access-date=7 July 2017|archive-date=6 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706161200/http://salt.org.il/frame_saltpet.html|url-status=live}}</ref>