Chikka Serappa

We first hear of Chikka Serappa in 1680 when he was appointed as dubash (interpreter and commercial agent) for English East India Company (EIC) in Madras. He rose to such a position that in the textile trade of Madras the years from 1696 to 1703 were marked by his dominance.

In the 1680 the Fort St George Council, a governing body of the EIC in Madras, noted that it was necessary to employ a dubash or linguist whose duties would include finding good and able merchants to handle the sale of European goods and to provide cloth. The choice came to Chikka Serappa. He successfully extended the procurement area of cloth for Fort St George, so that weaving centres like Udaiyarpalayam and areas in the hinterland further south were incorporated into the textile market of Madras. He also organized a joint-stock company with 31 merchants.

Under his management the textile trade flourished in Madrs, but Serapp’s career came to an end in 1703. The problem was that Serappa’s group was overpaid 20,000 pagodas for the cloth which they had supplied. Serappa and one or two other merchants who acknowledged their liability could not pay the entire amount, but only their share. The other merchants refused to pay anything and argued that they supplied cloth to Serappa on a private contract - they had nothing to do with payments by the Company. After this Serappa was no longer involved in the cloth trade and became bankrupt in 1711.