44 [No. 96 HISTORY Swahili hands, and this was largely financed by Indians. Besides trading themselves, the Indians on Zanzibar had acquired exclusive control of banking and mercantile business. The Arabs , who had sunk to the position of feudal landowners , were in a financial sense completely subject to them . Hardly an Arab estate but was encumbered by mortgages to Indian capitalists, and a large proportion were so deeply mortgaged as virtually to belong to the Indian mortgagee. The customs dues were farmed by an Indian house. India's interest in Zanzibar was , and still to some extent re mains, vital , her traders always expecting the support and protection of the Government.

(2) Slavery. — The growth of the East African slave trade to the great proportions attained by it in the nineteenth century was due in part to the security of the seas achieved by Said. Zanzibar rapidly became the chief centre and clearing-house for the traffic, to the great financial advantage of its ruler , who , c.g. , in 1873 derived 40,000 dollars from customs dues levied on slaves.

But the policy of the British Government was un swervingly directed first to the limitation , and finally to the entire abolition, of slavery in all its forms. There were many difficulties hampering this crusade at Zanzi bar. The Sultan was far from being master in his own house, and the Arab chiefs , on whose support he, but a primusinter pares, relied, were bitterly hostile to it. He himself sympathised with their views. The very Indians , subjects of the crusading power , if refraining from the actual traffic itself (when it became too risky) , undoubtedly provided the capital on which its opera tions depended . But British pressure and naval activity triumphed in the end. The stages of its victory were three in number . The slave trade by sea and the sale of slaves in Zanzibar market were the subject of treaties concluded with Sultans Said in 1845 , Majid in 1868 , and finally with Bargash in 1873. This last treaty , which put an end to the sea -borne traffic, was wrung with great difficulty from the Sultan, who refused it