Nasser Ratansi

A typical assessment of a trustworthy trader read as follows:
'Nassur Rattonzi has been paying well, is now clear until the end of December. With rupee 60,000 his credit limit is by far not fully used. Unfortunately, he is very cautious with orders because he is adamant about going to Mecca again. We are trying to discourage him from going because we absolutely need him for our trade in kanga cloths in these bad times. A credit limit should not be set for him. We can calmly risk even rupee 100,000 any time. His assets should be more than this sum'.26

26. January 31, 1914, Staatsarchiv Hamburg: 6211/147, 18 Band 8: Oswald & Co. 1914, Briefe von Dar es Salaam, 18"

Quoted in 'Interweaving threads of credit and debt: Trading (through) textiles in colonial Dar es Salaam' by Benjamin Brauhwiler, Department of History, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.