For a long time past the winefarmers had been making complaints of there being no sale for the produce of their vineyards, then from two to four thousand leggers of five hundred and seventy-six litres each a year; and to relieve them the directors had resolved, if no other remedy could be devised, to substitute wine for spirits to a large extent in their ships and Indian establishments, provided it could be obtained of moderately good quality. The burgher councillors, on behalf of the farmers, addressed the governor-general Van Imhoff on this question. The governor-general offered them free trade in India, upon payment of 16s. 8d. freight and £2 10s. 0d. duty a legger. The burghers replied that such a privilege would be of no use to them. The governor-general then proposed that the tax on wine should be increased from 4s. 2d. to 12s. 6d. a legger; that upon payment of this and a fee of 4s. 2d. to the fiscal and of £I 0s. 10d. a legger to the licensed dealer, the burghers should be at liberty to sell without let or hindrance to all visitors, Dutch or foreign, at the best price they could obtain; and that the Company should purchase at £5 5s. 10d. a legger sufficient for its own needs, which would be on an average about four leggers for each ship leaving the port, in addition to a quantity to be sent to the Netherlands and to Batavia for ships coming to the Cape and for the use of the workpeople in India.