Merchant guilds squeezed Calicut's new factory

The Portuguese opened a factory with about seventy men so cargoes could be bought and stored without tying ships to the waterfront. Cabral also answered the Zamorin's request to intercept a Cochin-linked Arab vessel carrying war elephants and eventually presented the captured cargo to him. By December, however, Arab merchant guilds had bought up spices and discouraged other sellers, leaving only two Portuguese ships loaded. When Cabral asked the Zamorin to enforce the priority promised in their agreement, the ruler refused.