"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎١] (١٧٨٢/١٨٤)

41
mi
rilti ■■
53.
Persians on account of customs realised from the Dutch Agent ; —a
circumstance from which it would appear that the Dutch had not been
uniformly successful in their efforts to avoid paying duty; and the
prospects of a collision between the Dutch and the Persians became so
serious that the property of the English East India Company at Bandar
J Abbas was removed for greater safety to Basrah, where it arrived in
June 1645. In the autumn of 1645 ; no settlement with the Persians
having' been effected, the Dutch attacked Qishm; and, though they
failed to take the place and lost a number of men from the beat, the
Shah at once sought an armistice and prepared to yield to their demands
for trade upon more favourable terms Block died at Isfahan, whither
he had proceeded by special permission ; but before his death he had a
satisfactory interview with the Shah, of which the result appeared in
a license granted to the Dutch to exyort silk, free of duty, from any part
of Persia.
The Dutch next extended their mercantile war against the English Increasing
to 'Iraq and sent a fleet of eighf vessels to Basrah,—a step by which the
the trade of the English Factoy recently established at that place Dutch, 1646-
was for the time being destroy^. In 1649 the influence of the Dutch
in the Gulf was in the ascendait, and there appeared a prospect of
their obtaining further privileges from the Persian Government, who
now held them in awe, but not ii respect. In 1650 the preponderance
of the Dutch in the Gulf contiraed to increase and was intensified by
the expulsion of tie Portugese from Masqat; the Dutch fleet which
visited Bandar 'Abbis in this year consisted of ten vessels, and the
stocks landed were large. Aout this time, according to Tavernier,
the Hollanders disposed of aboit 1,500,000 lbs. of pepper in Persia * and
paid with the sane for the whole of their silk. In the following year
cargoes of an estinuted valueof nearly £100,000 were brought ashore
at Bandar 'Abbas from eleven Dutch ships, and English trade suffered
severely. In 165253 the Ditch sent fifteen vessels and goods worth
more than £120^00 to landar 'Abbas, thus swamping English com
merce ; but a demand which they made for equality of treatment with
the English wa still rejected by the Shah, on the ground that they
had not perforaid such services to Persia as the English had. A Dutch
Commissary, h wever, had a favourable reception at Isfahan j jet with
all the advantages on his side and in spite of heavy pecuniary sacrifices,
he was unible to prevent the English from obtaining a considerable
quantity of sik on advantageous terms.
♦ pom Tavenier's language it might he thought that he referred to <iU annual
arran^uient, but the quantity of pepper seem* too large for this.