"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٧‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٢١٧)

74
Gradual revi
val of the
Persian trade
1683-90.
Design of the
East India
Company to
establish a
cloth mono
poly in Persia
and divert
the silk trade
to the Gulf
by the help of
the Armeni
ans,1689-93.
shipping and to secure their custom as consigners on freight, a branch
of business from which the Dutch were said to derive enormous profits.
In 1683-84 the Company's Persian trade was disturbed by the com
petition of Interlopers and by a revolt of some of the Company's own
military servants at Bombay under Captain Richard Keigwin, whom his
enemies quaintly termed the " Oliver and Protector of the Island of
Bombay " ; the Company's goods in Persia also proved unsaleable, and
the Agent and Factors reported that fresh stocks were needed. In 1684
there was a loss in England on nearly all the Persian commodities brought
home, and no " black " Kirman wool could be disposed of, but twice as
much ff red " was required. In 1685 a consignment of salt from Hormuz
to Sumatra was arranged. In 1687, on account of the hostilities then
being waged between the Company and the Mughal Emperor, only a
limited trade with Persia could be done; but various kinds of gums were
procured, and it was reported that English cloths, if they were of the
proper colours and qualities, might be disposed of to the amount of 1,000
half-pieces annually ; from the fact that Armenians brought cloth from
Turkey and exchanged it for silk the inference was drawn that silk could
be most advantageously obtained by barter for cloth. In 1688 opera
tions in Persia continued to be impeded by the Mughal war, and in
1689 the difficulties of the situation were increased by the appearance of
an English pirate vessel in the Persian Gulf itself; but in 1690 the
trade to the Gulf suffered less from the war than might have been
expected, arrangements were made to barter English cloth for silk and
Kirman wool and to obtain wormseeds, rhubarb and lapis lazuli, and
surplus stocks were ordered to be reshipped to India.
The Company were at this time much impressed by the skill and
success of the Armenians as merchants, both in India and Persia; and
they attempted, by allowing the Armenians to send their goods to
Europe in the Company's ships from Bombay in 1689 and Bandar
'Abbas in 1690, to induce them to throw in their lot, commercially,
with the English; in Persia, however, the strong existing interest of
the Armenians in the trade vid Turkey was a serious obstacle to the
scheme, though this was not at first realised. In 1691 the Company
proposed to enter into competition in broad-cloth with the Turkey
Company, who exported it to Persia by Aleppo, paying customs from
which the East India Company at Bandar 'Abbas were exempt; and the
Company s servants hoped to be able to push the sale of this article
through their supposed natural allies the Armenians. In 1698, the year
in which the East India Company were first required to export a large
quantity of English home manufactures, the Turkey Company's consign