"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٦‎٨] (١٧٨٢/٣١١)

168
m
iiecommenda-
tions as
regards estab
lishments.
In regard to methods of trade, they proposed that in future the absolute
rule against allowing credit to native customers, as also that against
bartering goods for goods, should be relaxed, and that the Company's
servants in the Gulf should instead be invested with a certain discretion
in regard to both matters. By this means it would be possible to secure
orders from reliable merchants, who could not afford to pay immediately
in cash in the great scarcity of specie that prevailed. With respect to
the consulage of 2 per cent, collected at Bushehr and Basrah, which was
formerly divided between the local Resident and the (rovernor of Bombay,
but of which half had since 1784 been credited to the Company's own
receipts, they suggested an important modification. Consulage had
hitherto been levied only on the goods of British merchants trading to
the Gulf, and since 1780 the number of these had become greatly reduced,
with the result that the consulage revenue had suffered diminution;
and Messrs. Manesty and Jones advised that the Armenian and Muham-
madan merchants residing in the Company''s settlements in India, by
whom the greater part of the trade under the Britisn flag was carried
on in vessels commanded and officerel by Englishmen, should be
made liable to consulage. They pointed out that the imports at Basrah
and Bushehr from ships under British colours had been worth nearly 20
lakhs of rupees in 1787, and that therefore, especially if peace were to
revive trade, the Company might derive substantial advantage from the
extended consulage.
The report of 1790 also suggested several changes in the Company s
official establishments. The Kesident at Bushehr, it was recommended,
should in future be Resident in Persia " with liberty to establish himself
either at Bushehr or at Shiraz, the capital of the country; a riter should
be given him to carry on routine duties at Bushehr ; and a surgeon skilled
in drugs should be posted to ^ 3 Residency as an adviser in the drug
trade. A British Faocory should be established at Masqat, if possible,
as it was a trade centre of the highest importance and an excellent place
at which to study the commerce of the whole Persian Gulf. A formerly
existing Factory in Sind should be reinstituted, and a travelling servant
should be attached to it, whose duty it would be to visit Multan and, if
necessary, Qandahar : this recommendation had reference to a tradt
from Masqat to Afghanistan by way of the Indus valley which had
recently been opened up with some success by Bushehr merchants, and
the articles proposed for experiment were woollens and metals. A
servant, from Bombay, it was also advised, should be sent to Persia to study
at first hand the exportable products and the requirements in imported
goods of all the provinces of the country, and to report fully thereon.