Travels in India (Tavernier) 160.2
Travels in India (Ball) 160.2
- Language
- English
160.2.1
It was the year that the Chamber General was held there, for it is held for four years in sequence at Amsterdam, and two years at Middelburg. The reason of which is, that Amsterdam owns half the Company; Middelburg a quarter; and Rotterdam, Delft, Horne, and Encuse each a sixteenth; the Company not being bound to hold the Chamber in either of these four last, which only make up one-fourth, and have only the right to have a vessel each year between the four, one year at Rotterdam, one year at Delft, and similarly the others. For the same reason Amsterdam has eight Directors, Middelburg four, and the other four towns each his own one; this makes the number sixteen, though they always speak of seventeen Directors, because the President has two votes.
160.2.2
On the fourth day of my arrival at Middelburg I went to the India House, where I found two of the Directors, who were already engaged in delivering the chests to those to whom they belonged, and as soon as they saw me they told me to claim mine; this I did, at the same time handing them the keys of my boxes, so that they might see for themselves whether I carried anything which was contraband. Of these two gentlemen one was from Zealand, and the other from Horne, and the latter took the keys to open my boxes. But the Zealand Director, more civil than he of North Holland, told him I was free, that I was not subject to the Company, and that it had afforded me a free passage. My keys were at once returned to me, and one of the people of the store was ordered to summon some sledges, which are used in Holland instead of waggons, in order to convey my chests. I may say in passing, that it is not only on this occasion that I have remarked that the more one approaches the north the less one meets with civility and honesty among the inhabitants, and that manners follow the harshness and roughness of the climate. The very same evening the Directors did me the honour to send one of their officers to invite me to dine with them on the following day.
160.2.3
Many persons interested in the Company were at the repast, and I believe that they were there less for the good cheer than to hear me talk, thinking that I might know many things in regard to the private trade which the representatives of the Company engage in, in India. They were not mistaken; and I may say that no one could be better informed than I was of the methods which these agents, who have the management of the factories in Persia and India, practise in order to enrich themselves. For they never return to Holland empty-handed, and when they take but 100,000 or 150,000 florins they count it a poor thing. I have known many of them who have amassed up to 600,000 and 700,000 florins; as, for instance, among others the Sieur Nicolas Obrechit, who was chief of the Dutch factories both at Ispahan and Hormuz and other places in Persia, during the years from 1635 to 1640. Those who were his friends and had done trade with him estimated that he carried away more than 15,000 tomans, which are equal to about 690,000 livres, without estimating what he had expended on the gout with which he was afflicted, and the other ailments which oftener arise from relationships with the courtesans of Persia, than from the trouble expended in packing silk, weighing it, examining its quality, and seeing whether it has any bad skeins mixed with the good. The Sieur Obrecht was well able to spend freely, for his profits were large, but such as are rarely permitted or approved of by honest people.
160.2.4
All the spices, sugar, and other goods of the Company are sold wholesale, generally at Hormuz or Gombroon, and amount in value, annually, to 15 or 16 tonnes of gold, each tonne being equal to 100,000 guilders, which are equivalent in our money to 120,000 livres, and the 16 tonnes of gold to 1,920,000 livres. The Sieur Obrecht did not sell all these goods without receiving annually for himself, 80,000 or 100,000 guilders, which the Persian merchants presented to him, underhand, through the broker, so that he might allow the goods to be sold at a low price. But he was not the inventor of this fine means of enriching himself, others practised it before him, and since his time others have employed it, especially the Sieurs Constant and Van Wijk. Moreover, there is also the profit that these gentry make on silk. It is true that for some years past the Company has not esteemed Persian silk so highly as it did formerly, because it has not so great a sale in Japan as it would have had if the trade had continued as it was in the years 1636 and 1637. All the chiefs of the factory who succeeded Obrecht could (not?) have made as much as he did; for in the two above-named years silk was dear in Japan, because the people of China and Tonquin being then at war with the Dutch, the latter prevented them from trading with Japan; and the Chinese and Tonquinese could not obtain silk except through the hands of the Dutch.
160.2.5
Whatever it may cost they must have it to clothe themselves with, as they use no other materials for their garments. It was in these two years, 1636 and 1637, that the Obrechit filled his purse; for instead of 500 or 600 bales of silk, which is the most they receive from the King of Persia, the General of Batavia and his Council wrote to him that whatever the price he must send them 2000 loads. I have alluded, in the first volume of my history, to the agreement made between the King of Persia and the Dutch Company; and I have also made mention, in connection with this subject, of the small success of the negotiation of the Ambassadors of Holstein, of which the Secretary of that embassy has without doubt not boasted in the account which he has given to the public. Therefore, for fear of wearying the reader, I shall not repeat it here, and I shall only ask him to remember that the arrival of these Ambassadors, which caused apprehension and jealousy among the Dutch, was the cause that the latter raised the price of silk so much that they removed all desire in other nations to outbid them. Thus Obrechit, having then received an order from Batavia for 2000 loads of silk, irrespective of cost, and this quantity being all that Persia could supply, as he was shrewd and loved profit beyond all things, he succeeded so well in intriguing with the Armenians and other merchants in Persia that he obtained the 2000 loads of silk which had been ordered.
160.2.6
It is true that beyond the 500 or 600 loads which the Dutch receive from the King, according to the agreement made between his Majesty and the Company, Obrechit was obliged to pay at a high rate for the others ; and he bought them from the Armenians, who sold them to him at the same rate as those they had sold to Aleppo and Smyrna. During these two years there was not a single load of silk for which he did not place 4 tomans in his purse, and he said some loads cost him 60 tomans. It was represented to him that it would be better not to send so large a quantity of silk, as it was so dear, and that the merchants of the country, both Christians and Muhammadans, were laughing at him ; but he only replied that he must obey the Company’s order. One day when I was alone with him we were talking together about my travels, and he told me how astonished he was, seeing that I understood the greater part of the trade of Asia, that I took so much trouble in my long journeys ; that I should do much better by serving the Company, and that if I wished he would send me to the diamond mines on its account ; but I believe it would have been on his own. When I had thanked him for his goodwill, and told him I had no such intention, he replied that I did not know what I was refusing, that I would derive great profit, and that in his factory, with a scratch of the pen, or by changing a figure, he obtained what he wished.
160.2.7
I replied to him that on three or four occasions my horoscope had been cast, and on all occasions it had been agreed that I should live to a good age ; and so, if I was able to acquire wealth, I desired to acquire it honestly and by my labour, as God had ordained for me, in order to be able to possess it with greater security and comfort to my soul for the remainder of my days, and that my heirs might enjoy it peaceably. If we were not to act in this way, replied he, we should be miserable ; for the wages the Company gives us would not suffice to clothe us. On my return from one of my voyages I went to see him at a village bearing his name, situated one league from the Hague. I saw him ill in bed, and suffering from several diseases, and I believe that he often then recalled to mind what I had said to him at Ispahan.