Travels in India (Tavernier) 160.2.3

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.