Travels in India (Tavernier) 160.2.6

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.