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treatnment in futu‫ﺝ‬I‫' ﻷ‬Te na٧al pass payment as certainly resented by the free
Arab rovers especially as the praclice had stopped after the defeat of the portuguese
early in the seventeenth centur.y Arabs also resented the exemption given to their
competitors from the east coast of lndia and to ships belonging to the Basha and his
subjecst in Bas, 2

The question of piracy is complicated by the private rading intrests of the
company's servants in persia ho frequently distorted information supplied to the
presidency in Bombay and the Board in London. The limited trade the servants
enjoyed in persia, hich e ill discuss in the folloing part, as highly sensitive to
the diversion of ships from Gombroon to other seaports. Beteen 129 and 1s, out
of fourteen ships hich visited the loer parts of the Gulf from India, seven sailed
directly or indirectly to Basidore and to to Buslhehr. Though the value that
discharged by these ships as a third of the value that discharged at Gombroon,
neverthelesg, ‫ ﻝ‬shipping to Haalla ports ithout touching at Gombroon caused not
only a reduction in trade but a reduction in shipping availability. The svccess from
Bengal in 12 nloaded about half of its cargo at Basidore and in the folloing year
she rtaded directly to Basidor ithout touching at Gombroo,22 I٤ appears that ihts
direct rtade interferred ith the private trading of the servants, ho boug‫ﻫ‬t goods
rfom supercargoes rfom India and shipped them to Basidore for sale Hence,
hehter or not the servants managed to smuggle their goods through Gombroon
along iht the company's goods, they faced paying one percent customs duyt at
Basidore, the cosst of the trip and the supercargoes profit. In order ords, the
Gombroon servanst ere finding it increasingly dififcult to compete facing sitffened
compeititon at Arab ports.

In 14, hen hte ship Galatea as chartered by Armenian merchants rfom fort
St. George dircet to Bander angun and then to Bushehr the cihef at Gombroon
exaggeratedly complained that they had 'lost face' ith persian offieialg24 Though
the ship as English, it as chartered by indigenous merchants ho insisted on
trading ith those to ports because they ould enjoy the full benefit of the voyage
and pay customs at only 1% as agaisnt 8% at Gombroon. The ufrore raised by the
servants at Gombroon forced the merchanst to pay Gombroon consulage and led the
Board in oLndon to issue an order advising ships rfom the east cost of lndia not to
rtade ith ports in the Gulf other than Gombroon and Basra. Within a yea,r hoever,
they rote that :

"We nere had the least intention to prohibit your ships resot to such ports in the
Gulf of presia as you judge the most beneficial, and our serants on the Bomny
side ere told as much last year, e added ith all, that such a prohibition ould
be a great hardship, but e must say, that as our protection is ejoyed, such
deiation rfom the old p‫ﺑ‬rt of resort Gombroon, should not deprie as of the
customs hich otherise ould occu,r and therefore on paying the sane into our
acsh up‫ﺑ‬n the fair sales ...

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