Page 245 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE ENGLISH IN THE PERSIAN GULF 245

wards told Connock that he was welcome, that the King of
England should be regarded as his elder brother, for he
dearly esteemed his friendship, and that he would grant
the English Jask, or any other port they might desire, with
full freedom of trade. Finally an arrangement was com­
pleted by which the Shah contracted to deliver to the Eng­
lish from 1,000 to 3,000 bales of silk annually, at a price of
from 65. to 65. 6<Z. per pound.
The curious blending of regality and commercial enter­
prise which is revealed in this transaction is typical of a
state of affairs that prevailed throughout a great part of
Asia at this period. In many countries the sovereign had
an absolute monopoly of the trade, and it was death to any
of their subjects to enter into independent commercial
relations with foreigners. The system was almost universal
in Further India and Indo-China, and though in India the
lordly Mogul did not deign to soil his hands with actual
trading operations, he was keenly alive, as we have seen,
to the importance of keeping a tight hand on all commercial
operations.
Shah Abbas’s readiness to grant concessions to the Eng­
lish was prompted far more by his hatred of the Portuguese
than by any genuine desire to assist Sir Robert Shirley’s
countrymen. Here, as elsewhere throughout the East, the
Lusitanian yoke galled terribly. With their mastery of the
sea, the Portuguese were able to set a rigid limit to Persian
trade from the Gulf ports. They used their power with such
ruthlessness that no vessel was able to enter or leave the
ports in the Shah’s territory without their licence. To all
i
intents and purposes the coastal territory of the Shah was
Portuguese, though they actually occupied only Ormuz
and one or two other places in the Guff.

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