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It would give them too complete command of the Commerce, & they would be able to place
every trust in the friendship of Nations who could not become Enemies without sacrificing
the Trade on which their prosperity depended. But to mako this important effect which
would bo the immediate consequence of such an establishment more clear, I shall proceed
to examine it ns it relates separately to each of the States concerned.
61. To begin with Persia I havo not a moment’s hesitation in affirming my belief that
the instant an English Settlement of strength was formed, every Merchant of that country,
that trades with India would either settle himself, or keep an Agent with the Chief part of
his proporty at it. They all have the fullest confidence in the protection which the Company’s
Government affords to Persons & property. None of them have any in that of their own.
At Muscat they are not without apprehension, the security of that Port depending on the life
& characters of individual Princes could never long rival a settlement of equal or more
consequence under the'Stable Govcrnmt. of the Hon’ble Company.
62. Should the principal Merchants of Persia be settled themselves, or have most of their
concerns at such a Port, the consequence would be their using every endeavor to promote the
Commerce & friendship between the two Nations ; or in other words to forward their own
Interests, and their exertions would hardly fail of success, as the merchants in Persia who are
the only monied men in that Kingdom arc remarkable for the great political influence they
have maintained through all the changes & revolutions of their distracted Govern­
ment.
68. "When we join to this consideration that the Company would be enabled from such
a measure to stop at a moment the importation of any articles whatever from India to Persia
& to deprive the latter K ingdom not only of many of the luxuries, but also some of the neces­
saries of life (for such Sugar in particular has become) we may conclude that a certain reliance
might be placed upon the continuance of the Friendship of that Country, & if the English
Government could not oblige it to take an active part against its Enemies, whoever these might
be, there would be no fear of its ever joining or aiding them.
64. With respect to Bussorah and Baghdad these arguments arc still more forcible
because their Imports and Exports are larger, & they are more immediately dependant on the
Trade with India & the Bed Sea for their very existence. The intercepting of the Coffee
Fleet alone from the latter would occasion a distress in those Cities & neighbouring Turkey
Plant of which, X but one well acquainted with the excess to which that favourit
is used could form a conception.
66. The control which the Settlement proposed would give the English Government over
their Trade, is the best secured, that can be taken for the friendly behaviour of so weak &
unprincipled a Government as the Turkish, & it would probably induce the Bashan of
Baghdad, in the event of the interests of the Court of Great Britain & the Ottoman, Porte
ever being separated, to take a very determined line in favor of the former.
66. The Arabs of the Southern Shore of the Gulph are too contemptible to be Enemies, &
as they would meet a good mart for their Commerce, & their craft (as I will have occasion to
show hereafter) would have increased employment in the navigation of the Gulph they would
soon become the natural friends of the English Government.
67. Muscat would be the only State of which the future prosperity would be
affected by this arrangement, but the effects of this change would be too gradual to
draw the serious consideration of its ruler, who is more employed in devising means of
present advantage than informing plans for the future aggrandizement of his successors.
His own vessels, and those of his subjects would continue to carry on as extended a
commerce as before ; & should ho aid the English Government in the accomplishment
of this plan, which ho may perhaps have the power to do, an extended privilege of
exporting Rock Salt to Bengal, would fully remunerate any loss of duties that might
take place during his Reign. Ho is already pledged by Treaty to give his assent to the
Company’s building a Fort at Gombroon if thoy chuse and ho is too wiso to opposo any
design thoy may form of making an establishment in the Gulph, as he well knows his com-