820 THE SIEUR OBRECHIT book iii
were
not mistaken ; and I may say that no one could be better informed than
I was of the methods of these agents, who have the management of the
factories in Persia and India, 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,1 who was chief of
the Dutch factories both at Ispahan and Hormuz and other places in
Persia, during the years from 1635 to 1640. His friends and those who
had done business with him estimated that he carried away more than
15,000 tomans, which are equal to about 690,000 livres,2
without estimating what he had expended on the gout with which he was
afflicted, and the other ailments which more often 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
Obrechit was well able to spend freely, for his profits were large, but
such as are rarely permitted or approved of by honest people. All the
spices, sugar, and other goods of the Company are sold wholesale,
generally at Hormuz or Gombroon, and amount in value, annually, to 15
or 16 tonnes of gold, each tonne being equal to 100,000 guilders, which
are equivalent in our money to 120,000 livres, and the 16 tonnes of
gold to 1,920,000 livres. The Sieur Obrechit did not sell all these
goods without receiving annually for himself, 80,000 or 100,000
guilders,3 which the Persian merchants presented to him,
underhand, through the broker, so that he might allow the goods to be
sold at a low price. But he was not the inventor of this fine means of
enriching himself, others practised it before him,
1
The correct name of this official, as Sir W. Foster points out, was
Nicolaas Overschie, President der Commissarissen van Huwelykze- en
Kleine Zaken in 1741 at Batavia, after which year he disappears.
2 Equal to £51,750. "
3 Taking the Dutch guilder or florin at 1s. 9 1/2 d. (vol.
i, p. 328) the value of the tonne would be about £9,000. Perhaps the
guilder ought to be a fraction more, but it is important to have here
independent testimony that the livre as understood by Tavernier was
about Is. 6rf.— the proportion being 5 guilders = 6 livres, or 9«.
