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 completed by which the Shah contracted to deliver to the English from 1,000 to 3,000 bales of silk annually, at a price of from 6s. to 6s. 6d. per pound.
The curious blending of regality and commercial enterprise 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 English 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 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 Gulf.
