[206] Life of Sir Dudley North, pp. 81-4; Finch to Coventry, Dec. 15-25, 1677; Jan. 19-29, 1678; the Same to the Levant Company, Jan. 19-29, 1678, Coventry Papers; Register, S.P. Levant Company, 145. Wherever there is any slight discrepancy between North’s and Finch’s accounts of this Avania, I have, for reasons which seem adequate to me, followed the latter.
[207] Baines to Conway, June 1-11, 1677, S.P. Turkey, 19.
CHAPTER XV
INTERLUDE
Despite his forebodings, Sir John during the year 1678 had no oppression to complain of.
Hussein Aga, whom our Ambassador considered, in point of influence with the Grand Vizir, to be the third man in the Empire, continued most friendly. He swore by his head that he would make the Pasha of Aleppo refund the sum he had extorted from our Factory, and, in the event of a new importation of specie by the English, he promised all possible favour. The first of these pledges could not be taken seriously: as a predecessor of Sir John’s had observed long ago, “Restitution of money was never yet procured from a Turk; his head more easily.”[208] But with regard to the second, the Customer proved as good as his word. A consignment of 30,000 dollars that reached Constantinople was, thanks to him, brought off for nothing; while a much larger sum (200,000 dollars) was landed at Smyrna for a trifle—2180 dollars: “as Times goe, no ill Bargain.” Nay, in another matter, the Customer proved even better than his word: though he threatened, in pursuance of his old policy, to raise the duty upon the finer cloth we now imported, “yet,” says our Ambassador, “I have brought Him to Acquiesce with those very duty’s I had ascertaind upon our Cloth by the New Capitulations I made; to the grief of heart of them who have reason to envy our Great and Vast Trade, because it Ruines Theirs.” In truth, both French and Dutch had cause to gnash their teeth. The rigour with which Hussein Aga treated them seemed to keep pace with the favour he showed to us: he made both pay for goods that came from Smyrna to Constantinople the difference between the duty levied at the former and the latter port, while he ostentatiously let our goods, once taxed at Smyrna, enter Constantinople scot free. This in addition to the preferential tariff we enjoyed under the New Capitulations. No wonder both the French Ambassador and the Dutch Resident struggled by might and money at the Porte to resist the intolerable tyranny of the Custom House. But nothing availed. They had “a hard head to deal with, and one whose obstinacy is powerfully backd’ at Court.” All they gained was Hussein Aga’s anger: irritated by these attempts to undermine his position, the Customer detained the French merchants’ cloth till they paid up, and let that of the Dutch rot in the Custom-House.[209]
What Frenchmen and Dutchmen thought of Hussein Aga’s partiality for the English may be imagined. But it is to be noted that neither our Ambassador’s despatches nor our Treasurer’s comments contain any hint that the motives which dictated the Customer’s attitude towards us were of a mercenary nature. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that he spared us because he liked us. Hussein and Dudley North were fast friends: they often dined together at each other’s houses, the Turk even partaking of the Giaour’s pork and getting drunk on his wine like a good Christian. From Finch, too, he had received more than once samples of his cellar, as well as other civilities.[210] That seems to have been the extent of his obligations to us; and he repaid us with interest.
Equally satisfactory was the attitude of some other Turkish grandees. By the new Bostanji-bashi, to whom Sir John paid a visit, he was received “with all possible demonstrations of respect and kindnesse,” while he was captivated by the affability of the new Capitan Pasha—a personage who by his place was the second man in the Empire, and by his intimacy with the Grand Vizir certainly the first. At the audience which he granted to the Ambassador he was very polite, and they had “many pleasant Reparty’s upon each other;” and what seemed more significant, he honoured the visitor with six vests. Now, as Kara Mustafa made a practice of vesting no man, and as the Capitan Pasha was Kara Mustafa’s prime favourite, Sir John could not but think “that this was done by the Visir’s Privity,” and drew therefrom the hope that maybe Kara Mustafa at last “Malis nostris mitescere discit.”
As regards the pretensions of the Pasha of Tunis also Sir John’s fears went off like other forebodings; and the emergency he apprehended from Narbrough’s operations did not arise: the Admiral managed to wage a successful war of reprisals against the Algerine pirates—seizing their ships and blockading their ports—without any infringement of the Sultan’s suzerain rights.