[259] Despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, June 12, 1704.
[260] Or in money of to-day, 880,000 francs (35,200l.) There used to be purses of silver and purses of gold, the latter much the less common and worth 6,750l. sterling, or 148,500 livres (francs). There can be no question that purses of gold are not referred to, since four hundred of these would amount to an exorbitant sum, beyond the resources of the richest Armenians. Moreover, when the word purse is used alone, it is to be understood in the sense of purse of silver:—Encyclopédie des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers, vol. x. p. 655; Edition of 1765. According to the Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, vol i. p. 191, note S, the purse was worth 500 piastres. This piastre not being an imitation of the Spanish piastre, but a piece of money peculiar to Turkey, which in 1753 was worth 4fr. 40 c.; we thus get for the 400 purses, the sum collected by the Armenians, and mentioned in the despatch, the figure of 880,000 francs.
[261] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, December 16, 1704:—Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 41.
[262] Ibid.
[263] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, of December 16, 1704:—Ibid.
[264] Letters from Ferriol to Louis XIV. and to Cardinal de Janson.
[265] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 41.
[266] Letter from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, December 17, 1705.
[267] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 41.
[268] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Cardinal de Janson, September 16, 1705.