Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 307

APRIL, 1930:
THE SCATTERGOODS AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
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Betty trading from Calcutta to Surat. The investments were made in “ Bulgar hides" (leather from Bolghar on the Volga), Persian carpets and "Agula wood " (eagle-wood, aloes-wood).
On 16 August 1706 John Scattergood married, at St. Mary's, Fort St. George, Arabella, widow of Francis Forbes, Company's servant in Surat (who died in 1704), and daughter of John Burniston, late Deputy-Governor of Bombay. On the death of the latter, in 1705, his widow, Carolina, removed to Madras with her family, and thus her son-in-law eventually became possessor of many interesting documents relating to the Forbes and Burniston families.
A few months after his marriage John Scattergood made another voyage to Persia and remained there for about a year, so that he was not present at the baptism of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, in June 1707. During his absence also, his mother, Elizabeth Trenchfield sailed for England, taking the rest of her family with her. By this date John Scattergood had become a merchant of considerable standing, carrying out sales of goods on behalf of various traders, Hindu and English. He had dealings with the Seths, the great commercial house at Calcutta, with members of Council in Madras and Bengal, with free merchants and their wives. The commodities disposed of at this period were chiefly cotton piece-goods of Bengal and the Coromandel Coast, which found a ready market in Persia.
Wherever he happened to be, John Scattergood at once mastered the intricacies of thecoinage of the place. Thus, on his arrival at Fort St. George, he made his entries in pagodas and fadams; at Calcutta he changed to rupees and annas, and in Persia his accounts were kept in mahmudis and shahis. There is a fine collection of the "Persia Accounts "in 1707-8, and from them we learn that Scattergood was at Gombroon in April 1707 and that in May he went to Isfahan with Peter Curgenven, a connection by marriage of Governor Thomas Pitt. Here he appears to have remained for several months, journeying back to Gombroon in February to May 1708.
On this occasion he kept a diary, the only one found among the Papers. The journal, although it covers no new ground, is nevertheless valuable for the following reasons. It is, so far as I have been able to ascertain, the only early eighteenth century account extant of such a journey. It contains full details of the prices of provisions and the rates of hire and wages of that period.
Of the seventeenth century travellers who have left their record of the road from Isfahan to Gombroon, only two, John Struys (in 1672) and Dr. John Fryer (in 1678), followed the same route as Scattergood, who travelled from Yezdikhast to Shiraz, via Abadeh and Sivand, while Herbert in 1627, Jean de Thevenot in 1665, Tavernier in 1666, as well as Fryer in an earlier journey in 1677, all followed the more frequented route by Deh-i-Kurd and Kushk-i-Zard.
Fryer's journeys have been ably edited by Dr. Wm. Crooke for the Hakluyt Society and his notes have been of great assistance in the identification of Scattergood's place names.
It is worthy of remark that all six travellers started either from Isfahan or Gombroon in January or February, Fryer alone undertaking similar journeys at different seasons, viz., in June-August 1677 and April-July of 1678.
The journal itself is that of an unromantio business man. There are no vivid descriptions of scenery, no pen-paintings of the persons encountered or of the dangers escaped. There is only a sober record of the events of each day, with comments on the excellence, or otherwise, of the inns at the various halting places, and minute entries of the expenses incurred.
It has been thought best to give the Diary before tbe Gombroon to Isfahan Aocounts so that the complete expense of the journey can be appreciated at once. But before printing the journal a short historical note on the Persia of Scattergood's day is needful.
Persia was then under the Safavi ("Great Sophie") Dynasty, which was drawing to its close. Founded by the great Shah Isma'il (1499-1524), who made Tabriz his capital, it was oarried on with much magnificence and some skill by his immediate successor, Shah Tahmasp (1524-1578), on whose death succeeded twenty years of anarchy, until another great Shah arose in the person of Shah 'Abbas I (1586-1628), reigning at Kazvîn and Isfahan, to keep the country in order. But Persia was unfortunate in bis three successors, Shah Soff, Shah Abbas