"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٢‎٦] (١٧٨٢/١٣٨١)

Financial
relations of
the Turkish
Government
with the
East India
Company,
arising out
of the fourth
Anglo-Turk
ish expedition
against the
Ka'ab, 1766-
71.
1226
tubs ; but the Court of Directors, on coming to know of what hadjbeen
done, disapproved of the action of the Bombay Government; and on the
23rd of November 1766 Mr. Morley was recalled from Baghdad.
The course of the expedition against the Ka'ab tribe undertaken by
the Turks in 1766 in alliance with the East India Company is fully
described in the history of the 'Arabistan province, which was the scene
of the active operations; but the financial arrangements between the
allies may be noticed, more appropriately, in the present place. The
help of the Company was in the beginning gratuitous; but so tardy were
the preparations of the Turks for the joint campaign that the representa
tives of the Company, towards the end of May, found it necessary to insist
that, if the British naval and military forces were detained beyond the
end of June, their expenses should be defrayed by the Turkish authorities
and, this condition having been accepted by the Pasha of Baghdad, a
subsidy of 1,000 Tumans a month during the continuance of the
expedition was arranged. This allowance was evidently payable in
advance, for the Pasha s Kehiyah, Muhammad or Mahmud, on arriving
from Baghdad towards the end of June to take command of the Turkish
troops, immediately gave the British Agent an order for 600 Tumans,
on account, which was duly honoured at the Basrah custom house. The
Turkish instalments, however, soon ceased to be paid with regularity.
In August, 32(J Tumans in cash and an assignment of dates due to the
Turkish Government, for which a purchaser at 1,080 Tumans was found,
were obtained from the Kehiyah, but only by strong pressure; and on the
2nd of February 1768 the balance due to the Company was 11,718
Tumans, less the value of a quantity of dates made over to them by the
lurks, of which they had been able to dispose at the rate of three Tumans
per laige Kareh. Already the Mutasallim of Basrah had begun to hint
that enough had been paid to the British for the services of their fleet,
and the Agent in reply to threaten that he would send it away, leaving
Basrah unpiotected, an argument which seems to have prevailed over
the objections of the Mutasallim, inasmuch as, by October 1768, the
liabilities of the Turkish Government had been reduced to 2,050 Tumans.
Difficulties, as we shall see hereafter, arose in 1769; and no further
reduction had been effected up to the end of August 1771. It appears
that a portion of the sum recovered was derived from the Turkish
customs of Basrah, of which half was at one time assigned to the British
for the purpose by Sulaiman Agha during his Deputy-Governorship.
The conduct of Sulaiman Agha, however, was not always
satisfactory; and in June 1769 Mr. Moore, the British Agent at Basrah