_ 69 _ the Portuguese of Ormuz, although His Majesty received little profit from this commerce. Every year, these vassals of the Turk make two million of silver, in coins and in nuggets, in Ormuz without paying any import dues to the King, nor do they pay export duty on the goods they buy except on clothes, which is a revenue called corvios, which do not bring the King as much as five thousand cruzados in a year. If imports are due of five or so percent were paid on silver and money and export dues on all goods, the total would be more than one hundred and forty cruzados per year. This is profit to the subjects of the Turk, to whom commerce with Ormuz is prohibited by ancient decrees, and only Persian merchants may enter. The safe-conducts issued to them by the captains do not say that they are to go to Basra but to [Mahuz], which is a place on the coast of Persia in the kingdom of Lar, and to allow them to have this commerce with Basra, the Captains of Ormuz instituted a custom which they call permits for Basra, and for every thousand cruzados worth of goods they buy, they are obliged to buy one hundred’s worth from the factory at fifteen percent more than its value on land, and for every fardo of indigo and every quintal of cloves or any other drug they take, they pay the certain on leaving four hundred and fifty reis, which is one pardao of five larins.
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