Агопджан де Деричан
HAGOPDJAN DE DERITCHAN
Акопджян
HAGOPDJAN DE DERITCHAN
Consul de Perse а Marseille (1715-1728)
Hagopdjan de Deritchan, a wealthy Armenian merchant from Persia, was chosen to go to France with the Persian ambassador who was to conclud with Louis XIV the first franco-persian Treaty (1715), which essentially had a commercial purpose. At the end of the negotiation, he was appointed as the Persian consul in Marseilles with the main purpose to promote the importation in the Mediterranean port of the goods of Persia whose monopoly was in Armenian hands. His task was made difficult by the fact that the treaty was not ratified by Chah Hussein until 1722, and that Persia sank then in anarchy at the time. The consul had only a paltry pension from the king of France to live on and a housing provided by the Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles. Theses conditions considerably limited his means of action. He often had to deal with the Chamber of Commerce to ensure the enforcement of the special fiscal privileges the Persian ones were entitled to. He died in 1728 in poverty and loneliness.
