483 - 1896–1900.

1896–1900. MANUSCRIPT. (DOCUMENTS). [BASIL ZAHAROFF]. COLLECTION OF HANDWRITTEN AND TYPEWRITTEN LETTERS, TELEGRAMS, ETC., RELATED TO THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRAMWAY IN BARCELONA. A rare and extremely interesting collection of business letters concerning the project to build the tramway in Barcelona in the late 19th century. Many of the letters, written in English, were exchanged between Domingo Merry Delval (a diplomat based in London) and the American Alfred Parrish, an engineer and inventor living in Europe. Several letters from Mr. Merry Delval addressed to Parrish in which he outlines the progress of the negotiations in Barcelona with Messrs. Gorría and García Faría and the Secretary of Public Works, Griera. Among these typewritten letters is a handwritten one by Merry Delval himself, in which he complains to Alfred’s brother, Dilllwyn Parrish, about legal problems—apparently, a complaint had been filed regarding the intermediary services Delval had provided. But the most notable aspect of the collection is the involvement of Basil Zaharoff, who acted as an intermediary to ensure that the Parrish brothers’ business deal went through in Barcelona; to that end, in one of the letters, Basil himself acknowledges having paid a certain sum of money to Messrs. Gorría and G. Faría, with the aim of finalizing the contract; one of the receipts is included in the collection. Zaharoff’s letters are handwritten and typewritten, and in one of them he remarks about García F.: “Faria himself is not a bad fellow, but like all Catalans, he is greedy.” Perhaps he confused integrity with stinginess. Also included is a typewritten copy of the contract in English, with pencil corrections, and another handwritten copy of the same in Spanish. The contract concerns the sale to Basil Zaharoff of the project to build a tram line in Barcelona and the surrounding towns by García Faría and Gorría. The project was undergoing a competitive bidding process, so the contract stipulated that if it were ultimately not awarded...