"دليل كرمانشاه." [ظ‎‎١‎٢‎٢] (٥٠٤/٢٤٩)

154
Mr. Presce in 1899* wrote:
neighbourhood is agriculture.
« The great industry o£ Kermanshah and it§
u 10 The people are chiefly employed in tilling
their fields. Wheat and barley used to be found in great abundance and
also extraordinarily cheap; as for instance, in 1875 wheat was at 8 krans
a kharvar (about 7s. a tout), but it went up to 25 krans (1£ s. .) a on
in 1885, and in 1897, when I was at Kermanshah, it was at^oO krans and
even then it was cheaper than elsewhere in Persia. The winter or 1
98 was a very dry one, and a general failure of the grain crop?, was t m
result, so that during the year there has been great scarcity, and m conse
quence, the price of grain rose to 125 krans a kharvar. r lhe total output
for the province, in a normal year, may be taken at 180,000 k bar vans
(80,000 tonsj), after supplying the needs of a population of about 850,000
souls/'
Mr. H. J. Whigham, in his article of July 11, 1902, in the “ Morning
Post," tells us that Kermanshah has been peculiarly favoured by nature
in many ways. ...... It stands in the very centre of the
richest grain country of Persia, and, perhaps, of the whole East, for the
simple reason, that among the mountains of Kmrdistan, the winter snows
and spring rains are so plentifidj as to preclude in most years the necessity of
irrination, which is a sin6 qua non in most parts of Mesopotamia, and
Persia. At the same time, the mountains are not a hindrance to agiicuituie,
because they form well defined ridges, between which the valleys aie broad,
level and exceedingly fertile. Where nature has been so liberal, man has
done nothing to reap the benefit, and communications are so deficient in
Persia, that it is impossible to get an abundance of grain, even to the com
paratively local markets of Teheran on the one hand, and of Bagdad on the
other. When I was in Kermanshah, the prospects of the coming harvest
were so good, that wheat was actually selling for 8 krans a kharvar
and barley for 10 krams. A kran is at present worth about
and a kharvar is equal to 650 lbs. A simple calculation, therefore,
will show that the price of wheat was a little over 7d. per cwt., and of
barley just 9r/. per cwt. These figures are not unique, though they
are certainly unusually low. At the same time the prices in Bagdad, only
220 miles away, were six times as great. At Sultanabad I found already a
considerable difference, wheat fetching about 25. per cwt., while at
Teheran the price was multiplied twelve times, that is to say, wheat and
barley were standing at 12 tomans a kharvar (95. a cwt.).
“ Though Teheran is but 330 miles from Kermansbab, it cost at least twelve
times what the grain is worth on the spot,do transport it over that distance;
for which a railway freight could not be more than Id. a cwt., or the
equivalent of the local price, and might easily be a good deal less. It is
not difficult, therefore, to understand that during the great famine in
Teheran, when wheat had to be imported from Russia at enormous cost,
the grain was actually lying rotting in the fields of Kurdistan. To add
to the absurdity of the situation an embargo has been placed on the export
of cereals, so that up to last year the Kermanshah farmers might not send
* Diplomatic and Consular Report No. 2260, Isfahan and District, 1897-99.
t But in 1875 1£ was worth 27 krans, consequently, if 1£. = 27 krans, and8krans = l
kharvar, and 1 kharvar = 650 lbs. and 2,240 lbs. = l ton, 1 ton = l£. Os. 5d.
X 180,000 kharvars = 62,100 tons, not 80,000 tons. The unity of weight in Kcnnaushah i#
the Mann Tabrizi; consequently, 1 kharvar ** هذه التواريخ تقريبية 649 lbs.
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