'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎471] (530/714)

INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS
471
all that Iran held most dear. It was at once expiated by the dismissal
of the guilty editor, and b3 T the suppression of the offending organ.
The number from which I have quoted remains a unique curiosity
in the annals of journalism. The same minister established a
military magazine at Teheran ; but its existence was limited to
seventeen or eighteen numbers.
In 1885 a more orderly and semi-official paper was started in
the French language, entitled the ' Echo de la Perse.' It has since
■ceased to exist. A journal was also published for a short time at
Tabriz, but soon expired. The Royal College further undertook for
a while the publication of a scientific journal; but this, too, is
defunct. There have been other journalistic attempts, whose
epitaph required to be even sooner written.
Such is a brief record of the history and present condition of
the press in Persia. How far it entitles either its promulgators or
its patrons to the praise of enlightenment, every reader can judge
for himself. Anyhow, no alarm need as yet be felt, even by the
most tender susceptibilities, about the creation of a fourth estate in
the dominions of the Shah.
It may be imagined that in a country possessing the habits and
instincts that I have described, the currency has at all times pre-
The sented a fine field of operation for the devices of sovereigns,
coinage governors, and ministers, and that any approach either to
science of management or stability of value has been couspicuous
by its absence. The fluctuations in the value of the monetary unit
have been enormous, and at the time of my visit had touched
almost as low a point as has ever been reached. In Tavernier's
time, in the middle of the seventeenth century, a toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. was equal
to fifteen French crowns or forty-six livres (a livre was about l.s. GcL).
Chardin, a little later, under Shah Suleiman, gave the value of the
toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. as from forty-five to fifty livres, or ol. 10s. in English
money. Early in the following century Krusinski returned its
value as sixty livres or twenty crowns. Then came the overthrow
of the Sefavi dynasty, the invasion of the Afghans, the reign of
Nadir Shah, and the general anarchy and dislocation consequent
upon his death. At the beginning of this century, when security
had been re-established under the Kajar dynasty, Malcolm gave
the value of the toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. as 11. Between 1820 and 1830 Eraser
valued it at lis. Since then the value has fluctuated, but with a
general inclination to fall. In 1874 the toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. was worth ten francs
r