'Mesopotamia' [‎56v] (112/152)

102
ECONOMIC CONDITION'S
[No. 96
ing, for it was of the nature of a duel between the
commercial methods of the two countries, since England
for more than a hundred years had had a practical
monopoly of the sea-borne trade ot Mesopotamia.
Germany's interest in the commercial development
of Turkey dates back as far as 1888, when M. Kaulla,
acting oil behalf of the Wiirttembcrgische Vereins-
bank and the Deutsche Bank, obtained the concession
over the railway from Haidar- Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to Ismidt with
the right to extend it to Angora (300 miles), ihis was
the beginning of a process which culminated in 1903
in the grant to German interests of the Baghdad Rail
way Concession. So far as Mesopotamia was con
cerned, however, it was not till 1906 that German
activities made themselves seriously felt. At that time
European trade with Mesopotamia and the Persian
Gulf was carried almost entirely in British bottoms.
The Consular returns show that, excluding lurkish
sailing vessels, out of the 233 vessels from European
waters which entered Basra in 1904 and 308 in 190.3,
vessels living the British flag numbered 210 and 2^3
respectively, the majority of the remainder being
French.
In April 1906 the Hamburg-Amerika Steamship
Company announced its intention of running a service
between Europe and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . At that date
German trade with Basra was worth annually about
£145,000, as against British and Indian trade of a
value of about £3,000,000. The first steamer arrived
in the Gulf in August, 1906, and at the same time an
agent was installed at Bushire. The first noticeable
effect was the shipment-of Belgian sugar from Ant
werp by the Hamburg-Amerika line at a freight rate
of 20s, per ton. Tn consequence the British lines,
which had previously charged 37 .9, per ton of 15 cwt.,
had to reduce their rate.
Partly owing to the regularity of their sailings, the
German line began to attract trade from the British
almost at once, and it was stated in 1907 that though
the outward trade was run at a loss the Germans were