'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎42r] (88/616)

THE FIRST RUSSIAN LOAN
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leanings, fell into disgrace, and the Atabeg-Azam
became once more Prime Minister in his stead under
the powerful patronage of Russia.
On the model of the Russo-Chinese Bank, and
destined to become quite as undisguisedly a branch of
the Russian State Bank under the immediate control of
the Ministry of Finance at St. Petersburg, a Russian
bank—the Banque des Prets, now called the Banque
d'Escompte de Perse—had been opened at Teheran,
and through its agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. Russia, who had in the mean
time rejected a suggestion for a joint Anglo-Russian
loan to Persia, agreed in 1900 to give the Persian
Government a loan of ^2,400,000, represented by
bonds guaranteed by the Russian Government and
bearing interest at 5 per cent., with a sinking fund—
capital and interest secured on the revenue of the
Persian Customs generally, with the exception of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ports. Whilst the Russians waived,
except in the event of default, the right of control over
the Customs upon which the British negotiators had
insisted, they made it a condition that the proceeds of
the new loan should be devoted, in the first instance, to
the repayment of the balance of the British loan con
tracted in 1892 to provide compensation for the with
drawal of the ill-starred tobacco monopoly, and to
redeeming the indebtedness of the Persian Treasury to
the only two foreign banks in Teheran—the Imperial
Bank of Persia, a British institution, and the Inter
national Bank of Commerce of Moscow, a private
Russian firm, which could not attempt to compete with
M. Witte's Bank. Further stipulations provided that
Persia should contract no financial obligations in the
shape of a new loan from any foreign power for a
period of ten years, and also that she should not