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'Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1877-78.' [‎258v] (62/165)

The record is made up of 1 volume (81 folios). It was created in 1878. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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40 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL RESIDENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India.
Four of these in most ordinary use
have special names, the “ Has” or head,
the “ Batan” or stomach, the “ Dzel ”
or tail, and the “Tir-i-Dzel” or under
the tail. These are shown in the table.
They are bought at so much per“chao” down to a certain size
from the divers, when they are then
sold en masse at so much per
“miscal.” There are 330 chao in a
miscal,* and the Arab chao is equal to
four Hindustani chaos. The best
weights are shaped in agate, which is not so liable to alter as are those
made of metal. The usual form of sale is by packets, and pearls of a
particular size being chosen out, the value of the rest of the packet will
be depreciated. A merchant would therefore insist upon a higher price
of pearls so chosen; in fact for picked and single pearls the purchaser
must be content to pay a fancy price. There are such a number of con
siderations that influence the sale of pearls that anything more than an
approximation to the market value cannot be given, and this changes
yearly.
42. In the last 25 years the price of pearls, as has been above said,
The increased value of a “chao” by has increased 50 per cent. The value
alteration of the Gulf standard may be of every coin in use has also fluctuated
in some measure the cause of this im- considerably, and lastly, the weights
pression. E. C. R. themselves change in value most
enormously both in relation to Indian weights and in relation to each
other. This uncertainty increases the opportunities of cheating.
After a vain attempt of several days I have had to give up all
It appears that the merchants them- attempts to understand these fluctuations
selves have to entertain skilled book- of every sort, both of weights, coins, and
keepers, without whose assistance they value of pearls; the Arab merchants
themselves wou d t at sea. cannot explain them themselves, nor are
the data they tender on all these subjects in accordance. In fact the
conclusion I arrive at is that pearl-dealing cannot be reduced to an
exact science.
43. The last point that must be touched upon is that of the yearly
export and its value, and here we are terribly at fault—partly from the
impossibility of obtaining correct returns from the various rulers and the
Custom Houses, and partly from the fact that a Native merchant's con
science is not very tender in such a small matter as the declaration of the
value of his merchandize when taking out a bill of lading A document confirming the goods which a ship has received. for present
ation in India. In point of fact, it is well known that pearls are under
valued as a matter of course.
Colonel Pelly put down the total export in 1865 at £400,000, or say
40 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , and this has been since accepted as an approximately correct
figure.
In 1856 a report was published on the navigation of the Gulf by
. Captain Brucks in which the export of
Bombay Records, XXIV of 1856. pearls from Bahrein alone, in 1S24, as
stated by the Company's broker Often a local commercial agent in the Gulf who regularly performed duties of intelligence gathering and political representation. and the Shaikh’s Vizier, was put down
at 1,600,000 German Crowns or Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. 32,00,000, or £320,000, of
course the values Irave changed since then, but for comparison these
fimires will do.
O
* Six grains, English.

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Content

Administration report of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Muscat Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for 1877-78, published by Authority at the Foreign Department Press, Calcutta [Kolkata], 1878. The report is based on reports sent by the Officiating Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Charles Ross) and the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Muscat (Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles) to the Government of India. The report is preceded by a copy of a letter sent by Ross to Alfred Comyn Lyall, Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, dated 8 July 1878, which enclosed the submission of the original reports.

The report is organised in a number of sections and subsections, as follows:

Part I: General Report, signed by Ross, and arranged under subheadings as follows: Oman; Arab Coast; Bahrein [Bahrain]; Nejd [Najd]; Province of Fars and the Persian Coast and Islands; Bushire; Coast from Bushire to Lingah [Bandar Lengeh]; Lingah; Bunder Abbass [Bandar Abbas]; Persian-Baloochistan [Baluchistan] Coast; Bassidore [Bāsaʻīdū]; Establishments; Slave-Trade; Appendices (including meteorological tables, notes on the Kara Aghach River by Dr Friedrich Carl Andreas*, the route from Bushire to Lar and Shiraz, and the route from Lar to Shiraz, the Persian Post Office and Foreign Postage, and tables of Persian money and measurements).

Part II: Report on trade of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. for the year 1877, signed by Ross and arranged under subheadings, as follows: Effects of late war on the trade; Steam communication; Grain harvest; Scarcity of coin; Opium; Pearl fisheries; Impediments to development of trade in Persia; and appendices (including notes on the pearling industry by Captain Edward Law Durand, notes on date palm cultivation by James Charles Edwards, and 31 tables of trade statistics covering imports/exports from/to the various ports and settlements of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and between the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and India).

Part III: Administration report of the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Muscat, for the year 1877-78, prepared by Miles and arranged under the following subheadings: Political; Official changes; Slave Traffic.

Part IV: Trade statistics for Muscat, prepared by Miles, and comprising of six tables covering imports, exports, and number and tonnage of vessels entering and leaving the port.

* Folio 246 - a map has been temporarily removed and replaced with a green sheet of paper noting its removal.

Extent and format
1 volume (81 folios)
Arrangement

The report is arranged into four parts (I-IV).

Physical characteristics

Pagination: The report has a pagination system which uses numbers printed in the top-left corner of versos and top-right corner of rectos.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1877-78.' [‎258v] (62/165), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/23/32, No 152, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100026446897.0x00003f> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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