‘Report on the British Indian Commercial Mission to South-Eastern Persia during 1904-1905. By A H Gleadowe-Newcomen, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., President, representing the Upper India Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Tea Cess Committee.’ [‎52v] (109/178)

92
REPORT ON THE BRITISH INDIAN COMMERCIAL
The Bander Abbas wool trade is managed by Hindu traders, settled there
and at Kerman. These men do not finance the growers, but buy for cash in
the shearing season, or, more frequently, make their purchases from the cara
vans that come down to the port, shipping in their turn sometimes to order,
but more often sending the wool as a speculation to Bombay or Karachi.
The wool coming down to Bushire and Bander Abbas is no exception to
the general rule, according to which dishonest traders, in order to make
weight, add to the naturally dirty fleeces dead and fallen wool and locks,
lowering the class of the wool, causing increased trouble in sorting, and loss in
selling it.
Wool buying in the south is declared to be a very unsatisfactory business,
and foreign purchasers could only hope to escape loss by buying through
agents at the ports. It is hopeless for them to try and approach the producer
therm elyes.
Were the southern region developed by irrigation, there would spring up
a considerable trade in raw wool which would supplement the short stocks of
Indian wool, and might leaye a certain amount for shipment to England.
Prices at Bushire and Bander Abbas f. o. b. Bombay, at the close of the
1901-1905 season were: Kurh Bs. 28 per factory An East India Company trading post. maund of 82 lbs., and
Fasham (coarse) Rs. 19.
Coarse wool is shipped from Bander Abbas in packages of 500 lbs. freight
and charges to Bombay amount to Es. 5 per package, line wool is shipped in
packages of 650 lbs.:—freight and charges to Bombay Es, 6 per package.
Carpets and Shawls.
There has been a steady increase in the export of these of late years. The
value in Krans of exports of carpets and table-covers, according to Persian
Customs statistics, for the year ending March 20th are
1901
1902
1903
1904
Shawls 1904
Krs.
11.368.000
13.879.000
13.347.000
22,412,853
642,964
The weaving of carpets is the greatest of Persian industries, is carried on
in every part of the country, but more specially is the art exercised in the
region round Perhan and Sultanabad, and in Hamadan, Kurdistan, Ears,
Tabriz, Kerman, Baktharistan and Bashakird.
The finest Kerman carpets are perhaps the best carpets in the world,
excellent alike in material, workmanship and design. In Constantinople, the
world’s great carpet mart, they command higher prices than any other from
Persia.
The carpet weaving industry in Tabriz is a new one, but it has made great
progress since its inauguration. The carpets are of fine workmanship, and the
best, being made mostly of the peculiarly soft fine wool of Meshed and Khora-
san, are of superior value and fetch high prices. The ordinary grade Tabriz
carpets are, however, not equal to ordinary iSultanabad carpets. Being made of
hard-textured local wool from Urmiah, Khoi and Soujboulak, they are stiff and
unpliable, and are apt to crack if folded and packed fiat.
Sultanabad and Earhan carpets are well known in European markets;
they are made of all grades, but the bulk are of ordinary quality.
The Earhan district, in which Sultanabad is situated, does not produce
nearly enough wool for its needs, and draws large supplementary supplies
from the districts of Kanchar, Ispahan, and Kermanshah. The wool usually
comes in the form of yarn.
The price of wool in Sultanabad, as well as in Kerman, has more than
doubled within the last ten years.
The yarn required for carpet weaving must be good white wool, as
brown or dark wool can only be dyed in dark colours. Even for red dyes, the