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'Report on the British Indian Commercial Mission to South-Eastern Persia during 1904-1905. By A H Gleadowe-Newcomen.' [‎8v] (21/176)

The record is made up of 1 volume (86 folios). It was created in 1906. 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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REPORT ON THE
BRITISH INDIAN COMMERCIAL
4
GENERAL.
Physical Features of the Country
South-Eastern Persia is, with the exception of a narrow sub-tropical strip
alone the coast, a country with a fairly temperate climate. Even Persian
Baluchistan and the terrible Lut Desert are cool m the spring and autumn
and often cold in the winter. In the low country (called the ‘ Garmsir ),
J mtt Persian Baluchistan, Bam-Narmashir, the Bushire plain and the
oases on the lower and southern part of the plateau, tropical fruits, such as the
date, lemon and orange-flourish, and even mangoes are some imes met with ;
rice and tropical cereals are also grown. In the higher and colder regions
fruit and grain peculiar to temperate climates succeed well.
The proportion of cultivated and cultivable land to wilderness and^ desert
is small however, and there are evident signs that it 1S steadily shrinking.
Yet if irrigation, on a large scale and scientifically directed, were carried on,
it would be possible to reclaim a considerable portion of this desert, for the soil
is naturally fertile. Much of the water is, however, brackish, and some of it is
salt to a degree, especially in the lower lands and amongst the outer ranges of
4- U t-'l T" O 1
Geographically, southern and eastern Persia may he described as a land
of mountains and deserts. A few miles, 15 to 30, from the sea coast the gieat
mountain ranges that rib Persia raise their bare and splintered walls to the sky.
Stretching their snow-capped tops, range after range, all along and across the
land for hundreds of miles, they throw out great spurs which touch one another.
Between the treeless ridges lie valleys, often of great length, some of them 30
and some 300 miles long, but seldom of any great width. Most of these valleys
are capable of cultivation with the help of irrigation.
In the gorges of the hills, and built along the hanks of occasional
streams, are rare villages, nestling in plantations of fruit trees. lor other
trees, if we except the dwarf oak, cypress, willow, Bohemian olive, tamarisk
and juniper, one looks in vain. Save for the dreary camel thorn, tragacanth
and other gum-yielding bushes, and the dwarf cactus, the hills stand gaunt and
bare. What forest once existed has disappeared, and, as a partial consequence,
the rainfall, judging from the numerous dry river beds, has decreased.
Elvers no longer flow, except immediately after rain, and then the waters,
after tossing themselves in mad fury over the ground, are soon lost in the desert,
only to be found again by infinite toil and labour. Por the rest the waters
seem to have retreated underground, and men now seek for them and win
them for their fields with infinite labour by means of subterranean canals, known
in South-Ea4 Persia by the Arabic name of Kanat, and in the North,
Afghanistan and Baluchistan by th e name of Karez,
Prom the hills there are lines of wells, each one surrounded by a little
raised ring of earth, resembling rows of giant nests of the ordinary black ant,
leading down into the valleys. These lines mark the course of the Kanats, which
belong to the scattered villages and towns of the plains, or rather valleys.
They extend for great distances,—10, 20, 30, and even 40 miles.
The valleys are for the most part nearly as stony and inhospitable as the
hills that frown down upon them, and are often covered with hillocks of ever-
shifting sand.
The villages sometimes, as in Eafsiojan and Tehrud, occur in little groups
of two and four, or more. Mostly, however, they stand solitary, situated at
coiisiderable intervals, 20 to SO miles, and sometimes even greater distances,
apart, and are, as a rule, small. Indeed there are few towns that could without
fiattery be called really extensive, and even such places as Saiadabad, Bahramabad
and Bam are really little more than large vi lla ges.
Kerman itself, the capital of the Province and a city famous in history
and legend, while important, so far as the population is concerned, possesses

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Content

Report by Arthur Hills Gleadowe-Newcomen, FRGS, FSA, President of the Commercial Mission to Persia. Submitted to the Government of India, and the Committees of the Upper India Chamber of Commerce, Cawnpore [Kānpur], and the Indian Tea Cess, Calcutta [Kolkata].

Publication statement: Calcutta: Government of India, Foreign Department, 1906.

The report is divided into the following sections:

  • I. Introduction.
  • II. A General Report.
  • III. Notes on Trading Centres, trade usages and other matters of interest.
  • IV. Imports and Exports, comprising: a) Articles of Commerce. b) Resumé.
  • V. Appendices: A. Tables of Weights, Measures and Currency; B. Statistical Tables; C. Trade routes, description and map [missing]; D. Tables showing cost and time of transport and keep of animals; E. Blank business contact form; F. Itinerary of journey of Mission.
Extent and format
1 volume (86 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a contents page at folio 5.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 86; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

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'Report on the British Indian Commercial Mission to South-Eastern Persia during 1904-1905. By A H Gleadowe-Newcomen.' [‎8v] (21/176), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/71, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100035458613.0x000016> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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