File 1283/1913 Pt 5 'MESOPOTAMIA TRADE Issue of new Trade Report' [‎124v] (244/270)

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TamlaJcu .—The duty on export, and the Tambaku Regie (Constantinople preference)
require adjustment. Tambaku (nicetiana Persica—a different plant from the ordinary tobacco
of European consumption) could possibly be used for blending purposes, if sufficient pursuasion
could be applied to some of the great manufacturers in the United Kingdom to induce them
to make the necessary experiments. There is extensive cultivation all over Southern and
Central Persia, which is capable of great increase, were a demand outside eastern countries
promoted.
Skins ,—This trade chiefly concerns India : it is almost entirely left to Persian traders
at present, and it might be profitable to interest Indian houses to take a more active part in
increasing the area of supply and the demand.
Opium no longer goes to America or Belgium. The United Kingdom has the
first place in importance, and the Persian drug is the most important for home consumption
after that of the Smyrna region. The export to China direct has been knocked out by the
Opium Convention, but there is still a quantity sent early to the Ear East, though the
market varies. It goes sometimes to Singapore, sometimes to the Dutch Indies, at others
to Hongkong or Formosa. The export to the United Kingdom alone from Bushire
was valued at over £300,000 in 1914-15: the total export being worth nearljt half a
million pounds.
The population are taking to the opium habit.