Coll 6/10 'Hejaz-Nejd Affairs: Financial Situation and Internal Situation' [49v] (105/1310)
The record is made up of 1 volume (649 folios). It was created in 21 Jun 1928-26 Aug 1938. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
YJX—Foreign trade (contd .)—
(h) Imports (contd .)—
(4) Motor vehicles and subsidiary imports.
(5) Machinery.
(6) Cement.
(7) Petroleum products.
(8) Cigarettes, tobacco and tombac.
(9) Haberdashery.
(10) Hardware.
(11) Soap.
(12) Matches.
(18) Radio sets.
(14) Beads and religious souvenirs.
(15) Building materials.
(16) Paints and varnish.
(17) Military requirements.
VII. —Foreign trade (contd .)—
(r) Business methods.
(d) Orders by the Government.
(c) Orders by concessionnaires.
VIII. —Social—
(a) Cost and standard of living.
(b) Slavery.
(c) Education.
(d) Newspapers and advertising.
(e) Trade guilds.
(f) Municipal works.
(#) Pilgrimage and religious endowments
(h) Prisons, lunatic asylums and hospital
Appendix. —Frontiers of Saudi Arabia.
Preface.
Saudi Arabia is a poor country. Its trade is almost negligible, depend:
for the great part on the attraction of a religious pilgrimage. It is, however
country from whose sands the last two years have revealed oil and gold, eiti
of which may lead it to a more important place in the economic world. Moreovt
Saudi Arabia is a country, immense in size, of which large areas are ot
superficially known, and who can to-day say whether the apparent barrenne*
the land is a true or false gauge of its poverty! * i I
Having these extraordinary conditions in mind, this report has hadtoa
more at a general survey of the'economic life and progress of the country and
the nature of its administration and people than at an attempt to set for
mathematical information concerning national resources or statistics of impc
and exports, little of which could be more than guess work. Where, how
such information of reasonable reliability is available, it has been given.
Commercial Summary.
A rea .—Peninsular Arabia is estimated to be about 1 million square mile?
which Saudi Arabia may cover two-thirds.
Poyulation .—Estimated at about 3 million Bedouin and 2 million town;
village dwellers.
Religion .—Sunni Moslems. There are Shia communities in Hasa and Ha
There are no native Christians or Jews.
Language. —Arabic. English is widely used in commercial circles in
Hejaz.
Newspapers. —The Umm-al-Qiira and the Saut-al-Hejaz, both Arabic, prm'
in Mecca.
Advertising. —Little possible, owing to the illiteracy of the popular
Occasional advertisements appear in the newspapers. Advertisements depict
living creatures are forbidden.
Currency. —The English gold sovereign, the Saudi riyal (Hejaz), the Ind
rupee, the Maria Theresa dollar or riyal (Nejd). Egyptian notes and silver
current in the chief towns of the Hejaz.
£1 gold = 110 piastres miri (gold).
1 Saudi riyal = 11 piastres miri (silver) = 22 piastres Saudi. N.B.—Pi aN
miri gold or silver are used in certain Government transactions, but do not exist
coins.
[Note. Since this report was prepared new legal paritv has been estftblisl
as follows :— or.
£1 gold = 20 Saudi riyals.
1 Saudi riyal = 11 Saudi piastres.
. 1 Saudi piastre = 2 nickel piastres.
Also, new Saudi riyals have been minted and put into circulation These co
are of the same size, weight and fineness as the Indian rupee (for further deta
see note at end of Part IV (c)).] 1 P U1
About this item
- Content
This volume largely consists of copies of Foreign Office correspondence, which have been forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India. The correspondence, most of which is between Foreign Office officials and either the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) or His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, succeeded by Albert Spencer Calvert), relates to financial and political matters in the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia).
The correspondence discusses the following:
- The history of the Wahabi movement and Ibn Saud's [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd's] attitude towards Wahabism.
- The currency exchange crisis in the Hejaz.
- Requests from Ibn Saud for the British Government either to assist in establishing a British bank as a state bank in the Hejaz, or to provide a loan directly to the Hejazi Government (both requests are declined).
- The British Minister at Jedda's accounts of his meetings both with Ibn Saud and with various Hejazi/Saudi Government officials.
- A Hejazi-Soviet contract for the supply of Soviet benzine and relations between Soviet Russia and Hejaz-Nejd generally.
- Tensions within the Hejazi Government.
- The Hejazi Government's budgetary reforms.
- The prospect of a new Saudi state bank, possibly backed by the financial assistance of the former ex-Khedive of Egypt [ʿAbbās Ḥilmī II].
- The death of Emir Abdullah ibn Jiluwi [‘Abdullāh bin Jilūwī Āl Sa‘ūd].
- Saudi-Egyptian relations.
- The discovery of oil in Hasa.
In addition to correspondence the volume includes the following:
- A copy of an economic survey of Saudi Arabia, produced by the British Legation at Jedda in June 1936.
- A copy of a note written by Frederick Gerard Peake, Commanding Officer of the Arab Legion, on the history of the Wahabi movement.
- A copy of a printed Government of India report entitled 'Confidential Report of the Haj Inquiry Committee on the Arrangements in the Hedjaz', dated 1930.
- A copy of a report by the 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 Hugh Vincent Biscoe), recounting a visit to Ibn Saud at Hasa in early 1932.
- Copies of extracts from Kuwait intelligence summaries and Bahrain intelligence reports.
The volume includes three dividers, which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (649 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 651; 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. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers. A previous foliation sequence, which is present between ff 563-649 and is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2074
- Title
- Coll 6/10 'Hejaz-Nejd Affairs: Financial Situation and Internal Situation'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:7v, 10r:30v, 33r:39r, 41r:72v, 77r:86r, 87r:93v, 95r:110v, 112r:116v, 118r:119v, 121r:128v, 130r:140v, 142r:142v, 144r:164v, 166r:168v, 170r:187v, 189r:268v, 270r:274v, 277r:281v, 283r:291r, 293r:303v, 305r:306r, 307r:342v, 352r:362v, 365r:366v, 372r:376v, 384r:386v, 388r:405v, 407r:417v, 419r:422v, 425r:443v, 445r:459v, 467r:468v, 471r:478v, 482r:490v, 492r:531v, 533r:617v, 624r:651v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence