Coll 28/41 ‘Persia. Trade Reports. Kerman 1924–’ [‎68r] (135/313)

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rated still further and the local banks have cur
tailed their credit facilities.
(k) Working of law courts in commercial cases .—
The conditions prevailing in the local law courts are
far from being satisfactory, and the constant changes
which took place during the year among the members
of the courts did not help to improve matters. Very
few of the pending cases were settled during the period
under review, and law courts are never referred to,
especially in commercial cases, except as a last
resort.
2. Finance.
(a) Tightness of money, to what extent due to restric
tion of credit, exchange, insecurity, extra taxation,
had harvest, etc. —The reasons for the prevailing tight
ness of money have been mentioned under 1 (a).
An exceptionally bad harvest for wheat and barley
may be mentioned as an additional cause.
The average selling rates between 21st March 1933
and 20th March 1934 were :—
Kials 83-11 per pound sterling.
Rials 625-48 per 100 Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. .
The maximum and minimum rates during the
same period were :—
Maximum. Minimum.
Riab 103 per £. Rials 74 per £.
Rials 775 per Rs. 100. Rials 556 per Rs. 100.
(h) Evidence of 'private capital, unemployed or
held abroad. —Except in a few rare cases, there is in
this province no private capital unemployed and
certainly none held abroad.
(c) Diversion of capital from trade to other purposes
or vice versa.—There is evidence of more capital
being diverted from trade to other purposes. A
large amount of such capital was spent during the
year on the reparation of the under-ground water
channels which had been damaged as the result of
the floods in July 1932. As could be gathered from
last year’s report, money lending appears to be the
most paying investments! in this part of the country
at the present time.
(d) Bankruptcies. —Further failures on the part
of petty traders and shop-keepers, both in Kerman
as well as other towns in the province, were brought
to notice during the year.
(e) Competition among local Banks. —The National
Bank of Persia captured the bulk of the banking
business in Kerman during the year. They allowed
more credit to customers, though usually on less
favourable terms than those allowed by the Imperial
Bank of Persia.
3. Taxation.
(a) Effect on purchasing power. —In view of the
general poverty of the province, its isolated position
and due to the fact that most of the taxes collected
are not used locally, taxation has certainly affected
the purchasing power of the inhabitants, which is
decidedly low.
(h) Fair or unfair incidence. —For the same
reasons mentioned in (a) above, the incidence of
taxation is unfair.
(c) Tax collection. —With the exception, perhaps,
of isolated cases occurring in distant and out of the
way places in the province, the attitude of the local
tax collectors towards the inhabitants has shown a
marked improvement during the last few years, and
no undue interference was brought to notice during
the year.
4. Military.
(а) Commandeering of transport. —Motor transport
was occasionally commandeered by the Military
authorities for movement of troops during the year,
but the standing instructions as to the rate of hire
having been more or less adhered to, no complaints
by transport owners were brought to notice, so far
as the Military authorities were concerned.
(б) Interference with trade and industry. —No
interference on the part of the Military authorities
was heard of during the period under review. A
certain amount of embarrassment was, however,
experienced by motor drivers, including British
Indian subjects, by the local Police authorities
detaining lorries passing between Zahidan and Yezd,
for reasons other than the mere enforcement of
transport regulations.
(c) Effect of conscription. —As remarked in last
year’s report, while undoubtedly helping to improve
the general physique of the younger generation,
conscription has had the effect of depriving industry
and agriculture of a certain number of working
hands. Conscript soldiers are not as a rule willing
to go back to their former occupation, or to engage
in humbler employments, on the completion of
their military service.
5. Agriculture.
(a) Area under cultivation more or less. —A large
number of qanats (under-ground water channels)
being still out of order, as the result of floods in
1932, the area under cultivation in the province is
still not up to its previous level, which has been
estimated before between 300,000 and 400,000
acres.
(h) The Harvest. —Due to the same causes as men
tioned under (a) above, there was a marked decrease
in the amount of harvest for wheat and barley in
the vicinity of Kerman town, amounting to over
500,000 Mans (about 1,500 tons). In consequence
of this prices of other food-stuffs showed an upward
tendency at the end of the year.
The pistachio crop, which was expected to be
exceptionally good this year, was considerably
damaged by pests. In spite of this the harvest wag
decidedly better than the year before, amounting
in the whole province to about 100,000 Mans (300
tons), and the prices ruling in the latter part of the
year ranged between Rials 20 and 25 per Man,
which, considering the low rate of dollar and the