Coll 28/65 ‘Persia. Perso-Soviet Commercial Relations.’ [152v] (305/482)
The record is made up of 1 file (239 folios). It was created in 23 Mar 1933-30 May 1940. It was written in English, French and Russian. 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.
make a rebate to the Soviet authorities of 1 rial for each pood of i ice P U1 chased
by them, so that, in fact, the Government are subsidising the rice export trade to
this ® xte ^ p erg . an Q overmnent have also agreed to purchase 50,000 tons of
sugar from the Soviet Union during the current economic year, which is an
increase of 10,000 tons on the amount agreed on in December lash J
4. The most important provision of the new agreement is the underta ing
by the Persian Government to purchase from the Soviet Union approximately
750 wagon loads of cotton piece-goods, averaging 100,000 rials per wagon. It is
understood that the Persian Government were even desirous of purchasing
Soviet cotton piece-goods in excess of this amount of 75 million rials, but that it
was not convenient for the Soviets to undertake to furnish a larger amount.
5. The cotton piece-goods will be acquired by the Persian Government m
accordance with the State monopoly of these goods recently instituted, and a
monopoly tax of 15 per cent, will be charged on them and paid by the consume!.
As according to preliminary customs statistics, Soviet imports of cotton piece-
o-oods during 19313-34 were valued at less than 26 million rials it will be seen
that this represents an appreciable gain from the Soviet point of view, and this
gain must be largely at the expense of the Japanese, whose sales have recently
increased to such an extent that in 1933-34 they represented nearly half the total
.imports. The monopoly is, as has been previously reported, mainly directed
/against the Japanese, whose inadequate purchases of Persian produce have been
| for some time a matter of concern to the Persian authorities. Lhe Japanese
“ dumping ” seems for some reason to have been very unwelcome to the Persian
Government, and it has, of course, made it practically impossible for the Soviet
Union to supply the Persian market with the 55 per cent, or so of cotton goods
to which they were entitled by virtue of the 1931 treaty. The Persians cleaily
intend to use the cotton goods monopoly as a lever to obtain moie advantageous
trading terms from the Japanese. It is understood in this connexion that
negotiations with the Japanese have already taken place, and that the latter
desired to secure provision for imports of their cotton goods to a value of
70 million rials; in return, they offered to take up raw cotton to a value of
2 million rials, opium worth 1 million rials, and to buy 4 million rials worth
of export certificates. As this would leave the adverse trade balance in its present
position, the Persians are understood to have rejected this offer and to be holding
out for much better terms.
6 . It is understood that orders were recently issued by the Department of
Trade permitting the release from Customs of cotton textiles lying in the Customs
warehouses on the 18th September last. It is presumed that futuie impoits will
be limited to such as are authorised by the Government and contracted for
directly by the Cotton Textile Monopoly.
7. The full details of the Persian-Soviet agreement of December 1933 have
even vet not been published. The main terms were the Soviet agreement to buy
rice at 9 rials a pood during 1933-34, this price to be revised at the beginning of
each economic year, and the Persian undertaking to buy 40,000 tons of sugar
for the supply of the northern provinces. An agreed basis was also fixed for the
calculation of the c.i.f. and f.o.b. prices for certain stipulated commodities
entering into trade between the two countries; an undertaking on the part of
Persia to supplement the Soviet import quotas of those commodities which had
been, or might be, removed from the prohibited list of imports; an agreement
regarding the adjustment of the trade balance between the two countries for the
two and a half years from the 22nd June, 1931, to December 1933; an under
standing that the supplementary accord should have a life coterminous with the
validity of the 1931 treaty; and an agreement that the accord itself was
recognised by both Governments as constituting a settlement of all tiadc
differences between the two countries.
8 . The principal difficulty impeding all previous negotiations between the
two countries was that of adjusting the trade balance; the Soviet Government
claimed that during the period of two and a half }'ears mentioned above the
balance in favour of Persia was 75 million rials, while the Persian Government
alleged that the balance was against them to the tune of 30 million rials. There
is some reason for believing that the Soviets succeeded in convincing the Persians
that the Persian statistics were faulty, and thus obtaining the agreement of the
Persian Government to consider Persian-Soviet trade from June 1931 to
About this item
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Correspondence, newspaper cuttings, treaties and other papers, reporting on commercial relations between Persia [Iran] and Russia. The papers cover: a deterioration in relations between Persia and Russia in 1932-33, culminating in the ban on Russian imports into Persia; the Persian Government’s Foreign Trade Monopoly Act of 1933 (ff 218-223); the Irano-Soviet Treaty of Establishment, Commerce and Navigation, agreed between the two nations in 1935; a copy of the treaty in French (ff 101-106); a further printed copy of the treaty in French and Russian (ff 42-85); the termination of the 1935 treaty in 1938; the agreement of a new Treaty of Commerce and Navigation in 1940, created in response to events in the Second World War (ff 3-7).
The file’s principal correspondents are: HM’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. at Tehran, Reginald Hervey Hoare, Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull Hugesson, Horace James Seymour; the British Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran, Victor Alexander Louis Mallet; the Commercial Secretary at the British Legation in Tehran, Sydney Simmonds; HM’s Ambassador to Russia, the Viscount Chilston, Aretas Akers-Douglas; Noel Hughes Havelock Charles of the British Embassy in Moscow.
The file includes several items in French, being newspaper cuttings and texts from the Persian newspapers Le Messager de Teheran and Le Journal de Tehran.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (239 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 240; 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English, French and Russian in Latin and Cyrillic script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/3471
- Title
- Coll 28/65 ‘Persia. Perso-Soviet Commercial Relations.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:3r, 9r:23v, 25r:41v, 86r:87v, 90r:91v, 93r:95v, 97r:100v, 106v, 107v:113v, 115r:116r, 117r:131v, 134r:139v, 142r:169v, 171r:186v, 190r:204v, 206r:206v, 208r:213r, 214v:218r, 224r:226r, 227r:232v, 234r:240v, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence