Coll 28/112B Persia. Tabriz. Monthly dispatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan, & misc: reports.’ [‎184r] (368/451)

Tho ftonsisns havs be-»n sell or.<* of supfor an?! cotton goods
thron^boiit the onth bu T - buyers heve be n «hy, si oo tho^e »re
hones o * obteinln^* better quality iwericen cottens fro Tehran
j»t a cheaper price, and the of eotiv > local do and enr* r
Is s ti-t'ied. The averr^ price o ^ su'ar dtirirr th<* ^onth
v n«-i lo f, 46 rials per kilo, o^t, 4G rialvS*
Trade seemed to recover a little rt, urinp: Apr! in spite of
the difficulties. Ca T *p < *ts, finished loath r, °1 onds and soft
^kins ’^ere houpht for the Tehran market and dest)atched arain^t
undertakings to bring back o HEerbaljan equivalent V'?ues
of merchandise or cash. Ihe Russians have bought a quantity
of raisins iind about 15 .ulG poods of &1 orids (?4G,OoO kilogrammes)
Prospects for British irports into Azerbaijan depend largely
on a s tisfactory settlement *\ith Tehran v/Mch will facilitate
payments and transrort an<s raise the Azerbaijan cuatoass bar t 1 ?r.
un" of the local le th r fe tories has al ’cady roceived a set of
British ftkide machine knives and there a e good opportunities
for dye-stuffs and che.ical pro acts if the p liticel obatructiom
Cen be removed before the ulissisns onopclir.c the mar: et.
68. Ai riculture . On Api*il 15th. the text of a nev/ law
regulating the division of crept between landlords and tenants
w's published. It appears to be a praiseworthy tleant to bring
some order, unifor ity and justice into the ch ro a of 1 end-tenure
in nzerbaijan# Ihe law enunciates the principle thst rope
to be shared in a ra io based on the ovr^ership of the several
means of production aero ’ding to the trcport^nce of those means
in ea h type of cultivation. Ihus separate shares of the
produce are allotted fer ovsiershlp of land, labour, voter, seed
and imrlaments. For rain the proportion i e* labour, 3
shares! lanr%2 shares? liplements, 1 share and (orests?ably)
se^d, 1 sha^e. The landlord therefore .^ets one seventh o^ the
harvest and the cultivator sir sevenths. (The old svstem vhe^eby
the landlord o^ton p v v>vided th? ?e?d is abolished, hut the len' 1 -
lord is under obligation to lend ^oney for seed an^ i r>l«m«nts
to those peasants who can ot afford thf^i). For c^ors o~oduced
on land irrigated by natural streams and srhinrs the proportions
arc* labour, 5 shares? implements, n shares; lan one shekel
water, one share and seed, onshor*ej th?3s 'dving the landl ord
here he owns both land and * voter t 'O tenths of the c-^p. For
crop? ir rigated by artificial canals the hares are* labour, 5t
implements, ?; seed, li ter, 3? land, 1, giving the landlord
4/12 of the harvest.
Provision is made for the division of other cr\>ps, such as
fruit, on the same principle and there ere also regulations for
the sharing of hay anc lover crops and the use of pasture lands.
nil minor dues in kind fo merly exacted by landlords (butter,
eg s, fowls, etc.) are abolished. The 1 ndlord cannot call on th«
peasants to transport his share of the croi, b t the
responsibility for cutting, threshing or otherwise recessing the
crop is upon the cultiv tor, end he is to be given of the
harvest before division as recompense for his labour in harvesting
it.
Supervision of the harvest, its division end all metiers
regulated by this law will be exercised by village com ittees
composed of from three to five men eleetef by the com unity.
Disputes within the committee win be erred to the Ministry
of Agriculture which has the norer to order ne’ elections if
nece ^sary.
59. K urdifh Affairs . Few reports from Kurdish sources have
re ch@d Tabriz of^tne ^i.c* ting between Kurdish Repu d icon forces
and Ii*«rian troops et S>srdasht. But it 1 ccame generally known
during the month that the Kurds had had the orst of it and there
T ' r as even a rumour that a delegation of c leffe had crone to Saqqi*
to negotiate with the Iranians.
/Gazi