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The record is made up of 1 file (388 folios). It was created in 17 Jan 1899-4 Apr 1904. 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.
IW
XI ^
(Beceived informally from the Tehran Legation on the 4th April 1904.)
Persian Finances.
No budget is published by tbo Persian Government and any figures given
must be considered as approximate.
The revenue of Persia is roughly £1,4125,000, and is made up as follows
£
Customs, after deducting administration expenses
... 440,000
Maliat, or land tax ...
••• •••
800,000
Posts and Telegraphs
«*• •••
... 15,000
Royalties on Caspian Fisheries
• • • •••
... 20,000
Passports ... ...
• • •t
50,000
Mint, concessions and miscellaneous revenue
50,000
Crown domains
t • • • t •
... 50,000
£ 1,425,000
The expenditure is about £ 1 , 650 , 800 , viz.:—
Service of Debts—-
£
The two Russian loans 1900-1902, the British loan of 1903 and
the loan by the Imperial Bank, 1901 ... ... 216,000
Diplomatic and Consular service and Foreign Office ... 46,800
Shah and members of Kajar tribe ... ... 164,800
Cossack Brigade ... ... ... ... 43,200
Provincial administration, including part of the expenditure for
the army ... ... ... ... 700,000
Army, not included in the above ... ... 300,000
Pensions ... ... ... ... ... 180,000
£ 1,650,800
Revenue
Expenditure
* £
1,425,000
1,650,800
Deficit
£ 225,800
The £ 216,000 paid for the service of the various loans is made up as
follows:—
Interest and sinking fund of [Russian Loans (£ 3 , 200 , 000 ) amounts to
£ 176,000 ; £ 24,000 a year represents the interest on the advance made at 12
per cent, in April 1901 by the Imperial Bank of Persia. The remaining £ 16,000
represents the interest and sinking fund of the advance made in April 1903 by
His Majesty’s Government.
The expenses of the army are supposed to amount to £ 450 , 000 ; of this
£ 160,000 is paid in the provinces from the Maliat.
The deficit will be met—
(1) By the increased revenue from the Customs. M. Naus hopes the
revenue of his department will amount this year to at least
£ 500 , 000 .
(2) By a diminution of the expenses of the Court.
( 3 ) By a more satisfactory system in the collection of the Maliat which
is to be introduced this year. Treasuries are to be established in
all the provinces and a central treasury in Tehran. Every Gov
ernor will be required to pay a fixed sum into the local treasury
which will probably be managed by a Belgian official. This may
to some extent prevent the peculation arising from the taxes
passing through the hands of the Governor who having originally
paid a high price for his post is obliged to recoup himself. °
About this item
- Content
The file contains papers relating to Seistan [Sistan] and Persia [Iran].
The file includes printed copies of despatches from the Agent to the Governor-General of India and HM Consul-General for Khorasan and Seistan (Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Martindale Temple), to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, with enclosed despatches from Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (the Marquis of Salisbury). Skyes’s despatches regard matters including: Seistan; trade routes into South-East Persia; the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan, in relation to the River Helmund [Helmand] changing its course (in despatch No. 5, which includes four sketch maps, folios 12, 13, 14 and 15); Sykes’s journey to Birjand (in despatch No. 7, which includes a sketch map on folio 20); the ruling family of Kain, which also governed Seistan, Tabbas and Tun; Sykes’s journey from Seistan to Kerman [Kirman] (in despatch No. 11, which includes a sketch map); and the direct Kerman-Quetta caravan trade that Sykes was trying to establish.
The file also includes copies of the following papers:
- A despatch from Temple to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing a letter from Temple to Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (HM Minister, Tehran), with copies of enclosures, regarding the establishment of a Seistan and Kain consulate
- A letter from Charles Edward Pitman, Director General of Telegraphs, to the Secretary to the Government of India Public Works Department, enclosing a copy of a ‘Report on the Preliminary Survey of the Route for a Telegraph Line from Quetta to the Persian Frontier’ by H A Armstrong, Assistant Superintendent, Indian Telegraph Department, which includes six photographs of views along the route [Mss Eur F111/352, f 52; Mss Eur F111/352, f 53; Mss Eur F111/352, f 54; Mss Eur F111/352, f 55; Mss Eur F111/352, f 56; and Mss Eur F111/352, f 57], and a map showing the proposed route of the telegraph line [Mss Eur F111/352, f 59]
- Letters from Hugh Shakespear Barnes, Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan, to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing copies of the diary of the Political Assistant, Chagai, for the weeks ending 16 February, 28 February, and 8 March 1900
- Diary No. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of Major-General George Frederick Chenevix-Trench, HM Consul for Seistan (Diary No. 6 includes a sketch map, folio 86)
- A copy of a ‘Report on Reconnaissances Made while Attached to the Seistan Arbitration Commission’ by W A Johns, Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways, Bombay
- A copy of the report ‘Notes on Persian Seistan’, compiled by Captain Edward Abadie Plunkett, and issued by the Government of India Intelligence Branch, Quarter-Master General’s Department
- Two copies of map signed by Plunkett titled ‘Persian Seistan-Cultivated Area’ [Mss Eur F111/352, f 270]
- A booklet entitled ‘Notes on the Leading Notables, Officials, Merchants, and Clergy of Khorasan, Seistan, Kain, and Kerman.’
- Printed copies of letters from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India (Lord George Francis Hamilton), relating to the maintenance of British interests in Persia, dated 4 September 1899 and 7 November 1901 (the former with an enclosure of a minute by the Viceroy on Seistan).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (388 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 390; 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 file contains one foliation anomaly, f 301A
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Seistan' [279r] (557/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721605.0x0000a0> [accessed 19 July 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/352
- Title
- 'Seistan'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:51v, 58r:58v, 60r:112r, 113r:125v, 147r:218r, 218r, 219r:269v, 271r:301v, 301Ar, 301Av, 302r:388v, 389v:390r, 389r, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence