Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎434v] (871/1237)

0*
/10.
card and said I would call the following day. I then called on the
new Turkish Consul, Mr. Orhan Gunden, on Colonel Beylari Bey, the
O.C. Persian troops, and on the Chief of Police.
HARVSSTS . Everywhere throughout the district the crops
are excellent and, encouraged by high prices end the better prospect***
of a raid-free year, the cultivators have been planting more land
than usual. The fruit crops promise to be better than for many
years, and the seed rice brought from Hianeh to Tabriz by British
army convoys has arrived in time for sowing.
8. FOOD SITUATION . There has been an improvement generally,
due, in the main, to the harvest prospects. A number of merchants
who had been hoarding raisins throughout the winter look like
getting their fingers badly burnt. There are said to be some l^Ju
tons of raisins in Rezaieh from last year’s crop and, whilst there
has been a huge fall in price, the Russians still refuse to let the
raisins be sent out of Azerbaijan. The merchants have now
together and have approached the Russian Consul with a request tha
either the Russians buy the stocks themselves or else permit the
export to other parts of Persia. With the prospect in front of
them of a huge new crop coming on to the market in a few months time
and a probable further drop in prices the merchants are beginning to
squirm. It is doubtful if they will find the Russians sympathetic.
The 5^>- of this season’s wheat harvest which it was reported
the Rezaieh landlords had offered to the Russians (Mr. Urquhart s
letter of April 21st to Sir Reader Bullard) has, in fact, been oftered
as a ct if"t to the Soviet Red Cross. This was confirmed to me by the
Farmandar who also said that he had reported the facts to the Governor-
General. The offer, he added, had been accepted.
9. PRICES. In the middle of May there was a sharp fall in the
prices of all local produce, followed after a few days by a recovery
which was still continuing when I left on May 27th. The following
table shows the prices of one or two main products in March last, on
May 20th (the lowest level reached) and on May 25th:-
March
20 th Mav
25th May
Wheat
1250
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
a
ton
Barley
90J
»♦
h
ii
Raisins
1800
u
h
H
Peas
1080
w
»♦
11
Wool
2440
rt
«
11
Butter
67.10
Rials
a
Kilo
540
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
780
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
480
H
570
n
400
H
730
w
480
H
480
«
1220
»♦
39.6 5
Rials
The price of butter is going up again because, according to
the manager of the Bank Melli, the Russians are making large purchases.
The price of wheat he thinks v/ill fall again as the new harvest
approaches. The price of breed is:- Lawash, Rials 7.50 a kilo;
Sanirak. Rials 7; coarse bread Rials 6. ^ ^ ^
Wages have gone up and labourers who formerly got Rials <_ per
dav now get from 25 to 30, and in some oases as much as 40. There is
therefore comparatively little real distress except perhaps amongst
black-coated workers, although here too the majority are small la
owners and have thus been able to eke out their inadequate salaries by
th^ profits from their small-holdings. There is a deep and widespread
distrust of paper money and I was told that the re-introduction of a
gold and silver coinage - whatever its intrinsic metallic content
would bring prices down more effectively than any other measure.