Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎45r] (82/107)

collector, which are both so fatal to the prosperity of the
agricultural classes in most Oriental countries ; for both
the Government and the tax-collector are alike aware
that, should their demands exceed the limits of his
endurance, it would not be difficult for him to leave the
lands wdiich he is now cultivating and seek some distant
part of the country where he might find a local Governor
less exacting, and officials less oppressive.
Of the general moderation of the rates of assessment
there seems to be but little doubt; the only disadvantage
attaching to them is their uncertainty, and the variety of
the pretexts which may be adduced for the purpose of
squeezing additional sums out of the cultivator on every
possible occasion, in addition to those which have been
defined as the rightful dues of the Government or land
lord. But in this respect Persia differs in no way from
any other Oriental country.
General gtatement
of quest ion of
resources available,
and possibility of
development.
22. I he scantiness of the population in Persia, as well
as the large proportion of it which leads a nomad life,
are subjects which deserve especial
attention in any estimate to be
formed of the resources of the coun
try, and their capability of develop
ment ; inasmuch as, whatever might
be its assumed powers of production, if there be not found
a resident population sufficient to work these, they might
just as well not exist, for Persia is a country into which,
from the habits and religious fanaticism of the indigenous
laces, it would be impossible to introduce any extraneous
population for the purpose.
According to the statistics to be found in Whitaker's
Almanack, the population would appear to amount to an
average of about twelve persons to the square mile.
Moderate as this estimate appears, it is open to question
whether it is not rather above than below the mark, for
there is no point about the country which strikes the
attention of the traveller through it, so forcibly as the
great distances wdiich intervene between the villages,
even in its more favoured parts.
The country thus labours not only under the disadvan
tage of possessing a very small aggregate population, but
of having that population scattered over a very extensive
area, and in this respect it differs from the Eastern coun
tries under British administration, such as India and
Egypt. Though in these countries the populations only
average about seventeen and fifteen respectively to the
square mile for the whole area comprised wdthin their
limits, yet the mass of its numbers are accumulated on
those portions of the respective countries possessing
exceptional natural resources, which are thus given
every chance of development through their instru
mentality ; the remaining and less profitable parts of
the countries being left comparatively uninhabited.
This is noticeably the case in Upper India with the
valley of the Ganges, as compared with the wilds of
Central India, and in Egypt with the valley of the
Nile, as compared with the deserts which extend
beyond it on either side. In Persia, on the contrary, no
region exists of marked fertility, as compared with the
general character of the country, such as w r ould attract
the population to abandon the other parts and settle
there to develop its resources; and its scanty population
of 8,000,000 is thus scattered over an area which com
prises about 650,000 square miles.
It cannot be too clearly understood that Persia is a
country which consists more essentially, as far as its
physical characteristics are concerned, of rocky mountains
and more or less sandy or desert plains, in many parts
of which the processes of agriculture are quite impossible,
while in others they are only carried out by dint of the