'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎24r] (45/211)

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OUR TRADE WITH THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
OUR TRADE WITH THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
considerations. The time is come, in short, when Persia
will be of greater interest to us than even Turkov
Russia, on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , would divide Southern \ s ia
with us, and threaten India far more seriously than if she
held Constantinople; and our nascent trade with Arabia
Persia, and Asiatic Turkey, by way of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
that is, with some thirty millions of Asiatics who love display
and finery, would be entirely destroyed. This trade is just
beginning to tell, and it may be useful both to glance at it
generally and to mark it in detail.
The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region, although geographically narrow
and well-defined, comprises commercially and politically
an enormous extent of Arabian, Persian and Turkish
territorj\ Of the great peninsula of Arabia, it takes in
either directly, or in influence, the entire Eastern half
from Muscat on the South to the port of Bussorah at
the head of the Gulf. Muscat itself is an extensive Ara
bian State, under British protection; and the considerable
island of Bahrein, also under our protection, faces the
mainland further North, opposite the Arabian-Turkish port
of Oojeir, which is the port for Central Arabia and the
Wahabee kingdom of Riadh. visited by Palgrave. Bussorah
in the North, affects Northern Arabia ; while Baghdad, five
hundred miles further North and up the Tigris—where, too, a
British Steamer line is at work, in conjunction with the
British India Steam Navigation line from Bombay—,is right
in the heart of Asiatic Turkey and immediately to the North
of Arabia. Thus, while there are numerous and conflicting
political interests on the Western face of the Gulf, the total
of the populations commercially affected can hardly be estimat
ed at less than ten or fifteen millions. On the Eastern face,
besides one or two small islands, as Ormuz—imbedded two
centuries back by Milton in his great epic, but of little note
now except for a small pearl export—also under our protection,
the entire coast line is politically under one and the same
Government, that of Persia. This coast line includes a
number of ports, among which may be named Bunder Abbas,
Lingga, and Bushire, and terminates opposite Bussorah.
But beyond that, again, as Baghdad serves for Asiatic Turkey',
there is a port, Mohomtnerah. inland, near the junction of the
Karun River with the Tigris ; and the Karun River itself,
extending inland into the heart of Persia, is navigable for a
great distance. The Karun River and its geography and com
mercial capabilities have been fully' described by Mr. Curzon,
and need not detain us here. Altogether, the Eastern face
of what is called the “ Persian Gulf” affects the entire
Southern and Western half, or three-fourths of Persia, with
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probably more than ten millions of people. These twenty
or twenty-five millions, all told, of Arabians, Turks, and Persians
—including Armenians—have all their numerous wants, in
regard to hardware, metals and finery, especially the last, in
which they indulge to an inordinate extent. The way these
Orientals clothe themselves in silks, turbans, over-alls and
woven cloths, would considerably surprise an Englishman who
had been accustomed to judge of the East from India and her
poor and ill-clad populations.
As previously remarked, British trade, whether direct, or
by way of India, is only just beginning to assert itself.
The British India Steam Navigation Company send a
steamer from Bombay every week to the “Gulf,” and
another line, the “ Bombay and Persia,” has lately been started,
and sends a steamer once a month. From the North of the Gulf
another line, the “ Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation
Company, ” plies up to the inland ports as far as Baghdad.
But, though the trade is only beginning, all the sea-board popu
lation of the numerous ports may be said to be engaged in
it, or to live by it. Considering the numerous obstacles
presented by bad government, corrupt officers, marauders,
and an utter absence of anything like a made road, or even
cart-track any where—even in Persia, from the coast to the
interior—the avidity with which these Asiatics enter into
trade is peifectly astonishing, and would gratify the heart
of any Liverpool merchant or Birmingham manufacturer.
The following graphic picture is supplied by an eye-witness
and late visitor at Oojeir, on the mainland of Arabia, of which
Bahrein is the port of call for British steamers :—“A cara
van leaves Oojeir nearly every week, because this is the
depot of wares for the interior. The Jebel Shommar country
is probably supplied overland from Bussorah and Baghdad,
but the whole of Southern Nejd receives piece-goods, coffee,
rice, sugar, and Birmingham wares by way of Bahrein and
Oojeir. The whole plain in and about the Custom House
was piled with bales and boxes, and the air filled with the
noise of loading 700 camels.” The trade is, of course, largest
on the Persian side of the Gulf, but the roads here are even
worse, of rather, there are no roads at all. A direct
distance, for instance, of 80 miles or so, between two such
important cities as Bushire (the port) and Shiraz, is converted
into one of 167 miles, the track being most circuitous
and consisting of a succession of “rocky stairs.” How
heavy burdens and people get through, or over, these, is a
marvel. Roads for cart and wheeled traffic are the first essen
tial of successful trade, and that there is not one such along the
entire thousand miles of Southern and South-Western Persia
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