'PRINCIPAL DESPATCHES AND CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO PERSIA CONNECTED WITH THE SUMMARY OF EVENTS AND MEASURES OF VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDDLESTON IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. JANUARY 1899 TO NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV-PART IV. PERSIA.' [‎9v] (23/136)

* For the K,nm ,„a G„U port, I havo faUed to got coprplot, tlgoro, lator tha„ tta, for 1S97.
have been exceptionally small this year because of a had opium crop. A Iso
the water in the Tigris was so low that transport was much impeded. Curzon’s
estimate for 1889 was £ 327,796.
The Karun route may some day he one of the most important of all. The
existing value of our trade is small, and the last figures* show a decrease on
those given by Curzon for 1890, the total being only £126,550 as against
£180,680. But there is reason to hope that the state of things will not continue.
We are now opening out the road from Ahwaz to Ispahan, and believe that we
shall thereby effect a large saving of time and cost in comparison with the
Bushire and Ispahan route, which is long and difficult. Also we are trying to
open out roads northwards from the Karun to Sultanabad, the centre of °the
carpet trade, and to Hamadan and the surrounding country. I attach much
value to the Karun route, which from the nature of things is entirely in our
hands, and protected from any serious competition. Some good judges believe
it will before long be our main trade route. Its future, however, is by no means
certain, and we must not feel too sanguine about it.
The Bushire route is at present the most important of all, the volume of
British trade for 1897 being estimated at £1,155,039. This route must alwavs
be important, and seems likely to do well even if the Karun route develops
At present it fills the country with British goods as far as Ispahan, where
the Russian competition is small, and even supplies Tehran, eight hundred
miles from the sea.
The eastern ports have suffered from the shrinking of the Khorassan and
Afghan markets, and can show no increase on the figures given for 1889 Still
they supply a very large tract of country, and their trade should not suffer
any further from Russian competition. They ought easily to hold their own
m *ezd, Kerman and South-Eastern Persia generally. The value of their
trade to us is estimated at £1,026,990 a year.
The trade by the Kalat route is as yet small, but promises well. If we can
succeed in pushing our goods into Seistan from the south of Khorassan bv a
caravan road from Quetta, and especially if the Government of India should
decide to construct a railway, there may be a real future for this route Th«
estimated value of the trade for 1898 is £39,329. *
Altogether, if one looks at the map of Persia, the position held by our trade
is very remarkabie !t is m fuH possession of the country up to and^ncludino-
a line drawn from Khanikm by Kermanshah, Hamadan, Ispahan, Yezd and
Kerman to Seistan. Beyond that line it has begun to give ground both in the
north-west and m Tehran and in Khorassan; but, in spite of the great geographi
cal disadvantages it has by no means been excluded. Its total value is estimated
a . iee million four hundred and eighty-eight thousand pounds (£3,488 000)
ibr^lSSO 1 'a^ise^o/ ^ million on the estimate given by Curzon
lor 1889, a rise of 16 per cent m nine years. This is not I think «
couragmg state of things, especially when it is considered that the last seven years
have been for Persia n very unlucky period in various ways. Year after vea?
great tracts of territory in Southern Persia have been devastated by locusts
Then we have had troubles consequent on the Tobacco Rpoip nnrl o oo™./
epidemic of cholera, and disorder following on the death of the Shall and 16
succession of bad crops causing a great rise in the prices of food 1^ Shiraz
there has been such scarcity that three years aan thn r & lla ?
contemplated importing wheat from India. Export of theat has SenTS
been comXatxvX iorwhicH 117 /n pur P hasiB S P ower of population has
peen comparatively low, which has told on imports. And I imagine the nlne'ne
m India has had a depressing effect on the Bombay and KSTtrade P Jrt
together, though we have suffered and must suffer Pv, • 1 d Av-
in the north, our trade has on the whole“ncre^ed and wtth T5 COmpetltlo “
gives fair promise of prosperity . It shouMrel^fthltte^^rthe