'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎260v] (540/1486)

10
PERSIA.
Natural
produce.
Russian
imports and
exports.
to 36,000/., which would make the total imports 51,900/., and, accord
ing - to the same authority, the total exports amount to 20,000/. The
total annual produce of the province he sets down as being - of the
value of 350,000/.; about 8,000 tons of wheat and 7,000 tons of barley
are produced annually, the value of which is reckoned in the above.
The population of this province belong mostly to the Kajar tribe,
of which the Shah is chief, and he possesses there a considerable
property. The fertility of the soil, wherever it has been cleared, is
wonderful, producing 60 bushels to 120 bushels for one sown. The
forest timber is magnificent, and in any other country would prove a
great source of revenue. Here, as in other parts of Persia, there is
not a road worthy of the name, and the traffic that penetrates into the
interior has to wind its way on horses through dense forests and
rice-fields.
Resht
The chief feature of the Resht trade of late years has been the
decrease in the sale of English goods and the increase of Russian trade.
This remark will apply to all the provinces bordering on the Caspian
and also to Khorassan, and in part also to Tabreez.
Consul Abbott gives the total of the foreign trade of Resht and
Ghilan, for 1871, as 621,106/. (exports 413,108/., imports 207,998/.).
This, he says, shows an increase of 487,707/. as compared with that of
18(59. lie says three items tend to increase the foreign imports for
1871, viz., French loaf sugar and Russian wheat and flour, the former
of which used to enter Persia at Tabreez by the Turkish route, but in
1871 was sent via Tiflis, and landed by steamer at Enseli, so that Resht,
instead of Tabreez, supplied the Persian market with the bulk of their
articles. The truth in the last sentence remains correct to this day, in
so far as the direction the importation takes, but the importers are
changed. Owing to the bounty of 2 r. per pood (36 lbs.) given by
the Russian Government, Russian merchants can now undersell the
French, and one-half of the total amount of sugar used in Teheran is
imported by Russia and one quarter by France. Austrian and German
sugar of the same shape and quality and price as the French has,
during the past few months, been imported and found favour.
\ Quite lately, also, orders have been sent from Ispahan for Russian
sugar.
Every day in Teheran 120 cases of sugar of all sorts, weighing
156 lbs. each case, are sold (about 2,782 tons a year).
The sugar cane will grow well in Ghilan, and in 1871 about 17,000
mans (83 tons) of sugar was made there.
The price of Batavia sugar for 22 batmans (143 lbs.) is 14 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. ,
which, with transport to Bushire or Bender Abbas, will be at the rate
of 2^ krans per batman, and with the additional carriage to Teheran
would be about 3 krans 12 shais per batman in Teheran. Russian
sugar is, however, selling at several shais less than the above price.
The trade between Russia and Ghilan and Resht is shown in the
following table, which I Tiave compiled from old reports :—
1876.
1877.
1878.
£
£
p ffi.
Exports .. .. .. ..
326,695
179,100
Cl8776T3>W
Imports..
136,055
100,260
/bo 2.00
139,22b'
pi
.V_