'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎261r] (541/1486)

TEHERAN.
11 ' •
The decrease in 1877 of about 45 per cent, in the exports, and
about 25 per cent, in the imports, is due principally to the epidemic
which was then raging throughout the country.
The chief produce of Resht is silk, which is produced to the amount Reshtsilk,
of about 6,000 bales. This amount is one-sixth of what used to be
produced some 19 years ago.
In addition to the above there are some 6,000 bales of raw silk
(“ frissons ”) produced annually. The cheap silk goes to Constantinople
and Bagdad, and the better sort to Marseilles. It is owing to disease
in the silkworm that the crop has decreased so much, and so the
farmers have taken to cultivating rice instead, and now the rice crop
has increased to about 87,053 tons annually, of which two-thirds is
exported to Russia.
There are a few Frenchmen with their families living at Resht who
work a small silk factory An East India Company trading post. , but I am unable to give any details of the
work done by them.
In Resht trade money seldom passes; the goods are bartered against
Russian or English piece goods.
Tobacco grows well in Ghilan, but is not cultivated to a very large Tobacco,
extent. It is used mostly for cigarette smoking, and not like the
Shiraz tobacco for the “kalian” (waterpipe). There is plenty of
ground well adapted for its cultivation were it carried out.
The forests also might be a great source of wealth, as walnut and Forests,
boxwood are the chief trees grown. This year a Russian, representing
a company, has made a contract with the authorities for the monopoly
of the cutting of the forests, and he pays for the privilege 25,000
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. ( 8 , 000 /.) for two years.
The fisheries likewise on the shores of the Caspian are very rich, Fisheries,
and are let to a Russian, who pays 46,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. (15,000/.) a year for
them, but they are said to be worth much more. Of the above sum of
46,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , 11,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or 3,600/., is kept by the authorities,
and the rest reverts to the Government. No export duty is levied on
the produce, and the Persian Government have no control over the
establishments.
Opium is cultivated a little at some places situated at the foot of Opium,
the mountains, notably at Dailymiin.
Indigo is also cultivated at Kesmaa, a village seven farsaksfrom Resht. Indigo.
There are very fine olive gardens at Rudbar, between Resht and Olives.
Kasvin, but the oil, although of excellent quality, is not well-refined,
which makes it unpalatable to Europeans.
Rich veins of coal, copper, and iron exist in the neighbourhood of Minerals.
Meujil and Massouleh, but the two former have never been worked,
and the latter very imperfectly so. Veins of gold are also said to
exist in the mountains near Rudbar.
The peasants in Ghilan, were they not bullied by the Government,
would be very well off. It has been calculated that their average
income is from 5/. to 9/. Meat is 3c/. per lb. tor mutton, and l^d. per lb.
for beef, but the peasantry live mostly on rice.
Under a progressive Government their country would have a
great future, owing to its natural riches, and also the proximity
of mountains, where sanatoriums could be founded so as to escape from
the heat of the summer in the lowlands, and the consequent prevalent
malaria. Mazenderan, or Ghilan, unlike any other part of Persia, which
in most places is an arid waste, except where water is found, has a
luxuriant vegetation and very heavy rainfalls, and altogether a different
climate to that south of the Elburz range.