'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎553r] (1125/1486)

PERSIA.
Notes by Mr. E. F. Law, Commercial A ttache for Russia, Persia, and
the Asiatic Provinces of Turkey, on the Wool Tra(k in Persia and
Trans- Caucasia.
The wool trade of Persia and Trans-Caucasia is almost entirely in
the hands of Armenians. Only one English firm occasionally pm chases
small quantities of wool in Khorassan, and its business is locally con- Khoraesan
ducted by an Armenian agent. The other buyers in Khorassan are wool trade.
Armenians, purchasing for their own people in Baku and Tiflis. Wool
can be bought both in Baku and Tiflis from these Armenian traders,
but some of them have established agencies abroad, and t hese generally
prefer to ship to their own correspondents at Marseilles, whilst the
largest Armenian house has recently found a profitable business in
shipping to New York. German and French agents regularly visit German and
Tiflis to”buy wool and silk, but as far as I can learn they do but little French agents,
in wool, and are generally speaking at great disadvantage from want
of such real knowledge of the local market as could only be acquired
by prolonged residence on the spot. In addition to these German and
French agents, a new class of competitors for the purchase of wool has
appeared in the form of agents from Polish manufacturers of cloth, and 1 olish agents.
I was informed that these buyers were able to pay comparatively high
prices, in consequence, in the first place, of the high price which the
Russian protective tariff maintains for the manufactured cloth, and
secondly, of the fact that the Polish manufacturers secure to themselves
the profits of the middlemen, who in Marseilles, Manchester, and New
York intervene between the Armenian exporters and the Western cloth
manufacturer. . .
It has been suggested that the construction of the Russian Gentral Russian
Asian Railway is drawing all the wools of Khorassan and Central Asia Central
to Russia, and that from this cause they had begun to fail to reach the
English market. I have made all inquiries possible on this subject in
Khorassan, both where the wool is produced and where it is collected
and baled, and also at the Caspian ports of shipment and at Bakou and
Tiflis, and I can find no evidence in support of this idea. As regards
the Khorassan wools, the existence of the Russian railway gives
absolutely no advantage for cheapness of delivery to the Caspian ports,
and it is evident that once on the Caspian, whether at Uzun-Ada or at
Bender-i-Gez, the existence of the Trans-Caspian railway no longer
affects the question. The wool is carried by steamer across the Caspian
as before, and buyers from all parts of the world are on equal terms for
its purchase. The construction of the Trans-Caspiau Railway has Trans^Cas-
undoubtedly lowered the price of Bokharan and Turkestan wools on P ian Railway,
the Caspian, and the opening of the Baku-Tiflis Railway has cheapened
the price of all Asiatic wools at the Black Sea ports, but from neither
railway has Russia gained the smallest exclusive advantage in this
respect.