'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎554r] (1128/1486)

PERSIA.
3
distribution of the wool production, as evidenced by the railway returns
for 1886, which, in addition to the wool from Baku, give 70,000 poods
as forwarded from stations in the Elisavetpol Government, and 195,000
poods from the Tiflis Government; from the latter, 56,000 poods should,
however, be deducted, being noted as received in Tiflis, thus leaving
130,000 poods as the net production of that district. Also, it is worthy
of remark that 163,189 poods of wool, or over 90 per ceut. of the total
exportation for 1886, were shipped to France.
In conclusion, and in reply to the question which has been raised as English
to the possibility of securing Khorassan and Trans-Caucasian wools market,
for the English market, I can only say that they are both to be bought
freely in Baku and Tiflis. It is purely a question of price and of a
knowledge of the market, which is not to be gained without time and
trouble. As regards purchases in Khorassan, it would, as I have
pointed out, be necessary to enter into competition with the already
established Armenians, but, if worth while, this is quite possible, though
here, also, much time and trouble would be required to organise a serious
business; and I should say that it would in any case be necessary to
employ Armenians or Parsees for the actual first purchases from the
producers. I should, perhaps, point out that under the present system
of working the business, the Armenian traders engaged in it suffer
great disadvantages from the necessity of conducting their exchange
operations through the Russian money-market, the instability of which
is a serious difficulty. It is probable that if English merchants should
determine to buy for themselves on a large scale in Khorassan, they
would be able to arrange for the exchange operations on some other
and less fluctuating basis.
I would also draw attention to what may be the possibility of trans- Mode of
porting Khorassan wool through another channel, southwards instead transportation
of northwards, and shipping from Bender-Abbas instead of the Caspian. an(i route -
I have been at considerable pains to obtain reliable figures indicating
the respective cost of carriage by the two routes, but I regret that I
cannot guarantee the result of my inquiries. As nearly as I can
calculate the wool can be delivered from Khorassan to Batoum some
6 <Z. per cwt. cheaper than to Bender-Abbas, but nevertheless, it is
possible that other considerations might prove the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. route to
be more advantageous than that by the Caspian and Black Sea. Finally,
if the Black Sea route be adhered to, I would urge the importance in
this, as in many other respects, of the establishment of a regular and
direct line of steamers from England to Batoum. At present, unless a
whole ship be chartered, it is impossible to ship direct from Batoum to
England, and British trade, in many ways, suffers severely for want
of such direct communications.
Batoum, November 15, 1888.