مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٩] (٥٤٠/٢٣٩)

32
partly to an expansion in the legitimate demand for silver currency, e.g., for the
purposes of the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate. In any case there seemed to
be a shortage of riyals, definite enough to perturb the Government, who decided
to increase the circulation. They made enquiries in various quarters in July-
August, asking the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate to advance 1 million riyals
to be minted by the syndicate and addressing themselves also to the Royal Mint
in England, which was asked to quote prices. No business was done in these
quarters. It was not until early 1936 that the Legation learnt that an order had
been placed in Birmingham, through the intermediary of the Banque Misr and
the National Bank of Egypt, for 1 million riyals. These, it is said, will be similar
in everything except the superscription to the Indian rupee and the present
riyals may be withdrawn. This has not been confirmed up to the time of writing,
but the report is of great interest in view of the other most remarkable feature,
now to be described, of the currency situation in 1935.
147. During the period May to December the Saudi Government imported
from India through Jedda about 2 million rupees intended principally for use
in Nejd. The idea was to substitute this currency, which has the advantage of
having a fixed relation to sterling, for the Maria Theresa dollar. The experiment
seems to have had a considerable success. There is probably no ground for the
belief entertained in some quarters late in the year that the rupee had been made
the official currency of eastern Saudi Arabia, but when the Legation party passed
through Riyadh in November the bulk of the silver used there consisted of rupees.
The Maria Theresa dollar, though still in use, appeared to be in process of being
ousted. The Saudi riyal was very unpopular, as it has always been outside
the Hejaz.
Economic Conditions and Development.
General Economic Conditions.
148. There is no known change to report in connexion with economic
conditions generally during the year. There were slight signs perhaps of slowly
returning prosperity in Jedda and Mecca. Poverty in Medina attracted attention
for the reason given in paragraph 127 above. Oppressive taxation was said to
be creating distress and discontent in Hasa, where the increase in customs duty
effected in 1933 has been keenly felt. The rains in the winter of 1934-35 were,
however, plentiful and again promised well for 1935-36. This meant good
grazing in most northern areas, throughout the year. The price of camels seems
to have improved somewhat, thanks partly perhaps to the demand for animals
to be sent directly or indirectly to Eritrea (see paragraphs 81 ff.).
149. The international crisis threatened twice at least to affect food prices
in the Hejaz, once in the summer when the temptation to export live-stock,
fruit, &c., to Massawa seemed likely to deplete the market, and more seriously in
September, when a nervous eagerness to hoard supplies caused a great increase
in prices. On the first occasion little was actually exported, owing to the
difficulty of obtaining Government permission and partly to the unfortunate
experience of the exporters of the consignment mentioned in paragraph 80. On
the second occasion the Government took drastic action in October to prevent
profiteering, and enacted the formation of committees in various towns to control
prices. The enforcement of this control was apparently abandoned in
consequence of protests by merchants, but they were warned that it would
be applied rigorously if prices again went up. The press announced on the
31st October that the cost of food-stuffs had been restored to normal, and claimed
that prices throughout Saudi Arabia were now more favourable than abroad.
Oil.
150. The California Arabian Standard Oil Company made considerable
progress with their enterprise in Hasa during the year. Drilling continued in
the Jebel Dhahran and oil was struck on or soon after 25th August. Since then
oil has been won at the rate of about 100 barrels a day, but the complete success
of this well as a commercial proposition appears to be hampered by factors too
technical for a layman to explain at second hand but which nave to do, not with