تقارير ومراسلات تتعلق ببلاد فارس، بما يشمل التجارة ومساراتها في بلاد فارس [ظ‎‎٤] (٢٥٢/٨)

REPORT ON TRADE OF PERSIA.
The most cultivated, populous, and prosperous provinces o( Persia in
t/ToTenSe Knd
t0 WelonVtresUblSed ,aw and order in the Persian Gulf, giving our
tradT secure access to Bunder Abbas and Bushire, f'f’ ° t han
! Ue b Z z^nd 31 ^Britfsh ^enterprisef llsoesTablLhed a^teamer service to Bagdad.
Len!n e another trade route 5 to Hamadan. The great impetus g.ven to our
trade b g y these measures was already evident some i° or'5 years ago, »
further facilities for reaching ? ew - or R les ? en . in S °! h C e °w f Se that
existini? markets have not arisen. But it is during the last decade tnat
measures tending to increase Russian trade with Persia have produce
^^The conquest of Transcaspia enabled the Persian province of Khorassan to
devote itself in security to the agricultural development of its fertile soil, an
the opening of the Transcaspian railway provided an outlet for these products,
which could not afford the long and costly transport to the Gulf.
Meantime the manufacturing centres of Russia—formerly more distant in
time and cost of transport, through the vast extent of Russia itself, from Persian
markets than we were—have been brought gradually nearer by improved
steamer and rail communications. Water-borne transport by the V olga and
Caspian has long existed, but has been accelerated and cheapened It is
available however for the summer months only. Petrovsk and Baku now
afford transport by rail the whole year round at freights only slightly higher
than by the Volga route. _
The construction of the Batoum-Baku Railway and the Akstafa-Julfa
road opened to Odessa and Black Sea ports a trade route to Azerbaijan superior
in time and cost of transport to the Trebizond route, from which European
merchandise for Persia was quickly diverted to it; but this door was soon
barred to imports not of Russian origin.* The superiority of th,s route
increases as the railway from Tiflis, now open to Envan, extends to the
frontier at Julfa, which it is expected to reach within two years.
All these measures of improved communication have been justified bv
the development of the Russian territories w'hich they have penetrated and
Kpnpfilpd hut thev have equally served to facilitate both import and export
trade with Persia.
The merchandise which can be most quickly supplied to a depleted
market reaps the best profit. There is also a saving of interest and a more
rapid turn-over of capital when goods take a shorter time m transit. The
improvement in communications with Russia has materially reduced the time
occupied in transport, and Russian merchandise now arrives in the markets
of northern Persia perhaps three months or less from date of order, whilst our
goods can seldom reach the same destinations within five or even six months
of order.
Russia possesses in the Armenian trader a suitable agent to press trade in
the somewhat limited markets of Persia. He is a keen trader, living in the
fashion of the country at small expense, and speaking and writing the language
of both the Russian Armenian and of the Persian with whom he deals.
For years past Russia has opposed a formidable Customs tariff to the
import of many foreign commodities, but Persia has been protected against
this tariff by the five per cent, ad valorem duties of the Turkomanchai treaty,
and some of her products will continue to be protected under the existing
Russo-Persian Customs Convention. It is almost surprising that Persian
exports to Russia have not increased in greater measure. With a similar
advantage we might have competed at Moscow via Bushire and Enzelp in
those red ground prints now being driven out of Teheran by the Russian
article. The most important exports to Russia are fruits, cotton and rice,
representing a million sterling annually.
* Exp orts to Europe continue to benefit, perhaps at the expense of imports, which have to bear the cost of
returning unlreighted caravans to Trebizond.