تقارير ومراسلات تتعلق ببلاد فارس، بما يشمل التجارة ومساراتها في بلاد فارس [و‎‎٧‎٩] (٢٥٢/١٥٧)

GOVERNMENT OP INDIA.
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.
THE TRADE RETURNS OF THE QUETTA-SEISTAN TRADE ROUTE FOR THE
YEAR 1900-1901.
1. As no Consular Report dealing with trade with Persia by the Nushki-
Seistan trade route is available, the following notes, which have no pretensions
to being a trade report, have been prepared in the hope that they may prove to
be of some little use to merchants and others who are interested in this trade.
2. A reference to the trade returns which are annexed will shew that the
value of the trade which passed through Nushki, last year, aggregated
Rs. 15,34,452, as against Rs. 12,35,411 for the preceding twelve months, or, in *
other words, that the advance in value which trade has made during the year
under review was Rs. 2,99,041. Two years ago the value of the import and
export trade through Nushki amounted collectively to Rs. 7,28,082; it will
thus be perceived that trade by the Nushki-Seistan trade route has more than
doubled in value in the space of the last two years—a result wdiich cannot but
be considered satisfactory as evidence of the steady and progressive advance
which the trade route is making.
3. During the past year much has been done to ameliorate the conditions
under which trade with Southern Khorasan laboured. One of the most import
ant concessions, granted by Government, is that by which money can be remit
ted to either Seistan or Brrjand, or received from either of these places, through
the medium of a Consular Treasury which has been opened in Seistan, and
placed under the charge of the British Vice-Consul there. This concession is
very popular and was taken full advantage of during the recent trading season.
4. Another concession which is calculated to exercise a marked influence
in the development of the trade route is that which admits of rebates, to the
extent of one-third of the actual carriage, being granted on the railway freight
of certain goods exported from, and all goods imported into, India through
Quetta and Nushki. In the case of imports this concession, at present, refers
onlv to goods received at Quetta and despatched thence to Karachi or to North
Western Railway stations in the Punjab and North-Western Provinces, or to
stations on railway lines allied to the North Western Railway ; and in the case
of exports to certain goods despatched either from Karachi or from certain speci
fied stations in the Punjab and North-Western Provinces : but negotiatious are
on foot and it is likely that the number of railway systems to which this conces
sion applies will be shortly increased.
5. It used to be a common complaint among traders that there was no
place available in Quetta where they could store their merchandise or live
while they were engaged in selling their goods or in making their purchases,
and they further complained that if they brought their goods into the bazar,
the Quetta Municipal authorities forthwith mulcted them in dues which,
although termed octroi, in reality were transit dues. These grievances were real
ones, and were rectified, at the close of the past year, by the conversion of the
Quetta District Police Thana into a musafirkhana, and by additions and enlarge
ments to the building which are calculated to meet all the requirements of
traders. The new caravanserai is situated in the immediate neighbourhood of
the railway station and a special cart-road and platform, built by the Railway
authorities, provide an easy means of access to it. As the building is outsice of
Municipal limits, it is exceptionally well adapted for the purpose for which it
has been set apart.
6. To meet yet another equally pressing requirement Khan Bahadur
Mirza Mohamed Taki, an old and respected Government pensioner, has been
entrusted with the charge of the caravanserai with duties to assist in every
wav, travellers and merchants arriving in Quetta, to prevent them from being
cheated by unscrupulous persons and to aid them in selling and purchasing