"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٠‎٩‎٥] (١٢٦٢/٦١٢)

2096
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cticauic,* in view of the fact that scarcely any other means than by sea are available
for dispQ^S ^ P 1 ' 0 ^ 1106, ^ thinly veiled and quasi surreptitious export is under
stood to be carried on at Bushire itself during these embargoes. 3
In regard to the following year, April 1894 to March 1895, the
Resident wrote
The beginning of the year saw a revival of the vexatious and useless embargo on
the export of wheat. The action taken was sudden ; it was unexpected also in view
of the fact that the previously existing embargo had only been removed three months
before; indeed, everything connected with this mischievous measure was irregular,
capricious and uncertain. Difficulties at once arose in regard to stock for export already
purchased or contracted for, and were not arranged without much trouble. British
merchants protested, and the newly appointed Governor, immediately on his arrival,
sought our support in representations at Tehran against the measure on the ground of
its uselessness as regards its ostensible object—the relief of scarcity at Shiraz—which
the miserable state of the road and the cost of transport practically barred, and the
injury to the producers in view of the abundant harvest in the coast districts. A certain
remedy for the situation after Persian methods was soon found in an extensive evasion
of the edict, considerable shipments beingimade with very transparent secrecy, with
the result that export to the value of over £21,000 was effected during a year over three-
fourths of which the embargor ested. So good a harvest would, however, doubtless have
produced a heavier export under normal conditions as the uncertainty and vexatious
to which the trade was liable could not but operate to materially restrict it.
In 1895-96 grain was again subject to a nominal embargo throughout
the year; but the prohibition was freely evaded during the greater part
of the period. One of the chief recommendations of the measure in the
eyes of the local Persian officials was still, clearly, the means which it
afforded of extorting money from merchants—in the form of doucaurs
for connivance at evasion'—^without open violation of the treaty rights of
foreigners.
The working of the Persian customs in relation to British trade also,
at times, gave cause for serious dissatisfaction.
In 1856, the Persian authorities having enhanced the revenue payable 1856—92
by the Arab Shaikh who then governed Lingah, the Shaikh in his turn
sought, apparently at the suggestion of the Persian authorities themselves,
to increase the rates at which customs duty was recovered from
merchants. The British India traders of Lingah at once protested, and
tbey were supported by the British authorities in their refusal to pay
customs at a higher rate than the 5 per cent, ad valorem sanctioned by
the Anglo-Persian Commercial Treaty of 1841, which was then still
in force.
British trade
and the
Persian
* The meaning seems to be that, though export b>y sea might be prevented, other
districts of Persia would not benefit on account of the badness of internal communica-
tions, and that the measui e could therefore hardly be successful.