'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎527] (590/714)

THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES
also. Woollen goods to the value of from 30,000/. to 40 000/.
come from Bradford ; but a rather larger proportion (40 000/ to
50,000/.) hails from Austria and Germany, the bulk of these beW
woollen cloths of stiff texture and lustrous surface, which are
manufactured in the former country. Tea to the value of 107 000/
comes from London and Amsterdam, chiefly the former Russia
sends half the glassware and crockery • Austria and Germany the
other half. 1 he two last-named countries share with France the
haberdashery, and with France and Italy the velvets and silks
Bavaria supplies the gold lace and thread. Of the total of imports
above quoted for 1889, the proportions claimed by Russia and
other European countries are respectively as follows
From Europe Prom Russia
£ 192,340 £61,551
Roughly speaking, England may be said to take about 80 per
cent of the import and 10 to 12 per cent, of the export trade.
a bove figures represent the European import trade from Trebi-
zond, and the Russian import trade by the two routes of Tiflis and
Julfa, and, on a rather larger scale, via Ardebil, from the little
port of Astara, on the Caspian. European goods in small quantities
enter Azerbaijan from other quarters, viz. via Aleppo and Mosul
rom Alexandretta, and via Suleimanieh from Baghdad, but the
returns of this traffic are not forthcoming.
If we turn to the component items of the export table it is
not surprising to find that Russia, by virtue of her neighbourhood
Export an d the handy market thereby supplied to local produce,
® claims a large preponderance—266,439/., as compared
with the 123,017/. of other countries. 1 Of the former total, by far
t e largest item consists of dried fruits, raisins, apricots, and
almonds, which to the united value of nearly 200,000/. in 189o' (and
m 1888 of 222,000/.) were exported from the plains of Urumiah
and Maragha by Russian Armenians through Ardebil and Astara
or shipment to Baku. Of the latter, or European total, the largest
items are carpets, which to the value of 42,260/. were exported,
principally to England and America, and tumbaJcu, or Shiraz tobacco,
to the value of 36,290/., which goes to fill the hubble-bubbles in
The figures here quoted of Russian imports and exports are taken from the
British Consular Reports, and do not exactly tally with those given in the
cia Eeports published at St. Petersburg, where the total of Russian imports is
e urned as 74,624Z., and of Persian exports to Russia as 318 7511.
I