'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎209] (218/568)

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
about equal proportion by the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary
Grermany, Belgium, and France,
Silks.—There has been a moderate import of silk and silk goods
to Baghdad (>£30,000—70,000). India took the lead in this market
until 1912 5 in that year and the following the import was princi
pally from China. A small amount of silk went to Diarbekr and
Mosul from France and Italy.
Gimnies. —India supplies Mesopotamia with gunny bags for pack
ing grain, &c., the demand varying with the amount of the harvest.
The import at Basra was valued at £111,027 in 1911, at <£95,784 iii
1912, and at £76,992 in 1913.
Sugar. —The market for sugar in Irak had expanded greatly in the
years before the war, but was heavily overstocked in 1913, when
^™i mp0rt -^Shdad was valued at £383,563, and that at Basra at
Before 1913 the greater part of the sugar imported to Irak had
been loaf, but in that year great quantities of crushed sugar were
landed at Basra, valued at £480,999 as against £240,100 worth of
loaf. As, however, the country was passing through a depression in
trade, the demand was not nearly correspondent to the supply, and
great stocks were left on the hands of the importers, and much of the
import did not in that year reach Baghdad.
On the Baghdad market in 1913 Belgium had about 44 per cent,
of the import. Belgian loaf-sugar, manufactured at the Raffinerie
Tirlemontoise and shipped by the Hamburg-Amerika line, had in
1909 displaced French loaf from the lead in the markets of southern
Mesopotamia. (It has been mentioned above that this import of
Belgian sugar was one of the chief means used by the Germans in
their commercial attack on Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .)
Germany had about 19 per cent, of the sugar import to Baghdad and
Austria-Hungary about 18 per cent. These countries had most of
the trade in crystal sugar. The balance of the import was divided
between the United Kingdom, France, India, and the Netherlands.
Egyptian and Hong-Kong sugars (the latter imported by Japanese)
at present hold the market. It is believed that the sugar refined at
Hong-Kong is grown in Java or Mauritius.
In Arabistan the import of sugar in 1912-13 was valued at
=£125,829 (£63,937 loaf, £61,892 crystal). The loaf was chiefly
Belgian, the crystal mostly Austro-Hungarian.
The value of the sugar import at Diarbekr in 1913 was £35,000.
Austria-Hungary had about 75 per cent, of the trade, and Belgium
the rest.
JMcichincfy, The import of machinery to Irak for agricultural
mes. i o
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