'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎215] (224/568)

COMMEKCE AND INDUSTRY
215
could be popularized as an article of food in that country, a large
increase in the trade from Mesopotamia would follow. According to
figures in the consular trade reports, the amount of dates exported
from Basra rose from 31,250 tons in 1906 to 66,169 in 1911.
In this year the export was valued at £457,795, while in 1912
a decreased export of 61,490 tons was valued at a considerably higher
figure, viz. £471,119 ; the price per ton in that year was £7 135. 3d ;
in 1913, 75,368 tons were exported, valued at £582,074.
Very little information as to trade since the war is available;
it is reported however, that in 1916 dates were sent from Basra to
London, Bombay, Karachi, and New York, to the amount of about
85,000 tons valued at £890,000. The marked difference between
the estimate for this year and the estimates for the years before the
war is probably explained, at least partly, by the fact that pre-war
statistics relating to trade were by no means exhaustive, and the
export figures in many cases underestimated.
The average price of hallawis, and in recent
years has been roughly 8s., 65., and 45. per cwt. respectively.
Exports of dates from Arabistan rose from an average of about
2,000 tons between 1905 and 1908 to 6,303 tons in 1912, but fell
again to 3,177 in 1913; dates grown on the Persian side of the
Shatt el-Arab are usually found to be inferior to those grown on
the opposite bank; this is said to be owing to the better cultiva
tion on the Turkish side. Dates grown in Arabistan are principally
sairs.
Wheat and Barley. —The volume of the export trade from Mesopo
tamia in wheat and barley, although in favourable years considerable,
has been liable to very great fluctuations. This is due to a variety of
causes: in seasons where there is a deficiency of rainfall, or where
the supply of water for irrigation is low, the export dwindles
almost to nothing; tribal fighting has frequently prevented the
shipping of the grain down the river; and other local conditions,
such as the serious outbreak of cholera in 1911, may cause consider
able dislocation in the trade. In years of scarcity an embargo has
been placed by the Turkish Government on the export of grain
from the country, or even from one vilayet to another ; at such times
grain has been imported from India. Although the embargo may
have occasionally been necessary in order to avert famine, it has been
suggested that it did not in every case owe its existence to economic
reasons.
The grain trade has also been seriously affected in the past by the
amount of dirt which has been found to be mixed with the corn ; this
has even been known to reach 37 per cent. In 1912 the principal