'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎226] (235/568)

226
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
which dates from 1908, is increasing. The value of silks exported
from Diarbekr was in 1907 £50,000; in 1913 silk was exported to
the value of £33,000, and cocoons valued at £300. There is also an
annual export of silk from Mosul and Baghdad valued at a few
hundred pounds. In former times the cultivation of the silk-worm
was one of the most important industries in Irak ; for some reason,
however, the industry died out, but is now said to be reviving, and
very large numbers of mulberry-trees have been planted in the
neighbourhood of Baqubeh, about thirty miles from Baghdad.
Petroleum. —The export of oil is confined to the produce of the
Arabistan field, Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This company began
operations on a considerable scale only in 1912, and the quantity
of Persian oil on the market at Basra in that year was insignificant.
The season of 19.13-14 was the first in which the company
attained full marketing strength ; Anglo-Persian oil was proved to
be satisfactory both in quality and price, and gained quickly in
popularity; since the beginning of 1914 it has maintained a strong
hold on local markets. In 1913 products of the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company were imported to Basra from Mohammareh to the extent of
179,294 cases, and in the same year were put on the market at Baghdad
for the first time in any appreciable quantity, being responsible for
48 per cent, of the total importation. See further pp. 229-30.
Other Exports. —These included opium and carpets, both of which
came from Persia; the opium was brought to Baghdad and forwarded
to Hong-Kong ; carpets were exported to Constantinople, Syria,
London, and America. Copper from the Arghana Ma'den mines in
the Diarbekr vilayet was, before the war, exported to England to the
value of about £35,000 annually (see below, p. 229). Dog manure
was sent to Austria to be used in the manufacture of gloves, intes
tines for the manufacture of sausages, and almond kernels, which
are used in the making of prussic acid, were exported to the Conti
nent ; colocynth, from which a drug with strong cathartic properties
is manufactured, and which grows in the neighbourhood of Mosul,
was also exported.
Industries
The industries of the country were carried on before the war
almost entirely without modern machinery. In Irak there were a
few mechanical flour-mills, ice-machines, wool-presses, &c., mostly
at Baghdad, and the Baghdad Army Clothing Factory An East India Company trading post. had recently
been provided with Austrian plant. These instances, together with
the oil-pumps used for irrigation (see p. 160), the machinery employed
on the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's workings, and that introduced