'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎100] (147/748)

100
PERSIA
Isfahan); raw sugar from Java and Mauritius; French, German
and Austrian cutlery and crockery; copper sheets from England
and Holland; tea from India, Java, Ceylon, and China, and candles
from Amsterdam. I found the Shirazis very apprehensive of
the opening of the new trade route by the Karun, which, without
interfering with their local traffic, would, if it superseded the
Teheran-Bushire line as the main commercial avenue into Persia
from the south, destroy their transit trade altogether. I had
myself quite sufficient confidence in the temperate pace at which
progress advances in Iran to assure them that there was no
immediate ground for alarm. So obstinate is custom in the East,
that to kill a caravan track that has been followed for a century
is no slight undertaking. I found the chief exports to consist
of opium, 10,000 to 15,000 cases of which were said to be de
spatched yearly from the neighbourhoods of Shiraz and T ezd;
cotton, pressed in Bushire and sold in Bombay; dried fruits,
especially almonds and apricots; and the famous tumbaku, or
tobacco of Shiraz, of which the local crops appeared to be, for the
most part, locally consumed, the bulk of the export to Syria
and Turkey coming from other districts. The wine, for which
Shiraz is famous, is also in such extensive local demand as to leave
no residue for exportation.
Of the vintage of Shiraz I shall have something to say in
a later chapter upon the resources and products of Persia. I
•- „ mav here mention that there are two varieties, a red
Vintage ot J ^ # . i
Shiraz an (l a white wine, which are stored m jars and sold
in glass bottles of curious shape, locally manufactured. I thought
that some old Shiraz wine which I tasted was by far the best
that I had drunk in Persia, an opinion which has apparently
been shared by others before me, seeing that, two centuries ago,
John Struys plaintively remarked that it was 4 held in such
esteem that it was as dear as Canary Sack in the Low Countreys,'
whilst Dr. Fryer, who may be supposed to have given a more
scientific verdict, observed :—
The Wines of the Growth of this Country are esteemed the most
Stomachical and Generous in all Persia, and fittest for common drinking,
when allayed a little with Water, otherwise too heady for the Brain and
heavy for the Stomach, their Passage being retarded for want of that
proper Vehicle. It is incredible to see what quantities they drink at a
merry meeting, and how unconcerned the next day they appear, and