'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎208] (243/714)

PERSIA
The trade is now extinct, and no sugar, either loaf or crushed, but
Russian is seen. Russian kerosine from Baku commands the
market. In 1888-9, 36,000 pouds were imported into Meshed.
Lamps, chandeliers, candle-shades, lustres, trays, glasses, tumblers,
samovars, teapots, saucers, locks, and cheap cutlery are all of
Russian origin, and suggest to the casual observer that the supply
of the entire furniture of life has been monopolised by Russian
enterprise.
While I was in Meshed, I took such steps as were open to me,
by consulting the best authorities, including Messrs. Ziegler's
Persian agent, the sole European mercantile house represented
figures there, to ascertain the true state of affairs, and more
especially the respective volumes and values of Russian and Anglo-
Indian trade. It is well known that in Persia it is almost im
possible to obtain statistics, and that such as are with infinite
difficulty procurable are too often imperfect or erroneous. Calcu
lations as to the total amount of trade are frequently made from
Custom-house returns, which do not necessarily supply a reliable
basis of induction. Figures are readily given by European
merchants or their agents ; but native merchants either do not
care to disclose them, or sometimes do not keep them at all.
Therefore, of neither the figures which I am about to give, nor of
those published by the officials of the British Government, can
absolute accuracy be postulated in Khorasan any more than in
other parts of Persia. They may be regarded, however, as ap
proximately correct.
I was assured by my informants in Meshed that, while the
volume of trade in Khorasan was indisputably Russian, the value
was still on the side of the English. The cheaper objects
mationTn which were everywhere visible and which flood the petty
Meshed retail shops all hailed from Russia, and competition with
them was impossible; but the more costly imports, entering
Khorasan partly from the west, via Tabriz, Teheran, and Shahrud,
but in far greater quantity from the south, via Bunder Abbas on
the sea, and Kerman, were of British or Anglo-Indian origin, and
estimated in £ s. d., it could be demonstrated that Meshed at that
moment did a larger trade with Bombay than it did with the whole
of Russia. For instance, the customs dues for Meshed for the year
1888 (i.e., the octroi collected on imported merchandise) had been
bought from the Government for the sum of 50,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. (3^