'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎209] (244/714)

POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KIIOEASAN
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. equal to 1Z.), 1 of wliich it was calculated that 30,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
would be levied on goods from Bunder Abbas, and 20,000 on goods
from the whole of the rest of Persia and from Russia, the latter
not even amounting to one-half of the lesser fraction.
This assurance struck me as requiring elucidation at the time ;
and I have since been able to explain and in some respects to
Report Of correct it % tlie mu ch fuller details contained in an ad-
ConSktf mirable commercial report compiled by Consul-General
Maclean in the past year (1890), the first that has
ever been issued from Meshed or Khorasan, and in itself an ample
justification of the presence of a British consular staff in so impor
tant a trade centre as Meshed. This publication is contained in
the series of Diplomatic and Consular Reports on trade and finance,
ak; issued by the English Foreign Office; and will no doubt be the first
of an annual series. 2
is, ft: From this report I gather that the total value of Anglo-Indian
goods imported into Khorasan in 1889-90 (the Persian year is
Values Of counted from the vernal equinox, i.e. from March 21,
British 1889, to March 21, 1890) was 84,300Z., and the total
Russian value of Russian goods 110,400Z. But to the former
imports s ] 10ll l ( | certainly be added a considerable portion of the
value of the Chinese black and green teas, shipped from Bombay,
and no doubt for the most part purchased and brought from China
by British merchants. The total value of this Chinese tea was
433,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or 123,714^ ; but very nearly the whole of it only
passes through Meshed in transit to Bokhara, Khiva, &c., the taste
of the Khorasanis being partial to Indian black tea, of which an
import of 12,000?. is included in the total of Anglo-Indian imports
already quoted. The addition thereto of a large fraction of the
value of the Chinese tea will explain the otherwise ambiguous
statement of my informants.
Here let me pause to consider and balance the facilities at the
disposal of the rival European Powers for trade with Khorasan.
Lidf 0 " Nominally there are three trade routes available for
trade British or Anglo-Indian imports, in practice only two.
routes First is the lengthy overland journey via Teheran and
Tabriz from the Turkish port of Trebizond, in the angle of the Black
1 Conolly mentions that in 1830 the customs dues of Meshed were farmed for-
15,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. .— Overland Journey to India, vol. i. p. 291.
2 Annual Series, 1890, No. 753,
VOL. I. p