'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎211] (246/714)

POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KIIOEASAN 2u
Persian merchants, pay a further two and a half per cent, upon
entering Khorasan, or seven and a half per cent, in all. Similarly
the total of dues levied on the Kerman route from Bunder Abbas
will be about seven and a half per cent. ; and by the more circuit
ous Yezd route nine per cent. The excess above the stipulated
Ave per cent, would be avoided if there were British consignees
at the destination. Another plan of the Persian Custom-house
officers at the ports is to levy less than the stipulated five per cent,
there but to give no voucher for the sum received; and thus to
provide their confraternity in the remaining cities with the oppor
tunity not merely of making up the five per cent., but sometimes
ot almost doubling its amount.
These are the disadvantages under which British or An^lo-
ndian trade labours. Russia has at her command four trade
Eussian r 1 " outes : (1) the Tifiis-Tabriz-Teheran line ; (2) the Resht-
routes ^ e ! ieran line 5 ^ the Gez-Astrabad-Shahrud line ; and
( ) the Ashkabad-Kuchan line in connection with the
Transcaspian railway. The three first have been practically super
seded by the last, which is only 150 miles in length, which is being
converted along its entire distance into a carriageable highway, and
w ich, m narrating my own journey, I have already described. 1
x o words are needed to explain the enormous advantage of which
she is the possessor; an advantage with which we are only able to
compete because of her inability to supply some of the largest
articles of import, such as tea and indigo; and because of the
as } et, superior quality of British manufactures. None the iess
it _is_ not surprising to find the British consul summarising his
opinion of the situation in these words :
It is obvious that with the Transcaspian railway at Ashkabad, onl y
150 miles from Meshed, and with both towns linked as they shortly
will be by an excellent macadamised 2 road, British goods, havin^ to
cross the seas and traverse long, rough land routes cannot hope to com
pete with Russian goods, even in these provinces of Persia, unless our
railway is extended in this direction.
Russia is thoroughly alive to the advantage of her situation,
three^fonfT ^ ,Wl) ^ ^ <•»-» by two'.
Meshed sectionthe nmd. ^ ^ mUle ^ ^ 0 " K " Cb -
'V-f ' Ms word is 11 misnomer, tor I am convineed that were the oriifinal
road hp 1 " 0 i r : ai ^ d fr0m the dead and dro PP ed down on the Ashkabad-Meshed
he W0Uld Stand a S hast at su ch a prostitution of his respectable name.