'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎215] (250/714)

1 iii D oth
5 ^liafj-
Grand
total
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN
Adding up the entire totals, we arrive at the following
hypothetical estimate of the trade of Khorasan
£110,400
60,800
23,400
15,700
17,300
£227,600
Grand total £39(5,300.
Exports to Russia and Europe £111,400
Exports to India 39,000
„ Afghanistan . . 18,300
Total of exports
Imports from Russia . .
„ „ India . . .
,, „ Great Britain
,, » Europe . .
„ „ Afghanistan
Total of imports
From this total we must make a considerable reduction, on
account of the goods that are reckoned in it more than once, first
upon entering the province and then upon leaving it. On the
other hand, the figures of export via Teheran, Tabriz, and Trebi-
zond do not appear. The absence of any figures of the Perso-
Bokharan trade does not make as much difference as might other
wise be expected, the Persian exports to Bokhara consisting
almost wholly of Anglo-Indian goods, tea, indigo, muslin, &c.,
which have already been reckoned in the Bunder Abbas importa
tions.
Having analysed the present situation, and endeavoured to
some extent to forecast the future of foreign trade with Khorasan,
faken b 0 be ^ n0t be 0Ut 0f " place if 1 liere inclicate sucl1 steps as
Great y might with advantage be taken by the British Govern-
Bntam ment, in order to retain and develop that share of the
business which they naturally possess, and to prevent an ultimate
loss of the remainder. Five such precautionary measures are
withm the range of practicability, although I fear that their
probability is not in each case in the same ratio. British con
sular officials should be appointed to superintend and protect the
principal trade route from the south. When I was at Bunder
Abbas there was not a single European in the place, and only an
unaccredited and purely unofficial representative of British mer
cantile interests. A British Vice-Consul might most opportunely
be appointed at Kerman, and a Consular agent at Yezd, or vice
versa. Secondly, the road running northward from Kerman, via
Eahwar, Nahiband and Tun, which is the principal caravan route
rom the Gulf to Meshed, might with ease and at a small expense
be vastly improved by clearing out and resuscitating the filled-up
wells and water-courses by which it was once fertilised. Thirdly,
I see no reason why not only should the existing route be
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