'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎474] (533/714)

474 PERSIA
condition of Persian finance more effectively than the exorbitant
rate of interest cheerfully paid to native usurers. Legal interest
is limited by the Koran to twelve per cent.; but, in the middle of
the century, Lady Sheil recorded that ' it seldom amounts to less
than twenty-five, and often reaches fifty, sixty, or one hundred per
cent. For loans of ready money, native bankers could, till a year
or two ago, easily procure two per cent, per month, settled monthly,
i.e. twenty-nine per cent, per annum. Private money-lenders ex
acted a good deal more.
Such, in outline, was the state of Persian finance when, in 1888,
the Xew Oriental Bank Corporation decided to include Persia
New within the sphere of its Asiatic operations, and opened
Baiik tal branches or established agencies in Teheran, Meshed,
Tabriz, Resht, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Bushire. As a trading
company, dealing in a branch of commerce open to all, it required
no special concession from the Persian Government. Renting a
palatial building occupying one entire side of the Meidan-i-
'1 upkhaneh in the capital, after only a year's existence it already,
at the time of my visit, did a considerable business both there and
in the provinces. The Persians were beginning to understand the
meaning of a deposit account and the value of a fixed and certain
interest upon their savings. The bank paid two and a half per
cent, on current accounts, four per cent, on those running for six
months, and six per cent, on yearly deposits. It had already
lowered the rate of interest on loans to twelve per cent., and was
reported to have lent money to the Shah at from six to eight per
cent. The (Mental Bank had also introduced and familiarised the
natives with a form of paper money, in the shape of cashier's orders,
for sums from five krans upward, payable to the bearer, which en
joyed a considerable circulation in the capital. After an existence
of two years, the Persian branch of the Corporation was bought out
for a substantial sum by the new Imperial Bank of Persia, which,
entering upon the scene under the most favourable auspices, and
with a wider ambition, rendered competition even less desirable
to others than to itself. The Imperial Bank now reigns supreme.
It w 7 as on January 30, 1889, that the Shah signed the pre
liminary concession in favour of Baron de Renter for the Imperial
Bank of Persia. That this concession w T as in some sort an amende
honorable to that gentleman for the scurvy treatment he had
received in respect of the famous Renter Concession of 1872, was