'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎625] (694/714)

RAILWAYS
625
along which railways in Persia would be feasible, and may en
deavour in this way to form some sort of plan of campaign upon
which, as soon as the favourable moment occurs, British commerce
or capital may proceed to act in the future.
Railroads in Persia, or from its frontiers to the interior, may be
classified according to the direction from which they may be ex-
Possible pected to enter or to traverse Persian territory—i.e.,
SunPer- e ^ ier ^ r01T1 north, the east, the south, or the west,
sia Along the north there are four possible lines of approach.
The first of these, if we commence our survey from the north-west
angle of Persia, would be a line from Tiflis, or from some other
station more to the east on the Tiflis-Baku Kailwav, via
1 Tiflis- . •
Tabriz- Brivau and Julfa to Tabriz, and thence via Kazvin to
Teheran Teheran, following more or less closely the present postal
route from the Caucasus to the Persian capital. As I have pointed
out, a concession for such a line has once, if not more than once,
been granted, and at one time the Russians talked confidently
about its early execution. Such a line would possess certain com
mercial advantages, at least to Russian industry. It would lead
directly from Russian territory to Tabriz, the mercantile capital
and largest distributing centre of Persia. It would open up the
wealthy and fertile province of Azerbaijan, and it would facilitate
the Russian import trade into the interior of the country. I do
not myself, however, think that it is likely, for some time at least,
to be undertaken, and certainly not to be carried beyond Tabriz—
for the reason that the project would be too distinctively Russian
to interest the capital of other countries, and that the returns
would, for a long while, be too small to pay any interest to Russia
upon her original outlay. Already the proximity of her frontier
provides her with an easy access to the Tabriz market, while her
monopoly of the Caspian gives her the choice of more than one
entry into Teheran. British goods would only profit by such a
railway in the case of its being carried beyond Tabriz, which, since
the final abolition by Russia of the Caucasian transit trade in 1883,
they approach overland from Trebizond. The volume, however, of
this trade beyond Tabriz is not sufficient to make the matter one
of paramount moment to British commerce ; the more so as other
projects are in existence for approaching Teheran from the south or
west, whereby English trade would be much more decisively and
solely the gainer.
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