'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎247] (422/524)

247
THE ISLAND OF KISHM, &C.
20 . At present Bunder Abbass, with its adjacent districts of Minao
and Khumeer, is farmed by the Sultan of Muscat at 16,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. ,
equal to about ^ 8,000 per annum, for a term of twenty years, eight
or nine of which have expired. The treaty of lease is dated 1856.
The Sultan in turn sublets the revenue and customs of these districts to
a British Indian subject of the Khoja caste for about 25,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. per
annum, plus the expenses of administration, which may amount to
4,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. more. It is assumed that the revenue from dates collect
ed at Minao covers the 16,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. payable to the Shah, and that
the remaining 13,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , plus the profits of the contractor, are
covered by the customs. The sulphur revenue from Khumeer is at
present very trifling, since it does not compete in the Bombay market
with sulphur brought from Europe, although the Khumeer sulphur is
said to be of superior quality. The Sultan’s Deputy Governor of
Bunder Abbass is an Arab Sheikh, who seems an intelligent man, fa
vourable to commercial interests. It is, indeed, remarkable that the
Arabs, although in general civilization perhaps inferior to the Persians,
are greatly preferred by foreigners as protectors and encouragers of
trade. You may find British Indian traders settled at almost any
Arab Port, but, in so far as I am aware, you will not find a single
Hindoo or Khoja trading either at Bushire, Shiraz, Isfahan, or Tehran.
There may be two or three at Yezd, which latter place is considered by
foreigners the point least interfered with.
21. At Bunder Abbass there are some sixty Khojas, from thirty to
forty Shikarpoory Bunias, and four or five Cutch Bhatias, being princi
pally the Gomashtas or Agents of Sind or Bombay firms. They seem
prosperous and contented, and complain only of difficulties incuned in
collecting their goods and money from the interior.
22 . So unsatisfactory indeed are mercantile transactions in the
interior felt to be, that our British Indian subjects at Bunder Abbass
limit their direct operations and business to the Bunder itself, oi at the
furthest Kerman and Yezd, where they have correspondents oi commis
sion agents, but no transactions seem to be entered into direct between
our subjects on the sea-board, and the Persian subjects residing at Is
fahan, or the capital. The rate of commission allowed has been 2 per
cent, on sales, and the same on purchases; more recently the rate has
been reduced to 1 J percent.