‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎228r] (462/722)

day-labourers, who form a larger part of the population here than elsewhere,
suffered terribly. Isfahan and Yazd are the principal manufacturing districts
of Persia, and in the best of times dependent on Ears and Karmanshah for
a large proportion of their food. The rains of the second winter, 1870-71,
fairly plentiful in the south, were again very scanty in the north and east
of Persia. The harvest consequently failed entirely in many places, and
was everywhere below the average. Still there was plenty of food in the
country, the harvests in the south and west having been fairly good. But
the great landowners, who are also the great corndealers, instigated by
love of filthy lucre, or perhaps, as they declared themselves, by fear of a
third year of famine, held for a rise, utterly indifferent to the sufferings
around them. A few feeble attempts were made at Tihran to check the
impending calamity, but without much effect.
The government granaries were emptied, and grain imported to Tihran
from the fertile districts of the west, and sold at a loss to the bakers. The
governor of Isfahan, a wealthy land-proprietor of Ears, who had been
bringing food from his own estates to Isfahan, was recalled, in obedience
to popular clamours; and the distress in that city at once rapidly increased.
Orders were sent to the authorities in the suffering towns, to register the
amount of grain in the storehouses of private parties; but the order only
served to enrich the men to whom its execution was entrusted, who were
bribed to silence by the possessors of secret hoards of grain, who again
were, strange to say, in Shiraz and Isfahan at all events, perfectly well
known.
During the summer of 1871 the fruits and vegetables, so plentiful in
Persia, kept the people alive; but as the autumn advanced, crowds of
diseased and famished wretches, bringing pestilence in their train, thronged
round the cities they were not permitted to enter, clamouring for food.
Others beset the caravansarais on the great roads, to beg from travellers
and feed on the dead bodies of camels and mules.
The winter rains of 1871 commenced early; and before the end of the
year a heavy fall of snow covered the land, and cut off all communication
between the capital and the villages, whence the landowners, in whose
granaries all the corn of the country was collected, were doling out scanty
supplies. This put the finishing stroke to the calamities of the country.
The winter was the coldest and most prolonged ever known. Thoxisands
died of hunger; thousands more of cold and disease. But this was the end
of the famine. With the return of spring, it became evident that the
coming harvest would be most abundant. All motive for hoarding having
ceased, food became comparatively cheap and plentiful at once; though
strenuous efforts were made here and there to keep up the prices. For
instance, at Isfahan, in April 1872, a large quantity of corn was known to
be on the way from Shiraz. The news caused all stores to be opened, and
prices fell rapidly. This was taken advantage of by the Imam Juma, or
head of the priesthood, and .Rahim Khan, the principal customs officer, the
two most notable inhabitants, to flan an operation. After proclaiming
the advent of the corn from Shiraz, and pretending to dispose of the entire
contents of their own granaries,—while secretly buying up all the corn they
could find, through agents,—Rahim Khan took advantage of his position
to prevent the Shiraz caravan from passing the frontier; and the two
worthies, having thus complete command of the market, raised the price
of bread 400 per cent, in a single night. Unfortunately they reckoned
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