‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎236v] (479/722)

426
1. There are other passes south of Tabnz-Bayazid ; hut all at present labour
under two serious disadvantages. They are difficult ; and caravans are more
or less subject to robbery and blackmail.
Route'3—via Rasht, Baku, and Astrakhan .—This channel absorbs the
chief portion of the trade which reaches the Caspian. When the railways
already indicated have been completed, it is manifest that Rasht will usurp
much of the trade and importance now possessed by Tabriz.
The improvement of the Rasht-Tihran road will increase this tendency,
and if the railway is continued from Rasht to Tihran, routes through
Tabriz will only be used for purely local commerce until new Turkish roads
and railways re-establish the influence of that town.
It is said that Russian trade is daily more and more monopolising the
Reported progress of commerce of the northern provinces of Persia, and would
Russian trade. do so entirely, were it not for the inferior quality of
many Russian articles, as well as on account of their incomprehensible
tariffs. It is also asserted in mercantile circles, that Russian commercial
influence is extending to Isfahan and other southern cities, where formerly
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. commerce held entire predominance. Improved means
of communication in the south of Persia are required to correct tins
gravitation of Persian trade into Russian channels.
Route 4—via the Caspian Sea to the landing-places of Mashhad-i-
Sar (for Barfarush) and Ghaz for Astarabad.—In Mazandaran and Astar-
abad the trade is inconsiderable, compared with the Anzali and Rasht traffic;
but if the harbour of Ghaz were improved, and the roads thence to Tihran,
it would rapidly for a time increase.
Great portions of the Caspian trade are carried on by Armenian subjects
of Russia. Persians do not own the ships of the
Vessels on the Caspian. c ag pj an> There is a weekly service of steamers from
Astrakhan calling at the southern ports; but from November to April only
once a month.
Trade is also canned on by small coasting vessels that frequent the
v i. ,vf iroua smaller harbours along the seaboard. There is a
very large fish trade in small vessels ot ^00
tons. Trade is very much checked in the Caspian, especially on the
south and south-east, by its shelving shores. Large craft cannot
approach near ; and the unloading must be done in flats. The Caspian is,
moreover, a stormy and uncertain sea. We have said that although Ghaz
might with improved roads compete for a time with Rasht for some of the
trade of Tihran, the completion of the railway from Tihran to Rasht, and
from Rasht to Baku, which will doubtless be effected long before railways
run from Herat and Mashhad to Astarabad and Ghaz, would undoubtedly
tend, not only to increase the importance of Anzali, as compared with
Ghaz, but to increase that of Baku, to the disadvantage of all the bad
harbours and uncertain landings of the South Caspian. The greater part of
the trade of (Irak) Gilan and Khurasan, and much even of that of Mazan
daran, will then gravitate to Tihran, or points on the Tihran-Rasht railway,
and pass by Baku to the Casp an, or by Batum to Europe. In a more