"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد I. ١٩١٨" [‎١‎٩‎٩] (٥٦٨/٢٠٨)

COMMEKCE AND INDUSTRY
199
At the end of 1913 the ocean steamer service to Basra was carried
on by the following lines:
The Ellerman and Bucknall Steamship Company, Ltd. (from
England).
The Strick Line (from England).
Messrs, Marcus Samuel & Co, (from England).
Messrs. Andrew Weir & Co, (from England).
The British India Steam Navigation Company (from Bombay and
Karachi).
The Arab Steamers, Ltd. (from Bombay).
The Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Company (from
Bombay).
The Haji Sultan AH Shushtari Line (from Bombay),
The Hamburg-Amerika Line (German, from Hamburg and
Antwerp).
The Russian Steamship Navigation Company (from Odessa).
The value of trade carried by German vessels in the years 1911-13,
according to German returns, was as follows :
1911.—Imports, £397,960 (13-9 per cent, of the total imports).
Exports, £294,142 (11-6 per cent, of the total exports).
1912.—Imports, £528,415 (20 per cent, of the total imports).
Exports, £375,760 (11-5 per cent, of the total exports).
1913.—Imports, £1,957,489 (50 per cent, of the total imports). 1
Exports, £226,212 (11-7 per cent, of the total exports).
In 1917 the service between Basra and India was being carried on
by the following lines:
The British India Steam Navigation Company.
The Arab Steamers, Ltd.
The Persian Gulf Steam Navigation Company.
The Haji Sultan Ali Shushtari Line.
The Abad Company (Japanese steamers under the nominal charter
of Mirza Mohammed Shirazi).
Basra
Data for comparing the different shares of foreign countries in the
Basra market are lacking.
As regards the export of the produce of the Basra vilayet the
following points may be noticed:
A large part of the date harvest of the Shatt el-Arab went to the
United States, the United Kingdom, and India.
Rice and paddy went to the United Kingdom and Germany.
GM went to India and the Levant.
1 The increase in this year was mainly in railway material and sugar.