"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي بقلم جورج ناثانييل كرزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٥‎٦‎٨] (٧٤٨/٦٥٩)

-568
PERSIA
the advantage, while in piece goods England will continue to
compete with her on rather better than even terms.
It is difficult to analyse the items composing this northern trade,
owing to the absence of any recent statistics. The latest figures
5. Resht- ^ ^ a ve seen relating to Resht are those of the year
Teheran 1883, which return the trade passing through the Custom
house of Enzeli as: imports, 376,443Z.; exports, 259,250/.;
total volume, 1 635,693/. The figures for the same year relating
to Meshed-i-Ser give the imports as 179,746/.; exports, 135,710/.;
6. Meshed- total, 315,456/. I cannot feel certain of the accuracy of
Teheran either of these computations. In both cases the entire
hue carrying trade by sea is in Russian hands, and the bulk of
the imports will come from, just as the bulk of the exports will go
to, Russia. Unfortunately, the Russian trade reports do not distin
guish between the goods entering or leaving Persia at the several
Caspian ports, but lump their figures together with those of the
trade across the land frontiers.
Roughly speaking, the north-eastern zone consists of the
extensive and wealthy province of Khorasan, upon whose trade I
N.E. zone have dwelt at length in my first volume. The lines of
AsSabad strategical entry into this region, previously indicated^
line correspond with the main avenues of commerce. These
are two in number: the route for sea-borne goods from Gez, in the
south-east angle of the Caspian, tu Astrabad and Shahrud—again
8. Ashk- a Russian monopoly—and the new line in connection with
Meshed Transcaspian Railway at Ashkabad, of which the same
line control must be predicated. Prior to the opening of the
latter during the last decade, the Gez-Astrabad route was the main
avenue of entry for Russian merchandise into north-east Persia,
which from that base was diffused throughout Khorasan, supplied
Meshed, and penetrated to Herat. The returns for the year 1881^
in which the Transcaspian Railway reached Ashkabad, and the
last year, therefore, of the Gez trade route monopoly, were as.
follows:—imports, 287,640/., of which 256,000/. were in piece
goods (chiefly from Moscow, although some came from England via
Constantinople) ; exports, 86,280/., of which nearly half was silk ^
total, 373,920/. 1 These figures, which were compiled by Colonel
Lovett, then British Consul at Astrabad, do not correspond with
1 I have seen the figures for 1883 given as: imports, £209,448; exports,.
£274,515 ; but am at a loss to understand how the latter total could be explained.