"معاملات الجمعية الجغرافية في بومباي. من يناير ١٨٦٣ حتى ديسمبر ١٨٦٤. (تحرير السكرتير.) المجلد XVII." [‎٤‎٩] (٥٢٤/٢١٤)

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AROUND THE SHORE LINE OF THE PERSIAN GULF. 49
shipping of an average London yard. The imaginative mind of
Persia Attributes to this, her almost sole sea-port, an incomparable
commerce. But the common place sense of an Englishman, weighs upon
the facts of the terms of the farm from a Government not celebrated
for generosity; of the paucity of square-rigged vessels in the roads
there is at this moment not one of the straggling in from time to time
of a single Bombay bugla, three parts in ballast, haying dropped the
bulk of her cargo at Abbass or Lingah ; of the closing of the native
craft trade with India during the South-west Monsoon; of Bushire
being a town containing some 10,000 inhabitants only ; of the paucity
of fodder and supplies along the Shiraz road ; of the smallness of the
caravans, numbering from 50 to GO mules ; and finally on the fact that,
when Bunder Abbass was blockaded a few years ago, and its trade
thrown for the moment along the Bushire road, the price of carriage
at Bushire to Shiraz, a distance of some 180 miles, rose from 15 or
17 Krans per mule to 80 Kraus.*
56. The physical disadvantages of Bushire as a port are consider
able. It is a roadstead only partially protected against the prevail
ing winds from the North-west. The anchorage is 4 miles from the
landing place. Communication with shipping by boats is always slow
either to or from the bunder, and is sometimes wholly cut off for days
together during a strong North-wester.
57. The port enjoys a management differing from ours. Boats
cannot go off after sunset, nor move to land cargo until the Manifest
has been seen by the Governor.']' English trade is rated under
^ Of course carriage at Busliire being adjusted to its average trade^ any sudden,
influx of extraneous goods would have temporarily raised the rates of carriage to an
arbitrary maximum. Still, the distance to Shiraz being so short, and the rise so
enormous in rate, tend to show that the Bushire trade cannot bear those cahs which
really large trade usually can sustain without ruinous effects.
t The landing of goods and the embarkation of goods at Bushire are a monopoly
in the hands of a man called a Hamal Bashee. He farms this business, and no
person other than he is allowed to land or embark goods.
It is true that it would be open to an English merchant to introduce his own cargo
boats; but then he must also have his own boatmen, and these Persian
subjects, otherwise they might be interfered with.
In my opinion, any steamer line in the Gulf trade should render itself wholH
independent of the shore for the landing and embarkation of its goods.
Uj