"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٦‎٢] (٧٢٢/٥٣٠)

The income received in kind is as follows :■
Tumans.
247,000 Miarwars of barley and wheat, valued at ... 494,0('0
8,500 kharwars (650 lbs. each) of rice ... ... 25,500
58,500 kharwars of straw ... ... ... 29,250
75 kharwars of nakhud (pulse or grain) ... ... 800
71 mans of silk ... ,,, ... 1,790
550,840
Adding this to the foregoing, we have a total revenue of 4,842,500 tumans.
Thomson has 4,912,500 tumans = 1,965,000^.
The payments in kind are mostly reserved for the use of the army, the
Skalds own expenses, and extraordinary disbursements. The Shah does
not, however, receive the whole of this revenue. From Khurasan, for
instance, nothing is paid to the royal treasury, owing to the heavy dis
bursements made in that province for military service, and for the pro
tection of the line of frontier by a large body of irregular troops
employed in repelling the inroads of Turkuman marauders ; and during
the last year, in consequence of the failure of the silk crop in Gilan, the
revenue of that province has been reduced by more than 100,000 tumans..
The provincial governors, moreover, are frequently defaulters to a large
amount. When appointed, they undertake to account to the central
government for the sums specified above ; but it often happens that at the
end of the year's tenure of office there is a large deficit, which they declare
they have been unable for some reason or other to collect from their
districts. A fee is then paid to the financial authorities in Tihran ; and
the Shah is persuaded to remit a large portion of the deficit, which has
in reality been received from the peasants, and is eventually shared by
the defaulter and his protector at court.
The following is extracted from Persia i a compilation by the Intelli
gence Branch, War Office, 1880 :
The Statesman’s Year Book states as follows. The revenue and expendi
ture of the government are known only from estimates, as no budgets
or other official accounts have ever been published. According to the most
recent estimates, based on Consular reports, the total receipts of the govern
ment amounted on an average during the years 1872-75 to £1,900,000
per annum, while the expenditure came to £1,750,000.
“ The receipts of the year 1875 amounted to 4,366,660 tumans, or
£1,744,661, in money, besides payments in kind, consisting of barley, wheat,
rice, and silk, valued at 550,840 tumans, or £220,336, making the total
revenue equal to 4,912,500 tumans, or £1,965,000.* The bulk of the
public expenditure is for the maintenance of troops and salaries, with pen
sions to the Persian priesthood; while each annual surplus is paid into the
Shah's treasury."
“About one-fourth (?) of the receipts is constituted by payments in kind
(this is evidently a mistake), mostly reserved for the use of the army
and the Shah's own household. The whole revenue is raised by assessments
* W.!?.—These figures are evidently copied (iucluding mistakes), word for word, from Mr.
Thomson’s Report for 1868, before given.