نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [و‎‎٣‎٥‎٠] (١٨١٤/٧٠٢)

iou yh k 0D
? !| rds general
f e > not
, eadm gper S0
16 or gan, fi nd
a wi »e preli t
the (
an official
escribed.
Farliang-
employej
r ) was much read,
rantinople, but Was
0 coa tain somewtat
the King of Kings.
’ been started,
^ah, ^lirza Husein
- w bat he had seen
f a h ranco-Persian
'ured; a European
of ‘ La Patrie ’ was
first, and solitary,
'ened was found to
f them with absolute
side ; we are bound
We desire to serve
, We shall support
But we will never
er; we shall defend
We shall support
acts are contrary to
War upon abuses
Equity-thisisour
our entire care to
:he universal clia®
sounded like Sit
t- 0 f Elizabeth 01
e, was an icsok 1 "
seetbP^^'
INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS 471
nil that Iran held most dear. It was at once expiated by the dismissal
of the guilty editor, and by the suppression of the offending organ.
The number from which I have quoted remains a unique curiosity
in the annals of journalism. The same minister established a
military magazine at Teheran ; but its existence was limited to
seventeen or eighteen numbers.
In 1885 a more orderly and semi-official paper was started in
the French language, entitled the c Echo cle la Perse . 5 It has since
ceased to exist. A journal was also published for a short time at
Tabriz, but soon expired. The Foyal College further undertook for
a while the publication of a scientific journal; but this, too, is
defunct. There have been other journalistic attempts, whose
epitaph required to be even sooner written.
Such is a brief record of the history and present condition of
the press in Persia. How far it entitles either its promulgators or
its patrons to the praise of enlightenment, every reader can judge
for himself. Anyhow, no alarm need as yet be felt, even by the
most tender susceptibilities, about the creation of a fourth estate in
the dominions of the Shah.
It may be imagined that in a country possessing the habits and
instincts that I have described, the currency has at all times pre-
The sented a fine field of operation for the devices of sovereigns,
comage governors, and ministers, and that any approach either to
science of management or stability of value has been conspicuous
by its absence. The fluctuations in the value of the monetary unit
have been enormous, and at the time of mv visit had touched
almost as low a point as has ever been reached. In Tavernier's
time, in the middle of the seventeenth century, a toman was equal
to fifteen French crowns or forty-six livres (a livre was about I«s. 6d.).
Chardin, a little later, under Shah Suleiman, gave the value of the
toman as from forty-five to fifty livres, or ol. 10s. in English
money. Early in the following century Krusinski returned its
value as sixty livres or twenty crowns. Then came the overthrow
of the Sefavi dynasty, the invasion of the Afghans, the reign of
Nadir Shah, and the general anarchy and dislocation consequent
upon his death. At the beginning of this century, when security
had been re-established under the Kajar dynasty, Malcolm gave
the value of the toman as \l. Between 1820 and 1830 Eraser
valued it at 11 s. Since then the value has fluctuated, but with a
general inclination to fall. In 1874 the toman was worth ten francs