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PERSIA. 



Amir Khan Sipahsalar; Minister of the Interior, 

 Dabir el Mulk; Minister of the Treasury, Mushir 

 es Sultaneh; Minister of Agriculture and Do- 

 mains, Nassir es Sultaneh; Minister of Justice, 

 Gholam Hussein Khan; Minister of Posts, Mirza 

 Mohsin Khan; Minister of Telegraphs, Mukhbir 

 ed Dowleh ; Minister of Public Instruction, Neyer 

 el Mulk; Minister of Mines, Mukandis el Mania- 

 lik; Minister of Commerce and Religious Endow- 

 ments, Kayam Makam. The system of govern- 

 ment is that of an absolute Oriental monarchy, 

 controlled only by occasional religious influences 

 and popular outbreaks against intolerable 

 wrongs. The Shah delegates his despotic powers 

 to his ministers and to provincial governors, who 

 transmit it to their underlings, to whom they 

 sell their offices with the understanding that 

 the prices paid will be exacted from those lower 

 down in the scale, and in the last instance from 

 the people. Whenever the superiors wish to 

 raise more money they need only threaten to re- 

 move those below them in order to extract fresh 

 gifts as the price of continuance in office. Jus- 

 tice, both in the courts of the Urf, or civil law, 

 and those of the Shari, or ecclesiastical law, is 

 bought and sold. 



Area and Population. The estimated area of 

 Persia is 628,000 square miles. The population is 

 estimated at 9,000,000. The empire is divided into 

 33 provinces of various sizes, each of which is 

 under a governor-general. Of the population 

 about 8,000.000 are Shiite Mohammedans, 45,000 

 Armenians, 35,000 Jews, 25,000 Nestorians, and 

 9,000 Parsis. 



Finances. The revenues belong to the Shah's 

 treasury, and after payment of the expenses of 

 the court, the army, the general administration, 

 the colleges, contributions to poor provinces, and 

 pensions and allowances to princes and members 

 of the royal Kajar tribe, there formerly remained 

 a. considerable surplus to be added each year to 

 the royal treasure. The fall in the price of silver 

 reduced the revenues proportionately; conse- 

 quently thfe present Shah can accumulate no 

 hoard, and his fortune consists principally of 

 what is left of the jewels collected by his an- 

 cestors, which at his accession were believed to 

 be worth $15,000,000. The savings of the late 

 Shah alone were at one time not less than $20,- 

 000,000. The total present annual revenue is 

 estimated at 75,000,000 krans, equivalent to $7,- 

 500,000. About 15 per cent, of the revenue is de- 

 rived from customs, 3 per cent, from posts and 

 telegraphs, fisheries, mines, and other concessions, 

 and 82 per cent, from taxes assessed on towns, 

 villages, and districts. The expenditure on the 

 army amounts to 18,000,000 krans. For local 

 government 2,600,000 krans are allowed, and out 

 of this sum comes the only expenditure on pub- 

 lic works. The useful expenditure for the pub- 

 lic services forms a small fraction of the total 

 expenditure, most of which is absorbed by ra- 

 pacious officials who do not work, and who get 

 no regular salaries, but enrich themselves and 

 those above them by the official perquisites that 

 ancient custom enables them to obtain. When- 

 ever a province revolts against the exactions of 

 its governor and his subordinates and lapses into 

 anarchy these officials are dismissed in disgrace 

 and one of the masterful men in the official 

 hierachy is sent as governor to restore order 

 in the turbulent province by whatever tyrannical 

 methods he finds necessary to employ. Such 

 strong governors are the ones who win the ap- 

 probation, not only of the Shah, but of the people 

 they rule over, since these prefer strong rule to 

 the chaotic conditions that result when authority 



is in feeble hands. The Persian public revenue 

 has declined 25 per cent, since 1877. The value 

 of the silver kran has fallen nearly 50 per cent, 

 since 1884, and the further fall in 1902 caused a 

 commercial and economic crisis. The rise in the 

 prices of tea, sugar, cotton/ goods, and other im- 

 ported necessaries and native foodstuffs, which 

 powerful officials and large landowners have 

 manipulated for their own benefit, has doubled the 

 cost of living in twenty years. 



The existing public debt consists of loans ob- 

 tained by the Shah since 1900 from a Russian 

 banking corporation created for the purpose of 

 financing Persian loans. The first loan, made in 

 January, 1900, was 22,500,000 rubles. This debt, 

 which pays 5 per cent., is secured on custom-house 

 receipts, except those of Fars and the Persian Gulf, 

 and has the guarantee of the Russian Govern- 

 ment. A loan of 500,000 obtained from an Eng- 

 lish banking concern in 1892 was paid off from 

 the proceeds of the Russian loan, and the Persian 

 Government agreed to conclude no new foreign 

 loan without the consent of the Russian bank, 

 which in 1901 made another loan to the Persian 

 Government of the nominal amount of 12,000.000 

 rubles on the like condition that Persia contract 

 no loans with any other power than Russia before 

 1912. A fresh loan of 20,000,000 rubles was nego- 

 tiated with the Russian bank in 1902. The Shah 

 and his ministers have been spending, with the 

 aid of the Russian loans, twice the present dimin- 

 ished revenue of the country, and the greater 

 part of the expenditure has been sheer prodi- 

 gal waste. His two journeys to Europe are be- 

 lieved to have cost $1,500,000, and this part of 

 his expenditure has been most resented by his 

 people. 



The Army. The Persian army numbers 80,000 

 officers and men. It is badly armed with miscel- 

 laneous rifles, ill-fed and clothed, and irregularly 

 paid, except the Persian Cossack brigade, about 

 2,000 strong, consisting of 4 regiments of cavalry 

 and 2 battalions of field-artillery, thoroughly 

 trained and disciplined and permanently com- 

 manded by Russian officers. The headquarters of 

 this force are in Teheran, and it acts practically 

 as the Shah's' guard, which secured his peaceable 

 succession to the throne and is employed for 

 the suppression of riot or rebellion occurring in 

 any Persian city. 



Commerce and Production. Persia pro- 

 duces wheat and barley, rice, fruits, opium, silk, 

 wool, gum tragacanth and other gums, carpets, 

 cotton, tobacco, pearls, and turquoises and other 

 precious stones. Among the minerals are copper, 

 lead, iron, zinc, tin, orpiment, ocher, cobalt, anti- 

 mony, salt, coal, petroleum, and alum. The im- 

 ports are cotton and woolen fabrics, glass, car- 

 riages, sugar, tea, coffee, petroleum, and drugs. 

 The chief exports are dried fruits, opium, cotton, 

 wool, silk, carpets, pearls, and turquoises. The 

 customs duties, formerly farmed out, are now 

 collected by Government officers. European mer- 

 chants since 1828 have paid a uniform duty of 5 

 per cent, on imports and exports. Persians for- 

 merly paid from 1$ to 8 per cent, at the frontier 

 and various transit and road duties in the inte- 

 rior; but on April 7, 1901, these internal barriers 

 were abolished and the customs duties were made 

 the same as for foreigners. The collection of 

 customs by the Government was first tried in 

 Azerbaidjan and Kermanshah in 1899, and in the 

 following year was extended to the whole of the 

 empire excepting the districts of Muhamrah, the 

 Karum river, Kurdistan, Sistan, and the minor 

 ports on the Persian Gulf. The values in pounds 

 sterling of imports from and exports to different 



