torn-house were as follow: 



COUNTRIES. 



Russia..- 



Great Britain 



Turkey 



France 



Austria 



China and Japan 



Afghanistan 



Germany 



Other countries. . 



PERSIA. 



531 



countries in 1901 as reported by the Persian cus- Indo-European line. Another part of this sys- 

 * v, ,_ *~ii ,. teni) cons i s ting of 415 miles of line, with 1,245 



miles of wire, belongs to the Indo-European Tele- 

 graph Company. The line of the British Govern- 

 ,,, . ment earned 111,867 in 1900, and the company's 

 line 154,926. In August, 1901, the British Gov- 



Total. 



Imports. 



2,858,000 

 1,400,000 

 235,000 

 272,000 

 200.000 

 40,000 

 28,000 

 24,000 

 50,000 



5,107,000 



Export*. 



1,920,000 



483,000 ernment obtained a new convention allowing it 



428,000 f,-, I, nil, I a lino QOfl miles Irmrr rit>i 9 ~nn ,..,!.._ 



200,000 



308,000 



46,000 



24,000 



90,000 



2.893,000 



The total commerce that passed through the 



to build a line 900 miles long, with 2,700 miles 

 of wire, from British Baluchistan to Kashan. 

 The Persian Government is constructing a line 

 connecting Tabriz with the northwestern fron- 

 tier and one 300 miles long from Meshed to 

 Sistan. 



There is a British Imperial Bank which has the 

 sole privilege of issuing bank-notes, but its busi- 



custom-house was according to these returns ness has contracted owing to the competition of 



8,000,000 sterling, and that of the cxcepted dis 

 tricts is estimated at 600,000. The trade of the 

 customs stations which have not yet. been trans- 

 ferred to the European officials lent by the Bel- 

 gian Government is not included in these figures, 

 nor are the large exports of pearls from the fish- 

 eries of the Persian Gulf, nor the mysterious 

 flow of silver from Persia into Afghanistan and 

 Russian Central Asia, nor the imports of silver 

 for the Persian mint and of Persian coins minted 

 recently in Russia. Although imports have in- 

 creased, exports have declined. The disparity is 

 rowing greater and is due not only to the large 

 loans contracted by the Shah in Russia but to 

 the consumption of the savings accumulated dur- 

 ing the peaceful and prosperous early period of 

 the last reign. There are many indications show- 

 ing that the people, as well as the court and offi- 

 cials, are becoming impoverished. The process 

 has gone on since silver begun to decline, and 

 the court has at the same time grown more ex- 

 travagant. Nasreddin in the last ten years of his 

 reign squandered half the treasure he had accu- 

 mulated in the previous forty years. The re- 

 minder has been spent by the present Shah. 

 In 1900, as estimated from the amount paid 

 ito the treasury by farmers of customs, which 

 ras assumed to be 80 per cent, of the duties col- 

 cted, while these were supposed to average 4 

 er cent, ad valorem, the total trade of the coun- 

 was calculated at 10,500,000. In the ports 

 Bushire, Lingah, Bunder Abbas, and Moham- 

 lerah, on the Persian Gulf, there were 809,449 

 iported from India in 1900, 506,226 of exports 

 India and 903,854 of imports from and 176,- 

 120 of exports to Great Britain. The tonnage 

 itered and cleared at these ports was 1,025,363, 

 if which 896,414 tons were British. Russian ex- 

 jrts to Persia are encouraged by special rates 

 i Russian railroads amounting to a bounty 

 of 15 or 20 per cent, ad valorem. The duty col- 

 lected on imports is fixed by the Russian treaty 

 of 1828 at 5 per cent, ad valorem, and other 

 nations have an equal advantage with Russia 



the new Russo-Persian Discount Bank, and the 

 only Government business it obtains is the trans- 

 mission to Teheran of customs revenue collected 

 in districts where the Russian bank has no 

 branches. The value of Russian trade with Per- 

 sia has increased 125 per cent, since 1889, while 

 trade with the British Empire has decreased 33 

 per cent. In the north Russian cotton goods and 

 other manufactures have driven out British im- 

 ports. In 1902 exports of cottons from England 

 to Persia were 40 per cent, less than in 1901. 

 The Persian customs service has been reorganized 

 by a staff of Belgian officials, increasing the 

 revenue, which was formerly farmed out to fa- 

 vored Persian officials, over 66 per cent. The 

 treaty rate of 5 per cent, was often lowered by 

 rebates offered by some of these officials, who by 

 this expedient attracted a larger share of the 

 trade to their own ports. The Belgians have 

 collected a uniform 5 per cent, and have abolished 

 internal octrois and transit duties, which were 

 exacted from Persian merchants only, foreigners 

 being exempt by treaty. The yield of customs in 

 1901 was 1,600,000 tomans, nearly equal to 

 $1,600,000, two-thirds of which is absorbed by 

 the interest and sinking-fund of the two first 

 Russian loans. Negotiations are going on with 

 Russia for an increase of the general tariff by 

 the substitution of specific duties ranging from 

 7 to 10 per cent, for the 5-per-cent. ad valorem 

 rate. The Turkish treaty will also be revised, 

 so that foreign nations can not claim under it 

 more favorable rates than those established in 

 the new Russian treaty. The growing British 

 trade by the Karun river route from the Gulf 

 of Persia was checked in 1902 by the closing of 

 the custom-houses at Shuster and Ahwaz, com- 

 pelling merchants to clear all goods at Moham- 

 merah. 



The cheap fabrics of European factories have 

 in Persia, as in other Asiatic countries, caused 

 the once flourishing manual industries of the 

 towns to languish. The hand-loom silks, satins, 

 and cotton and woolen stuffs, the copper vessels, 



under the favored-nation clause, with the excep- the pottery, tiles, and other products of industrial 



tion of Turkey, which has special arrangements art, excepting rugs, shawls, and such other arti- 



of a less liberal character. cles as find a foreign market, are made in dimin- 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The ishing quantities and the old arts are passing 



only existing railroad is one 6 miles long be- into oblivion. Agriculture, too, is decaying. Al- 



tween Teheran and Shah Abdul Azim, built by a though the farming population is exceedingly 



Belgian company in 1888. 

 The postal service was 



farmed out until in 



laborious and skilled in cultivation, with the aid 

 of underground aqueducts by which the slender 



March, 1901, it was made a Government depart- water-supply is distributed over the largest pos- 

 sible area, the land is passing into the possession 

 of rich officials, who have it in their power to 

 divert the sources of the water, and thus can 



ment. The net revenue from posts in 1902 was 

 expected to be about 8,000. 



There are 4,800 miles of telegraph-line, with 



7,000 miles of wire. The Persian Government has buy at their own price the land of smalljpwners 

 3,700 miles of wire. The British Government has 

 a staff which by virtue of conventions made in 

 1868 and 1872 operates 675 miles of Hne with 



and exact from their tenants the maximum share 

 of the produce. 



Political Affairs. The foreign debts con- 



2,025 miles of wire, forming part of the overland tracted by the court, for which the revenues have 



