532 



PERSIA. 



been pledged without any visible benefit to the 

 country in the shape of roads and bridges or 

 irrigation canals, have caused wide-spread popu- 

 lar discontent. One of the manifestations of this 

 is a revival of Babisin in a socialistic and agrarian 

 form. The Atabeg Azam, Mirza All Ashgar 

 Khan, is the object of the manifestations of dis- 

 affection, rather than the Shah, who is regarded 

 from his yielding and good-natured disposition to 

 be as wax in the hands of his able and resource- 

 ful Vizier, who in spite of his ascendency over 

 the Shah was replaced by the Amin ed Dauleh 

 early in 1897, and only recalled to power in the 

 middle of 1898. The turbulent spirit shown by 



nations, since they must pay Russian import and 

 export duties in goods destined for or coming 

 from Persia or central Asia. In the Persian 

 Gulf the Russians have attempted to build up a 

 trade by subsidizing steamers plying between its 

 ports and Odessa. The road from the Caspian 

 port of Reshd to Teheran, the only good one in 

 Persia, was built with Russian capital, and Rus- 

 sian goods that are brought over it now un- 

 dersell British goods in central Persia as far as 

 Ispahan. Two other Russian-built roads tap 

 other parts of north Persia. A concession for 

 a road from the Caucasian frontier through Ta- 

 briz to Kasbin was given for the loan of 1901, 



BRIDGE AT ISPAHAN. 



the people of Shiraz in 1902 caused the Governor 

 residing in that city, who was the Shua es Salta- 

 neh, the second son of the Shah, to be recalled. 

 The Amin ed Dauleh when he took office an- 

 nounced a comprehensive scheme of administra- 

 tive reform, including a revision of the land tax, 

 the reduction of the standing army to 20,000 

 men, the conversion of the irregular cavalry into 

 a gendarmerie, separate administrations for the 

 collection and the expenditure of revenue, and 

 the framing and publication of annual budgets 

 setting forth the revenue and expenditure of the 

 Government. Before he was dismissed he intro- 

 duced a nickel coinage and started a number of 

 schools with the aid of private subscriptions. 

 Some of the minor features of his program have 

 been carried out by his successor, though the 

 program as a whole was discarded. The Shah 

 in May, 1902, accompanied by his Grand Vizier, 

 made his second journey to Europe, visiting the 

 heads of the important states and not returning 

 to his capital till October. Abul Fath Mirsa, the 

 Salar ed Dauleh, the third son of the Shah, 

 twenty years old, was appointed regent during 

 the Shah's absence. 



The governments both of Great Britain and 

 of Russia declared in 1884 their policy in Persia 

 to be the maintenance of its independence and 

 integrity and an open door for trade throughout 

 the empire. These declarations have been re- 

 peatedlv renewed. The open door to British trade 

 in northern Persia which existed when Kars and 

 Batum were Turkish ports has been closed by 

 Russia, which imposes protective duties on for- 

 eign goods though they are in transit for Persia. 

 All flags except the Russian have been shut out 

 from the Caspian Sea. Batum. which Russia un- 

 dertook in the treaty of Berlin to make a free 

 port essentially commercial, has become a great 

 port for Russian commerce, but not free to other 



and for the latest loan one for a road from 

 Tabriz to Teheran. Russian political influence 

 at Teheran has to some extent baffled the British 

 schemes for opening commercial routes from the 

 southern ports into the heart of Persia. The 

 British, however, are still commercially supreme 

 in the south, and they have opened an overland 

 trade route from India through Baluchistan, the 

 Quetta-Nushki route, with a view of retaining 

 a part of the trade of .the northern provinces. In 

 five years the traffic on this road has risen from 

 500,000 rupees to 1,600.000 rupees. British vessels 

 of war have for a long period patrolled the Per- 

 sian Gulf, which was infested with pirates until 

 Great Britain undertook this police duty. The 

 ascendency of Great Britain in the Persian Gulf 

 was stated by the spokesman of the Foreign Of- 

 fice in the House of Commons to be the founda- 

 tion of British policy. A naval base in these 

 waters in the possession of another power would 

 flank the ocean route to India and the far East 

 and to Australia. The British Government in \W- 

 obtained the right to build a new telegraph-line 

 from Baluchistan across Persia to Kashan. An 

 Australian capitalist obtained a concession of the 

 right to work the petroleum wells of the Kerkliali 

 valley and to lay a pipe-line to tidewater. The 

 oil-fields in southwestern Persia begin in the dis- 

 trict between Bagdad and Kermanshah that is 

 in dispute between Persia and Turkey. Russian 

 diplomacy induced the Persian Government to 

 defer for ten years the construction of railroads 

 or the granting of any concession for that pur- 

 pose either to Persians or to foreigners. The 

 British Government subsequently obtained an 

 agreement that whenever railroad construction 

 should begin British capital and enterprise would 

 have as good opportunities as are extended to 

 any foreigners. At Robat. the station on the 

 Persian border of the caravan route opened 



