A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



commerce. The alterations made in the road and the 

 increase in the facilities for travelling, have lately induced 

 the Central Asian merchants to pass through Leh and 

 proceed to the Punjab to effect their purchases there, in 

 the same way that the Siberian traders of to-day leave 

 Nizhni-Novgorod, in Russia, to deal direct with St. Peters- 

 burg and Moscow. The great bulk of the business will 

 continue for many years yet to be conducted after the old 

 fashion in Ladakh, for changes take place very slowly in 

 the East. 



The trans-frontier trade through Leh has been steadily 

 increasing since I assumed charge of the administration of 

 the trade route as British Joint Commissioner of Ladakh. 

 In 1893 the value of the trade rose from thirty-three 

 lakhs of rupees to thirty-nine. The year I was in 

 Ladakh it had reached sixty lakhs. A table will be 

 found at the end of this chapter, which represents the 

 value of the trade for the past ten years. It is clear 

 that if the present rate of increase observable in the 

 statistics of the past few years can be maintained, the 

 trade of Thibet and Chinese Turkistan will become an 

 important item in our Indian commerce. The existing 

 system is capable of coping with a reasonable development 

 of trade without increasing expenditure extravagantly, or 

 incurring any political danger. 



At first sight it would seem as though elaborate 

 machinery would be necessary to preserve order in the 

 Leh bazaars among the heterogeneous assemblage of 

 polyglot merchants from Russia, India, China and Thibet. 

 As a matter of fact trade disputes seldom occur, and, 

 when they do, are generally settled by a system of 

 arbitration in the serais. No caravan could get far from 

 Leh without the necessary passport from the British Joint 

 Commissioner. Eastward it would be stopped by the 

 guard over the bridge at Khalsi, and northward in the 

 Nubra Valley. Without supplies it would be helpless. 



25? S 



