Page 245 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

Chapter XI- 219
Consul-General suggested Hint Hie post office should cease to carry insured
parcels, and it may bo mentioned that the competition lay between the British
post office and the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company only as no
specie was entrusted to tho Turkish steamers.
202. The contract entered into by tho Secretary of State for India in 1875
with tho Euphrates and Tigris Steam
External A., December 1884, No*. 140-100.
Navigation Company oxpired on the d.st
Ootobor 1 884j and in preparing the new contract provision was made for tho
carriage by the Company’s steamers of "all mails of the Government of India,
including Post Office stores and all articles (other than merchandise, specie,
precious stones and jewellery) sent by post, as well as tho bags or boxes in which
they are conveyed,” At the same time tho Director-Goneral of tho Post Office
ordered (October 1S81-) that instructions should bo issued to Baghdad and Basrah
not to accept specie for transmission through the post and Mio Bombay and
Karachi post offices were also instructed not to accept specie, including precious
stones and jewellery for those places. The use was permitted, however, of
voluntary iusurancc of articles, such as hooks, valuable documents, &c., which
could he insured at nominal value, as distinct from compulsory insurance
which applies, under Post Office rules, to everything of intrinsic value, such
as specie, jewellery, &c.
203. The effect of these orders was to stop tho transmission of all specie
parcels through the post. This half measure, however, was not found satisfactory,
and at the recommendation of the Postmaster General, Bombay, the Director-
General prohibited insurance altogether for tho Persian Gulf and Turkish
Arabia and the following notice was issued:—
'* Postal Notice.
“ From the 1st July 1885 no insurance will be available on parcels, letters or other
articles posted at or destined for the following post offices : Baghdad, Bursa, Bush ire, Linga,
Bandar-Abas, Muscat, Bahrein, Jaslc and Gaudur. Articles manifestly containing coin, bullion,
precious 6tono*, pearls or articles of inslrinsic value will be returned to the sendeis.—Simla,
7lh July 1685.”
204 The orders for the abolition of the insurance system were received by
the native merchants of Baghdad almost with consternation. The native trade
of the city is peculiar and some general remarks on it may not he without inter­
est. Goods are imported from Europe, Australia, China, the Straits Settle­
ments and America, the exports, namely,—dates, hides, wool and cereals,
amount to very little and traders arc compelled to pay their bills in specie in
the shape of tho gold and silver curroncy, of almost every nationality, which
finds its way into Baghdad. Owing to the failure from time to time of old
established native Banking houses in Baghdad the trader pays his bills in specie
through Agents in Bombay and the only means of transmitting the specie were
the Post Office and the office of tho Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation
Company at Baghdad. The post parcels of specie were addressed to well-known
Jewish firms in Bombay, who settled the traders’ accounts by the issue of
drafts on the countries in which the bills were due.
205. In Turkish Arabia there is a large circulation of Persian Shami (nomi­
nally silver) and Austrian dollars containing a heavy proportion of alloy and it
was cheaper to send these as specie freight. The trader, therefore, consigned
such money to the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company and pure
gold and silver to tho Post Offico in insured parcels which was considered the
safest mode of transport. The currency of Baghdad undergoes strange fluctua­
tions. It is made up of tho coinage of almost all parts of the world, but the
British Indian rupee, Austrian dollar and Persian kraun (silver) by turns flood
the market, and at tho time of which we write, were got rid of by exportation
through the Post Office in insured parcels, till their scarcity induced tho trader
to hold the balance in hand and soli locally at an enhanced rate.*
• 'i'bc priiccdmo •• lo imnn-y onlor*, which i« couueclid with currency, U Ux-ulvtl iu the Trade Preen,