Page 408 - PERSIAN 1 1873_1879 Admin Report1_Neat

40 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL RESIDENCY

They ore bought at so much per " chao” down to a certain eize
Four of thc-c in most ordinal-/ uso fr<?r.U ^lC l^VCr3' wl,cn ^lcy are then
liavc 5]>cci:xl name*, the " Has” or bend, SOld^ cfl HIOSSC at so much per
the " or atmimcli, tho tl miseal." There are 330 chao iu a
rA“wKSiut misca1,- nnd the Arab ebao isc.ual (o
,
four Hindustani chaos. The best
four Hindustani chaos,
weights are shaped in agate, which is not so liable to alter ns arc those
made of metal. The usual form of sale is by packets, and pearls of a
particular size being chosen out, the value of the rest of the packet will
be depreciated. A merchant would therefore insist upon a higher price
of pearls so chosen ; in fact for picked and single pearls the purchaser
must be content to pay a fancy price. There arc such a number of con­
siderations that influence the sale of pearls that anything more than an
approximation to the market value cannot be given, and this changes
yearly.
42, In the last 25 years the price of pearls, as has been above said,
The increased value of a chao” by has increased 50 per cent. The value
alteration of the Gulf standard may be of every coin in use has also fluctuated
in some roc-ascre the cause of this im­ considerably, and lastly, the weights
pression.—E. C. R.
themselves change in value most
enormously both in relation to Indian weights and in relation to each
other. This uncertainty increases the opportunities of cheating.
After a vain attempt of several days I have had to give up all
It appears that the merchants them- attempts to understand these fluctuations
solve* have to entertain skilled book- of every sort, both of weights, coins, and
hoopers, without whoseasM>tancc the/ h Gf pearls; the Arab merchants
themselves would be at sea. . \ . ./ .. .
cannot explain them themselves, nor aie
the data they tender on all these subjects in accordance. In fact the
conclusion I arrive at is that pearl-dealing cannot be reduced to an
exact science.
43. The last point that must be touched upon is that of the yearly
export and its value, and here we are terribly at fault—partly from the
impossibility of obtaining correct returns from the various rulers and the
Custom Houses, and partly from the fact that a Native merchant's con­
science is not very tender in such a small matter as the declaration of the
value of his merchandize when taking out a bill of lading for present­
ation in India. In point of fact, it is well known that pearls are under­
valued as a matter of course.
Colonel Polly put down the total export in 1805 at £400,000, or soy
40 lakhs, and this Las been since accepted as an approximately correct
figure.
In 1850 a report was published on the navigation of the Golf by
Captain Bracks in which the export of
Bomba/ Records, XXIV of 1856.
pearls from Bahrein alone, in 1824, as
stated by the Company's broker and the Shaikh's Vizier, was pnt down
at 1,000,000 German Crowns or Rupees 32,00,000, or £320,U00, of
course the vnlacs have changed since then, but for comparison these
figures will do.

9 8U grain*, Znglufc.