Page 46 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

PART II—CHAPTER XI.
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rates, even when subjected to the heavy freight of steam vessels, and because
the wealth thus created in Persia gives rise to a greatly increased demand for
the import of piece-goods and copper into that country.
5. The trade in opium and sugar may be capable of indefinite development
In opium because it is plain that in a country where this article is not a monopoly*
and where it is unsubjected to heavy export duty, it could ccctcris paribus profit­
ably compete with our restricted Anglo-Indian opium trade. In sugar, because
Persia consumes a vast quantity of this commodity, and because Batavia and
Mauritius, whence she can most profitably import unrefined sugar, stand always in
need of cereals and dates which Persia can most readily supply.
6. Whether the present great development of trade in the Persian Gulf
would long outlast the close of the American war, may be a debatable question ;
probably every year that war lasts tends to increase and to render permanent
those habits ot industry and desire for comfort which the trade itself has
awakened. But at the same time it is probable that the close of the war will be
followed by a considerable fall in prices, and that it might be doubtful whether
the trade could then continue to support steam freight, even although the trade
itself should not fall off in actual bulk.
7. Meantime, however, the trade between Bombay and the Persian Gulf has
become such that I am induced to believe that, independent of all freight by
native craft, the six-weekly steamers would always find a remunerative cargo
from and to Bushire alone.
8. It would be for Government to determine whether the time may not be
arrived for modifying the circuitous route by which this six-weekly steamer at pre­
sent reaches the head of the gulf, in favor of a more direct route. It is plain that
the circuitous route delays the Government mail, while it adds mileage to the
steaming, and compels the contractors either to refuse freight at intermediate
ports, or else to except freights less remunerative than those for a thorough
passage.
9. It is possible that the present circumstances might be conveniently met
by allowing the mail steamer to run direct for Muscat and the Persian Gulf or
ultimately, even direct for the Persian Gulf, thus leaving Kurrachee and Guadel
to the Kurrachee line of trade, or to such other independent means as demand
and opportunity might seem to call for.
10. Viewed from a commercial point the Persian Gulf steamer collects no
freight at Guadel, and from Kurrachee brings only some indigo and takes back
a little silk.. The freight collected even at Muscat is comparatively immaterial.
The condition of Muscat indeed is, I think, peculiar and transitional. In the
first place we must recollect that Muscat arose into its greatest commercial im­
portance as the point where native craft from the Arabian and Persian shores of
the gulf met seagoing craft. The then Imaum of Muscat possessed a maritime
dominancy in the waters of the gulf, and because, in fact, the wholesale supplier
of, and purchaser from, its littoral tribes. More recently that Imaum added to
the commercial importance of Muscat by establishing his power in the East
Coast of Africa, thus extending his seaboard trade. The African portion of the
Imaum’s territory in fact arose out of the commercial requirements of his
Asiatic territory ; but it appears to me that in the same manner as Muscat may
be said to have superseded Ormuz as an entrepot, so have our more recent
efforts tended to supersede Muscat in favor of more convenient points within the
gulf. A considerable portion of goods that our steamers bring direct to Bunder
Abbas, Linga, or Bushire, as also the cotton, wool, dates, and corn that we
export hence is so much taken from the trade profits and Government revenues
of Muscat. There remains to her salt, which she brings in native craft from the
Bunder Abbas regions, and also her dates which she exports to Calcutta or else­
where, bringing thence principally rice for the consumption of the Arab
littoral. Again, , when by our arbitrament between Zanzibar and Muscat we
tore as under this web and woof of her sea-trade, we gave, indeed, to the
Sultan of Muscat an annual subsidy from Zanzibar of dollars forty thou­
sand, but we lopped off that active trade, and broke that spirit of maritime