Page 449 - 6 Persian Trade rep BUSHIRE 2_Neat

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II. TRADE AND TRADE CONDITIONS

DURING THE YEAR 1927-28.
The total trade of the area under consideration actually showed
a decrease in value in 1927-28, as compared with 1926-27, of
£1,059,870, the total trade of the Persian side showing a decrease
of £1,824,765, while the trade of the Arab side showed an increase
of £204,889. Of the decrease on the Persian side the sum of
£1,072,154 is due to a decrease in opium exports. This decrease
appears to be in the nature of a shrinkage back to more normal pro­
portions after a boom year in 1920-27. Apparently after the Opium
Convention of 1925 all the countries in the Far East which legiti-
mate!v import opium under licence preceded to lay in big stocks,
while the export of unlicensed opium from Persia for smuggling
into the Far East also increased largely. In the opinion of the
writer the above-mentioned figure of £1.072,154 decrease in opium
exports can reasonably be discounted as due to abnormal circum-
stances. If this figure is ignored the decrease in the value of
total trade on the Persian side will be reduced to £252,611, and the
decrease in the total trade of the whole area will be turned into an
increase of £12,278.
Sugar, tea and piece-goods, the staple imports of the Persian
ports, all showed a decline in value in 1927-28 over imports for
1926-27. The value of sugar imported decreased by approximately
£95,000, but as the c.i.f. value degreased during the fame period
by as much as 25 per cent., due to a fall in world prices, the actual
quantity legitimately imported was but little less than in the pre-
vious year. As more Russian sugar now finds its way down from
ihe north of Isfahan and Shiraz, and as the quantity of smuggled
sugar bn the market undoubtedly increased during 1927-28 it may
i>e considered that, despite the fall in the value of sugar imports,
Persia is now absorbing more sugar than at any time in the last
few years. Nevertheless the consumption of sugar throughout
the country is still only 54 per cent, of the consumption in 1916-14.
Tea imports decreased by approximately £57,000 during the
same period and piece-goods by £68,000.
J The general fall in the value of Persian imports may be attri­
buted to the decreased purchasing power of the people and the
tightness of money brought about by the Persian policy of high
tariffs and high monopoly and road taxes levied on imports. The
ponies so collected were all accumulated in 1927-28 in the capital.
They are now gradually being returned to circulation as the con­
struction of the north to south railway progresses, and this fact
should have a beneficial effect in the future on Persian trade as a
whole.