Page 478 - 6 Persian Trade rep BUSHIRE 2_Neat

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COMMERCIAL SUMMARY.

In nnlirnin. M»Kfnt nn.l Kuwait the Indian n.poe ,* mosl
Currency. , with fori'ijlil countries. I!,., monotnrv „nil CONDITIONS IN THE
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common Iv used for jn !033.34 (Ulnt Mnrrli lo 2ml. March) 1,„<1 nn REPORT ON ECONOMIC
in INthiii is tin* "» )||(i |)()llll(1 slcrlinl'. PERSIAN GULF
iii average value of S2 to
of tl.o Impoi-inl Hnnk of Bernii, in Jlushiro,
Banks.--I i<T(- nr<- nm, Hnsr.,. „f tin- Nntionnl B.u.k of IVrsh October, 1934
MolniiiiiniTi.il. A...mi'. M ,)lin in l.icrnl. ,.n<l Alivvnz ; of the Eastern ]}
in Uualiire, the Ott,........ Hank in Bam,.
in Hnsrn sincl Banrai . I.—GENERAL REVIEW OF TRADE, 1933-34.
... „H Measures On the Aral, si.le of the O.ilf Knplisl. weights
B?ner..lly i,e.l fur trade with fore,,,, ,o,,,„r,es. and This report is intended to give a general view of trade eond it ions*
in tlie Persian Gulf. The principal ports are dealt with in separate
; ............................... sections, but Basra is only included in as far as it affects the trade
of the Gulf as a whole.
approximately six hiimlre.lwe.Rht. the Arab and Persian
Very different trade conditions prevailed on
Morel,ants who have dealings with foreign eountries are usually familiar also sides of the Gulf. On the Arab side, customs duties ranged from
with English weights and measures.
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4 per cent, to 15 per cent, but there were no restrictions on the
,m<hin Services-The British India Steam Navigation Company runs a quantities of merchandise imported and exported and the statis­
folk fast9 mail service 1,etwee,i Bmnhnv and Basra, leaving Bond,ay on
weekly f • „ I jjuvliire on Wednesdays, and Mohnmmcrnh tics for the year (1st April, 1933 to 31st March, 1934) show that
t ^‘'SSi^^ldps InS^B^ra m, Thursdays and leave on Saturdays the total volume of trade, though still far below the level of five
on
for the return voyage. or six years ago, increased slightly in comparison with that of
the previous year.
The week I v slow mail sorv.re is scheduled to leave Bond,ay on Wednesdays
for Karachi' Muscat. Bandar Ahhas. Henjam, Bahrain, Bush,re. Kuwait, On tlie Persian side, though no statistics have yet been published,
Moliam.nerali and Basra, and calls on alternate weeks either at Gwadur, it is doubtful if there will be an increase owing to the nimieious
j„sk Sharjah and Dihni, or at l’asiii. Charhar and Kmgah. The time
taken from Bombay to Basra is approximately 14 days Rates of freight regulations which remained in force during the year. Jn addition
ran he obtained on application to Messrs. Mackinnon Mackenzie * Co., to the difficulties of a quota system and tlie payment oi customs
Bombav, or from the Company’s office in London. duties and road tax, merchants importing into Persia were faced
The Striek line runs a monthly service of cargo steamers between the with the necessity of procuring certificates of export before they
United Kingdom and the Culf Ports. could obtain certificates of import and when impelling ceitain
classes of goods, including motor cars and accessories, woollens and
'Flu* German Hansa lino also maintain*- a monthly service from Hamburg
and the Italian Lloyd Triestino Company has recently started a two monthly leather, of first purchasing foreign exchange from the Govern­
service from Trieste. ment at unfavourable rates. The monojxdies of opium, sugar
and matches contributed still further to their difficulties and
Air Services. Jhe weekly service of imperial Airwnvs flying between
London and Singapore calls at Basra. Kuwait, Bahrain ‘Sharjah and made it impossible for them to carry on normal business, with
™'r- he suToplahes of the K.L.M. <R„v„l Dutch Air Bines) and the the result that money became generally scarce and only goods of
the cheapest quality found a market. On the Arab side money
and J,T ’,nK weckly betw(‘on bondon and the Far East'call at Bushire
! • was also scarce, but for different reasons, of which the most impor­
tant, was the continued depression in the pearl trade.
This shortage of money and consequent demand for cheap
ness
with little regard to quality, whilst detrimental to British interests,
cold and drv. Kimlhch ,• Vi ,,wxi,n,,ni at Bahrain. The winter months
are was a tremendous help to Japan in her efforts to establish a strong
from early November to * fntM norn1ln,|.v "car ordinary English clothing commercial position in the Gulf. Her goods were almost invariablv
rest of the vear when sun I i>n n,,( <*«tton clothing during the cheaper than those of her rivals and in addition were brought to
,M‘t"<*cn seasons must |„,'„r ,! '!? nrt* n,so worn. Visitors who arrive
the nonce of merchants by Japanese agents who were extremel
paret i<>r sudden changes of temperature.
actne m visiting and carrying on trade propaganda in the
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owns m the Gulf. Furthermore, Japanese traders various
import goods on their own account and wore willing to
27442 dispose of them afterwards
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