Page 166 - 5 Persian Trade rep BUSHIRE I_Neat

4 BUSH IKE.

on the part of the armed tribesmen infesting the route to Shiraz and
the frequency of robberies have made the lot of the muleteers hard ;
many, indeed, have left this route with their animals in order to find
a more peaceable living on the northern caravan routes. As a result
merchants in Bushirc cannot depend on obtaining regular transport
at all seasons, and at airtimes when procurable the rates of hire have
been preposterously high.
It has been reckoned on good authority that the number of mules
working the road has decreased from 7,000 to less than 3,000 since
1005. On the other hand, the exactions levied on the transport of
merchandise have increased to some 15 krans (bs. bd.) per mule-load
for the first 100 miles of the journey alone. The suppression of
levying these illegal taxes, generally known as raftdari, was especially
undertaken by the Persian Government by Article III of the Anglo-
Persian Commercial Convention of 1903, and yet from the gate of
Bushin? as far as Kazerun the muleteers are forced to pay every few
miles either in coin or in sugar. Another peculiarly wanton method
of taxing trade is practised by the tribal chieftains along the route
exacting ahfdari, t.e., a fixed charge for fodder, at arbitrary
rates, often double the market price, muleteers being obliged to purchase
from them alone and always a fixed amount per mule.
The decreased supply and dearth of transport over a route where
British goods are so largely borne is a matter of some anxiety, for it
encourages the descent of foreign merchandise from the north into
those regions which have been chiefly supplied by goods of British
origin.
If extortion by the tribesmen has had a bad efTcct on muleteers
undertaking the transport of goods, so also has the fear of responsi­
bility in case of robbery. During the year 1908 and subsequent six
months, on the Bushire-Shiraz and Shiraz-Isfahan roads alone, claims
were made for robberies of British-owned goods to the extent of
11,776 tomans (2,141/.) and remain still unsatisfied. The postal sendee
up-countxy” has been man)' times tampered with or robbed. Insurance
from Europe to inland Persia lias in consequence rapidly risen from a
premium rate of 1/. 10s. per cent, to war risks, and in the majority
of cases risk would not, in March, 1909, be accepted beyond the port
of Bushire at any price.
The rains of 1908-09 having proved again a failure owing to their
lateness, and the crops generally being insufficient for local consumption,
the resultant high price of grain, more than double that of 1907-08,
proved a further damper to trade in 1908-09.
Such are the special features of trade in 1908-09. The only com­
modity that maintained a demand was sugar, which fetched fair
prices locally; the uncertainty and difficulty of obtaining transport
for it to Shiraz, and the excessive rates charged for mule hire, however,
reduced the scope of business, though in the disturbed districts at a
distance from Shiraz prices were reported to have risen to 8 krans
(3*. 2d. approximately) per man of 7*30 lbs.
British trade lias, in fact, suffered very severely from the dis­
organised condition of Government in the south and unfortunately
the prospects of an early return to the quietness necessary for the