Page 226 - 5 Persian Trade rep BUSHIRE I_Neat

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Hrillsli grown crystal fr^m Mauritian has been on entered by tho small ports and landing-places
the wiioln. In spite of all difficulties—such ns tardy the coavt north nnd sonth of Bushin?. So rif0 v ^
communication, small inducement to manufacturers this illicit practice bccomo that, na a matter of
and dealers to ship sugar as far ns IVnii. when thor common knowledge among the inhabitants of *
can Gnd a really miirkcl nenrer to har.d, manifold town, smuggling regularly takes place at a noVnt
comj-otition from a host of other brands already only six miles distant from Bushlro itself, with th
on tho spot—a succors, and this sugar has won for connivance of the local villngo headman and with 0,!
itself a definito placo on the Busliire bazaar for pur­ subsequent c-cort into town of tho Chief of Polir!
poses of confectionery nnd cooking. Local retail for the smuggled goods. So long as snch dclocUb]J
prices aro somewhat lower than tho-e for Lo.if-sugar, articles as tea and fire-arms nro taxed heavily or
naving raled for the most part at from 3-20 to 3*75 their import interdicted, and so long n8 tho ooasi
Krans per man of 7jlbs. (or about 2/ to 2\d. per lb.), remains what it is and no extensivo coast-guard
though tho Hungarian brand reached 4*75 Krana. service is organised,—so long presumably will this
Austrian crystals have hitherto been first favourites* frauk state of things continuo
but quite recently a well known British firm made an
experimental import of an English cns'al. This
first step cannot be too highly commended, and 8 o ©
though the moment was not perhaps a very favour­ Smuggled from 6 co
able one for such a first trial, hopes aro entertained § o o s
rH H
that this sugar has como to 6tay in the Golf.
Kerosine-oil,—u Snowflake. ” a 125° flash-point
oil of American origin, is still in favour among tho Ton*. Tons. Tons. Tonv
European Colony and well-to-do Persians ;-s best Bahrain • 46 75 123 150
lamp-oil at Rs. 7 (about Kraus 25) per case of two
tins or 05 lbs. net, i.e~, 83 gallon?. The Au-trian and Kuwait „ 33 22 8 25
Anurican brands fetched some 14'50 Krans and the Sliargah ■ 8
Russian 16 Krona. No British mined oil is at
present on >hc market, aa the Burma Oil Company Debai 12 15 13
has by agreement excluded itself from competition
on Per.-ian soil, and the Anglo-Persian Oil of tho
Arahistaa fields is not yet ready for trade purposes, Not>j.—In the course of 38 days in 1909,18 tons
though one hopes to sco it in another year or there­ were smuggled across from Kuwait alone, and it is
abouts. estimated that 10 cases (1,0S0 lbs.) a week, on the
It was reported from Karachi in March 1909 that average, are fraudulently imported thence into
ow'ng to the break-np of the Oil-Combine a lively Bnsliire. Bahrain, however, is by far the worst
offender: the merchanis there sell to the Persian
fisrht in wholesale rats was bci"g maintained here
between tho three gr«at Companies, Burma, Asiatic sailors who do the actual smuggling: probably nouo
Petroleum and Standard Oil. Traders were buying of the merchants are personally implicated, although
and accumulating h"ge stocks in the belief that such they (as well as the large Indian firms of exporters)
a keen w.ir of prices could not laid long. Eventu­ are quite aware where the tea geea.
ally, after prolonged negotiations, an agreement was Cotton piece-goods.—A disastrous year as shown
come to between the two former whereby this war by a comparison of the last seven years’ imports:—
of rates came to an end, and prices woie taised some
30 p. c. Last year’s Boshire rates had been is low
TotaL Manchester expect.
as 12 50 Krant.
About £1,000 worth more Kerosine being imported
from the United States of America than in 1903-09, £ £
the total import rose from £6,686 to £7,025. 275.277 264,068
Tea.—The legitimate import of lea has shrunk 1903
from £69,654 to £33,609 (280 tons only from India 1904 307,770 277,168
appearing in Customs statistics as against 672 ions
of the previous year). As, however, the smuggling 1905 301,141 257,133
of this article has been repeatedly observed to be a
malpractice which can be carried, on with perfect 1906-07 362,939 276,453
impunity and much profit, it Deed not necessarily be 1907-08 629,352 441,993
assumed that the actual import of Indian tea has
suffered an iy diminution. There is certainly no 1908-09 397,020 315,483
indication o f less tea being consumed in Persia than
formerly : the more the opium habit grows, the more 1909-10 286,806 170,647
Indian tea and (incidentally) the more foreiga sugar
will there be consumed. The following figures Decrease this year 110,214 144,936
represent the quantities of tea sujpoted tohave