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29. Your Lordship is fully acquainted with the Trade which the Hon’blc Company carry
on at present to the Ports of Bu6sorah & Abu Shelter. The consumption of woollens is
comparatively trifling, and the prices low. The advantages which the recent exertions of the
Resident Mchdi Ali Khan have occasioned in this branch of Commerce at Abu Sheher may
raise hopes of much profit in future sales, but these from the information I have been yet able
to collect should not be too 6anguinely indulged.
30. A probable estimate of the property annually employed in Imports & Exports to &
from the Persian Gulph, makes it amount to the gross sum of one crore & sixty lacks of
rupees. I shall endeavour to show as couciscly & as correctly as I can the nature of this Com­
merce & the channels through which it flows. The annual imports to Persia from Iudia
amount to above twenty lacks of rupees. They consist of Cliintzes from the Coast of
Coromandel, Musslins, piece goods, Sugar, & a variety of articles from Bengal, Chinaware
Sugarcandy, Camphor, and Ca from Bombay ; Blackpepper, Ginger, Turmeric, Cardamums and
Wood for building vessels from the Corut of Malabar 4c piece goods, kamkhaps &ca., &ca., from
Surat, Cambay, and Guzarat. From the Red Sea the only Import to Persia is Coffee, and of
that, not above twenty thousand rupees is consumed during the year. Persia answers this
Trade by an export of about tw'elve lacks in the native productions of the Country, Silk,
Carmenia Wool, Carpets, Tobacco, dried fruit, Asafcetida, Rose water, &ca., &ca., & the balance i
is sent in Specie aud bullion.
31. The Trade with India is chiefly confined to Abu Sheher. The duties collected on
Imports & Exports at this Port are regulated by a standard established many years by
Shaikh Nasser, father of the present Governor. Ou Exports they are very trifling, & on
goods imported, though nominally more, do not average above 4 per. cent, on the prime Cost,
and I have learned from good authority, that the Duties on Imports produced last year seventy
thousand rupees, or one lack of Piastres, which gives an import of goods to the amount of
seventeen lacks & a half of rupees at this Port alone, independent of the Hon’ble Company’s
sales, in all of which, the Shaikh receives four percent, from the purchaser. This Estimate
if correct, which I have reason to believe it is, proves that the present Trade between Iudia &
Persia is rather under, than over, rated.
32. The only Indian Goods that are shipped direct for a Persiau Port are those from
Bengal, & Masulipatam & the remainder which amount to more than half of the total sum,
go first to Muscat, from whence they arc re-shipped for the Gulph ; withiu these last two
years however, the Abu Sheher and Merchants have sent their Ageuts to Bombay with a view
of procuring consignments direct.
33. The Trade from India to Arabia is 6till more considerable ; it amounts to the annual
Sum of at least forty lacks of rupees, thirty of which goes to Bussorah, and the remainder to
Bahrien and the Southern Shore of the Gulph; it consists of nearly the same Articles which
I have already enumerated as Imports to Persia upwards of twenty five lacks of rupees of this
branch of Trade, comes through Muscat, & the whole of the annual Import of Coffee from
the Red Sea to Bussorah & the Arabian Shore which is estimated at twenty Lacks is brought by
that Port as its natural Emporium.
34. These great imports are answered by Exports from Bussorah of Dates, the Native
produce of the Soil by Pearls (received from Bahrien, & other Parts on the Arabian Shore
in exchange for Grain) & Gold & Silver Lace brought from Europe by the Aleppo
Caravans & Copper from the mines of Diabeker. Most of these Exports pass through Muscat
in their way to India.
85. The balance of Trade Bussorah which generally exceeds ten lacks of rupees is
sent in specie & bullion.
36. The value of ten lacks of Indian Goods aro annually imported at Bahrien and
the adjacent parts of the Arabian Shore, these are balanced by an export of Pearls to an equal
amount.
87. Most of the Trade with this quarter, as I have before mentioned, passes through
Muscat, but when the Sultauu of that Port is at War with any of the Arab tribes which its not
unfrequently the case, it finds a more circuitous route* by the Ports of Abu Sheher &
Bussorah.

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