COMMERCE. The Russian frontier is within SO miles of Tabriz, the commercial 'capital of Per sia, and Russian steamers unload cargoes within 160 miles of Teheran. The result is that in North Persia Russia is the predominant com mercial factor. In South Persia Great Britain, controlling the Persian Gulf, has been able, since the opening of the Suez Canal. firmly to establish its supremacy in trade. Between these two great spheres of Russian and British trade lies Mddle Persia, over which both countries are en deavoring to extend their sway. The great inland centres of commerce are Tabriz, Teheran, Ispahan, and :\ feslihed , eonnected by caravan routes to which smaller routes extending to most parts of the country are tributary. Opium leads in the ex ports, followed by raw silk, rice, carpets, tobacco, dried fruits and nuts, wheat and barley, gum tragaeanth, asafoetida, and raisins. The imports are determined by the fact that the country is deficient in many products which constitute the necessaries of civilized life. Iron is worked only in the rudest fashion, little sugar is made, the oil wells are untouched, fabrics are in limited supply, and yet Persia consumes enormous quan tities of sugar, kerosene, hardware, textiles, and many other manufactures. Cotton textiles are the largest imports ($3,991,542 in 1901-02). Great Britain supplies most of the bleached and unbleached cottons. Then come silks and wool
ens, sugar, spices. hardware,*glassware, iron, and many other commodities. The value of the imports in the fiscal year 1901-02 was $27,18, 536. of which Russia sent $11,071,828; Great Britain. $10,327,900; France, $2.324,927; Tur key. $1.218.100; Austria, $995.729; Afghanistan, $261.671; Germany, $231,913; other countries, $742,465.
The value of the exports in the same period was $11,415,464. The total import and export trade was therefore worth $38.600,000, of which Russia had 56 per cent. and Great Britain 24 per cent. The sales of pearls from the great Bahrein fisheries in the Persian Gulf amounted to $2, 895,000.
The principal ports are Bender Abbas, Lingah, and Bushire on the Persian Gulf, and Enzeli and Alesiihed-i-Ser (the port of Balfrush) on the Caspian. Trebizond. a port of Asiatic Turkey on the Black Sea, is still an important outlet for the trade of Tabriz. In February. 1903. the new tariff agreement between Russia and Persia, "by which the ad valorem duties of 5 per cent. on both exports and imports were changed to a specific tariff, went into effect. All the other foreign Powers are included in this agreement on the 'most favored nation' basis.