The chief articles manufactured for export are silk, woollen stuffs, sword-blades, and fire arms, from Herat and Candahar. Elphinstone enumerates the following as the chief indus trial occupations for home produce at Canda har:—Jewellers, gold and silver smiths, book sellers, bookbinders, stationers, makers of kul lumdauns (a sort of inkstand and pen-case, of which every man who can write has one), seal engravers, sellers of armour, sellers of shields (these shields are of buffalo's or rhinoceros's bide), gunsmiths, sword-cutlers, polishers of steel, sellers of bows and arrows, sellers of glass ornaments for women, three descrip tions of shoemakers, bootmakers, button makers, silk thread sellers, gold wire and gold thread sellers, saddlers, farriers, painters, fruiterers, cooks, soup-sellers, tobacconists, druggists, perfumers, sellers of sherbet and of fullodeh, confectioners, embroiderers, and people whose business is to sew ornaments on clothes of all descriptions, from jewels to spangles.
As Afghanistan has no navigable rivers, the transport of merchandise is expensive, and the expense is increased by the want of roads, which are not met with in all Western Asia, from the Indus to the Straits of Con stantinople. The conveyance of merchandise is therefore effected by beasts of burden. Camels are mostly used in the level countries, and mules or asses in the mountainous dis tricts. Nearly all the land commerce exist ing between India on one side, and Persia, Turkistan, and China on the other side, must be carried through Afghanistan. Of these
lines of communication, the most northern goes by way of Loo-dianah, Lahore, Attock, Peshawur, to Kabool, on the way to Bokhara. A middle line leads from Lahore to the table land, where it branches to Ghuznee and Can dahar. A southern route reaches Candahar from the mouth of the Indus. From Candahar a route passes westward into Persia.
An active commerce is carried on between Herat and Meshed and other towns in Persia, The exports from Herat consist of shawls and shawl goods, indigo, carpets of Herat, Mool time° chintz, Indian brocades, muslin and other cotton-cloth, assafcetida, lead (from the mines of the Eimack), cast-iron, saffron,' pistachio-nuts, gums, a yellow dye, carraway seeds, and paper. The imports of Herat are chiefly silk, dates, tobacco, lemon-juice, and ivory heel-taps.
Several caravans go annually from Kabool to Bokhara. They export chiefly articles which have been imported from India, espe cially shawls and shawl-cloth, white cloth of all kinds, India turbans, Mooltanee chintz, indigo, and spices; and they import from Bokhara principally horses, and gold and silver in coins and bars. Some articles brought from Russia are also imported by these cara vans, especially cast-iron pots, cutlery and other hardware, needles, looking-glasses, Russia leather, tin, beads, and spectacles. A fine cloth made of camel's wool, some raw cotton, and some lambskins, are also brought from Bokhara and Balkh.