Of the total trade Russia enjoys 56 per cent., and the British Empire 34 per cent.

Tonnage entered at Bushire, Lingah, Bunder Abbas, Mohammerah, and several smaller ports was in 1916-17, 883,620 tons, of which 675,000 tons were English (steam) and 97,006 tons Japanese.

At Caspian Sea ports in 1916-17, 556,991 tons all Russian.

There are trade routes through Trebizond, through Resht and Meshed to Russia, through Khorassan and Seistan to Afghanistan and India, and through Kermanshah to Baghdad.

Total trade between Persia and United Kingdom (Board of Trade returns) for 5 years:

The Shah in 1889 granted a concession to Baron Julius de Reuter for the formation of a State Bank of Persia, with head office at Teheran and branches in the chief cities. The bank was formed in the autumn of the same year, with the title "The Imperial Bank of Persia," and incorporated by Royal Charter, dated September 2, 1889. The authorised capital is 4 millions sterling, which may be increased. The bank started with a capital of one million sterling, of which the greater part was remitted to Persia at the then reigning exchange of 32-34. In consequence of the great fall in silver and the rise in the exchange, to 50 or more, the capital was reduced in December, 1894, to 650,000l. The bank has the exclusive right of issuing bank-notes-not exceeding 800,000l. without the assent of the Persian Government. The issue of notes is on the basis of the silver krân. In virtue of one of the articles of the concession the cash reserve for the first two years was 50 per cent., and afterwards 33 per cent. The bank had the exclusive right of

working throughout the Empire the iron, copper, lead, mercury, coal, petroleum, manganese, borax, and asbestos mines, not already conceded. There is also established at Tehran the Russian Banque d'Escompte,' formerly Banque des Prêts de Perse' (which is connected with the Russian State Bank and floated the loans of 1900 and 1902 to Persia). A concession for a National Bank was signed, February 6, 1907.

Communications.

A small railway from Teheran to Shah Abdul-azim (six miles) was opened in July, 1888, and is in the hands of a Belgian company, 'Société des chemins de fer et tramways de Perse.' The river Karun at the head of the Persian Gulf has been opened to foreign navigation as far as Ahwaz. It is served by a fortnightly steamship service subsidised by the British Government.

Until 1903 the only carriageable roads in Persia were Teheran-Kom and Teheran-Resht, the former 91 miles, the latter about 220 miles, and on both mails and travellers were conveyed by carts. Since then good roads have been made from Tabriz to Julfa (Russian frontier), Kazvin to Hamadan, Meshed to Askabad, Kom to Sultanabad, and others. Mails and passengers are now conveyed by carts on them and some other roads, but the latter, only slightly improved and being practically as nature made them, are somewhat difficult for wheeled traffic. A concession for the construction of a cart road with the option of changing it later for a 'chaussée,' or macadamised road, from Kazvin to Enzeli on the Caspian was granted to a Russian firm in 1893, and the Russian Government having aided with capital and guarantee, construction was begun in 1897 and the road opened for traffic in August, 1899. The concession includes the road from Kazvin to Teheran, which has been open for wheeled traffic since 1880, and a branch from Kazvin to Hamadan. All these are in good working order now. During the last three years tracks have been made, passable by motor cars, between Ispahan and Shiraz, and thence to Niris, Saidabad, Kerman, and Bam.

In 1898 Messrs. Lynch took over a concession granted to a Persian subject for a caravan road between Ahwaz and Ispahan, with rights of levying tolls, and opened the road for traffic in the autumn of 1900. In 1903 Messrs. Lynch acquired the concessionary rights of the Imperial Bank of Persia for the roads Teheran-Kom-Ispahan, Kom-Mohammerah, and formed the 'Persian Road and Transport Company,' which started construction on the KomIspahan section in the summer of 1904.

In virtue of another concession a Russian company has constructed a railway from Julfa (Perso-Russian frontier) to Tabriz (opened March 7, 1916). Persia has a system of telegraphs consisting of 6,312 miles of line, with 10,754 miles of wire, and 131 stations.-(1) 1,706 miles of line with 5,318 miles of wire are worked by an English staff, and form the Indo-European Telegraph Department in Persia, a British Government department, established in virtue of a number of conventions from 1863 to 1901 between the British and Persian Governments. The last convention was for the

construction and working by the British Government of a three-wire line from Kashan to British Beluchistan viâ Yezd Kerman, and Bam. Telegraphic communication with India was effected in May, 1904. (2) 457 miles of line with three wires, 1,371 miles of wire between Teheran and Julfa on the Russo-Persian frontier, are worked by the Indo-European Telegraph Company, Limited, according to its concession of 1868. (3) About 3,600 miles of single wire lines belong to the Persian Government, and are worked by a Persian staff.

The first regular postal service, established by an Austrian official in

Persian employ, was opened January, 1877. There are 218 post offices. In 1902 the post office was joined to the Customs Department worked by Belgian officials. In August, 1909, posts and telegraphs were placed in charge of a Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, who is a member of the Cabinet, but as to the number of letters, post cards, parcels, &c., conveyed, and telegrams transmitted, very few statistics are obtainable. During the year 1912-13, about 284,000,000 letters, post cards and newspapers, of which 4,000,000 were registered, were delivered in Persia, and there were 320,000 parcels delivered from Europe via Russia.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

Persia has nominally a double monetary standard, but in practice the finances of the country are on a silver basis. The monetary unit is the kran, a silver coin, formerly weighing 28 nakhods (88 grains), then reduced to 26 nakhods (77 grains), now weighing only 24 nakhods (71 grains) or somewhat less. The proportion of pure silver was before the new coinage (commenced 1877) 92 to 95 per cent.; it was then fixed at 90, but occasionally coins with only 89 have been turned out from the Mint. In 1874 a kran had the value of a franc, 25 being equal to 11. The value of a kran is at present (January, 1918) about 8d. The coins in circulation, with their values calculated at exchange 11.= 50 kran, are:

28. 0·00d.

Four Shahis(1 Abbâssî).

Five Kran

Five Shahis=10 Pûl Kran 1·20d. Copper is out of official circulation; it only exists in outlying provinces. In consequence of an excess of coinage by a former mint-master the copper money greatly depreciated in value since 1896 and was circulating at less than its price of copper, viz. 80 to 83 copper shahiś (weighing about lb.) to one silver kran (4 d.). The Government then decided to introduce a nickel coinage instead; great quantities of five and ten centimes pieces, of same size and weight as those current in Belgium, and of the nominal value of and kran, were coined at Brussels and put into circulation in the autumn of 1900.

Gold coins are: Toman, Toman, 1 Toman, 2, 5 and 10 Tomans, but they are not in circulation as current money, because of their ever-varying value in Kran (silver) and no coins of the higher values have been struck for some years. They are a commodity and are used for presents and hoarding. A Toman in silver is the equivalent of 10 kran (now worth 3s. 4d.), but a gold Toman has a value of 22 Kran (7s. 4d.).

Accounts are reckoned in dînârs, an imaginary coin, the ten-thousandth part of a toman of ten kran. A krân therefore=1,000 dînârs; one shâhî = 50 dînârs.

The unit of weight is the miskâl (71 grains), subdivided into 24 nakhods (2.96 grains) of 4 gandum (74 grain) each. Sixteen miskâls make a sîr, and 5 sir make an abbâssî, also called wakkeh, kervânkeh. Most articles are bought and sold by a weight called batman or man. The mans most frequently in use are:-Man-i-Tabrîz=8 Abbâssis Man-i-Noh Abbâssî=9 Abbâssis

=

640 Miskáls =

6:49 lbs.

=

720 = 1,000

=

7.30

720

= 116.80

Man-i-Hashemi = 16 Mans of. Corn, straw, coal, &c., are sold by Kharvâr=100 Tabriz Mans 649.142, The unit of measure is the zar or gez; of this standard several are in use The most common is the one of 40 95 inches; another, used in Azerbïajan equals 44 09 inches. A farsakh theoretically=6,000 zar of 40·95 inches=3'87 miles. Some calculate the farsakh at 6,000 zar of 44 09 inches=4'17 miles. The measure of surface is jerîb=1,000 to 1,066 square zar of 40.95 inches 1,294 to 1,379 square yards.

Diplomatic Representatives.

1. OF PERSIA IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.-Prince Mirza Mehdi
Khan, Ala-es-Saltaneh Amir Nooyan (appointed July 4, 1911).
Counsellor.-Mirza Abdol Ghaffar Khan.

First Secretary.-Mohamed Ali Khan Ehtesham Homayoun.
Third Secretary.-Fatollah Khan Monazam-es-Saltaneh.
Honorary Attaché. —Abdol Ali Khan, Sadigh-es-Saltaneh.
Consul-General.-H. S. Foster.

2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN PERSIA.

Teheran: Envoy, Minister, and Consul-General.-Sir Percy Cox, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., C. B., K.C.M.G. Appointed 1919.

Counsellor.-Hon. E. Scott, C. M. G., M. V.O.
Secretary.-R. J. V. Astell.

Military Attaché.-Major J. C. M. Hoskyn.
Honorary Attaché.-Henry Maclean.

There are Consular representatives at Teheran, Tabriz (C.), Resht Bushire (C. G.), Bunder Abbas, Meshed (C.-G.), Ispahan (C.-G.), Seistan, Kerman, Mohammerah, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Yezd, Ahwaz, Turbat-i-Haidari, Sultanabad.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Persia,

1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Blue Books.-Affairs of Persia, December 1906, to November, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1914.

Eastern Persia: an Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-72. 2 vols. 1876.

Treaty Series, No. 10, 1903. This gives the Commercial Convention of May 27, 1903, The old customs tariff is also given in the Board of Trade Journal (No. 325) for February 19, 1903, and in United States Consular Reports (No. 273) for June, 1903. Treaty series No. 34. Convention with Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet, 1907.

Foreign Office Reports. [On the trade of Bushire, Lingah, Bunder Abbas, Mohammerah and other ports in the Persian Gulf. On Kermanshah. On the trade of Resht, and of Meshed. Annual Series. London.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Bert (F. B.), Through Persia from the Gulf to the Caspian. London, 1909.

Browne (E. G.), A Year amongst the Persians. London, 1893.-The Revolution in Persia. London, 1910.

Chirol (Sir Valentine), The Middle Eastern Question. London, 1904.

Cresson (W. P.), Persia. London, 1906.

Curzon (Lord), Persia and the Persian Question. [Chap. I. contains an account of European literature relating to Persia (900-1891), and there are bibliographical footnotes throughout the volumes.] 2 vols. London, 1892.

Fraser (David), Persia and Turkey in Revolt. London, 1910.

Grothe (H.), Wanderungen in Persien. Berlin, 1910.-Zur Natur und Wirtschaft von Vorderasien. I. Persien. Frankfurt, 1911.

Hedin (Dr. Sven), Overland to India. 2 Vols. London, 1910.

Iyassa (A. I.), Journey to the North Persian Kurdistan. (In Russian.) Petrograd, 1915. Jackson (A. V.W.), Persia, Past and Present: a Book of Travel and Research, London, 1906. Jung (K.), Die Wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse Persiens. Berlin, 1910.

Landor (H. S.), Across Coveted Lands. 2 vols. London, 1902.

Layard (Sir H. A.), Early Adventures in Persia, &c. New ed. 2 vols. London, 1894.
Malcolm (N.), Five Years in a Persian Town (Yezd). London, 1905.
Moore (A.), The Orient Express. London, 1914.

Pumpelly (R.), Explorations in Turkestan, (with Eastern Persia and Sistan]. Washing

ton, 1905.

Rawlinson (G.), History of Ancient Persia. Vol. IV. of the History of the Ancient Monarchies of the East. London, 1868.-The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy. London, 1876. Shuster (W. M.), The Strangling of Persia. London, 1912. Stillman (C. H.), The Subjects of the Shah. London, 1902.

Strange (G. Le), The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. Cambridge, 1905.

Sykes (Ella C.), Persia and its People. London, 1910.

Sykes (P. M.), Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. London, 1902.-A History of Persia. 2 vols. London, 1915.

Warzée (Dorothy de, Baroness d'Hermalle), Peeps into Persia. London, 1913.

Wills (Dr. C. J.), The Land of the Lion and Sun. London, 1883.-Persia as it is. London, 1886.

Yate (C. E.), Khurasan and Sistan. London, 1900.