War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and ... - Oguzlar.az

The politics of concession 215gradually disseminating across the country. It was thus well-attuned toworking with foreign business and financial representatives at the point wherethe idea of awarding concessions took hold.THE LOCAL EFFECTS OF THE GREAT GAMETipping the pivot of this intricate Persian administrative mobile were thepressures of the Great Game, which, as discussed in Schoffield, Cronin,Martin and Eskandari-Qajar in this volume, as well as in Kashani-Sabet andMojtahed-Zadeh, were already dividing the nation between Russia and theBritish Empire, even though no agreement or convention was signed to thateffect until 1907. 5 In the south, the British Consul in Bushehr representedthe power of the British Crown quite separately from the Legation in Tehran.Staffed and lavishly underwritten by the government of India and the EastIndia Trading Co., it commanded it own military contingent (usually, theBengal Rifles). Its purpose was as to manage British interests in the Gulfthrough contact with the Arab sheikhs and tribal leaders on both littorals,including Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah (nominally, a Persian subject), andthrough the promotion of trade and the transport of goods up and downthe Gulf. Often at odds with the Foreign Office’s Ambassador in Tehran,the Consul and his militia reported directly to India, considered themselvesexperienced in Oriental culture and language, and viewed their remit as muchbroader than that of just Iran. As observed by Elwell-Sutton,In the South of Persia during the 19th century, the Indian governmenthad turned the Persian Gulf and provinces bordering on it into somethingapproaching a British dependency, where the authority of the Britishconsul counted for more than the decrees of the Persian governor. 6The British success in the Gulf, first through its closure of the slave tradeand piracy, and then by plying steamers up the Tigris and Euphrates, had,for all intents and purposes shut down Persia’s south-west trade. 7 Trade inthe west would suffer the same fate, as the route between Trabazond andLiverpool by way of the Black Sea became at last a direct line for Britishshipping in the latter part of the century, making it difficult for Persia tocompete via the Tabriz-Erzurum-Constantinople route. At the same time,the loss of Herat and the positioning of British consuls in Mashad and Kerman,moved most of the servicing of goods along the eastern route into Britishhands and out of Persian control. Imports of British and Indian goods, meanwhile,rose dramatically, while exports of Persian goods fell. According toWilson, imports consistently exceeded exports, often reaching twice their level,as in the case of 1901, the first year statistics became available. 8Where the policy in the British Empire had shifted in the nineteenth centuryfrom political domination to control over resources as well as creating