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

216 Roxane Farmanfarmaian“colonies, protectorates and buffer zones”, the policy in Russia, was simpler:territorial occupation and preferential trade arrangements. 9 This meant theshearing off of Persia’s north, Russian consuls in every major northern portand town, and the advantageous Turkomanchai Treaty tariff of 4 per centon Russian goods, which was jealously maintained by the Russians after theBolshevik takeover. By 1901, however, when Persia was in dire financial straitsand the Shah negotiated a foreign loan from Russia which increased the taxto 4.75 per cent, Britain too insisted on a revision of rates on certain commoditiesof interest to itself which reached 26.77 per cent, a situation whichMillspaugh quotes his predecessor, Morgan Shuster, as stating in TheStrangling of Persia, was a tariffabsolutely prejudicial to the interests of Persia and is so grossly partialto Russian interests and trade as to render it the most conspicuously unsuccessfultariff in the world from the viewpoint of the people in whose behalfit is supposed to be framed. 10The result was a positive trade balance in the north for Persia, if at usuriousrates (and often through forced barter), offset by a negative one in the south,which meant that much of Persia’s currency funnelled from north to south. 11THE WOES OF SILVER CONVERTIBILITYThough the reduction in trade opportunity across its territory in itself negativelyaffected Persia’s economic picture, it was in fact the pegging of thekran to silver that would plunge Persia seriously into financial straits andforce her to seek alternatives by way of concessionary awards. Millspaughnotes that Persia had little margin for error or waste, as her resources at thetime were thinly stretched, and the country had few options to ameliorateher position:The first of the differences between Persia and some of the other countriesthat occurs to me, is that Persia has always been, up to this time,near the margin of financial subsistence; her budget has been small; hereconomic system almost stationary; her taxes inelastic; and her expendituresinadequate for her expanding needs. In Persia, therefore, any disorder,inefficiency, waste, leakage, irregularity, or error has been relativelymore conspicuous and serious than in many other countries, which doubtlesssuffer from the same conditions, but which nevertheless enjoy a higherrating. 12Without significant mines of either silver or gold on her own territory, Persiahad traditionally bolstered her currency by conquest of treasure. This cameto a halt under Fath-Ali Shah. Throughout his reign, and that of Mohammad