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 FOREIGN TRADE OF PERSIA. 289 in the lifetime of Fetteli AH Shah he confidently assured Mahomed Meerza that he should one day be king of Persia. Our opinion of his discernment is, however, somewhat lowered by our being told* that he privately made the same promise to others of the sons of Abbass, so that the chances might be multiplied of his being able in after years to claim the credit of having predicted so important a fact. Haji Meerza Aghassi, however learned he may have been in Arabian lore, was not a minister calculated to lead Persia in a path of pro- gress. He was suspicious of the designs of foreign governments, and was entirely ignorant of the principles which at that time were recognized by Europe as those which should be regarded as axioms in political economy. By the Treaty of-Turkomanchai it was stipulated that Eussia should have the right of placing consuls in Persia wherever the demands of trade might require their pre- sence. It was not stated who were to be judges of the requirements of trade, and Fetteh Ali Shah had to the last persisted that no consuls were required. On the other hand, the successive representatives of Russia at the Persian court had demanded the royal permission for the establishment and recognition of a consul at Resht, the chief city of Gilan. This permission was withheld, but a compromise was effected by one of the members of the Russian Legation being annually deputed to Resht to reside there during the four months when the silk-trade demanded the presence of a government agent. Towards the close of the reign of Fetteh Ali Shah, the attention of the British Government was directed to the subject of the foreign trade of Persia. A British 19
 * HOLMES'S Shores of the Caspian.