Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1223

 MONKT, WEI

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 ol changing it later for a ' chaassee,' 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, The concession includes the road from Kazvin to Teheran, whi

open for wheeled traffic since 1880, and a branch from Kazvin to Haiiia-lan. All these are in good working order now. During the last thrv< yean tracks have been made, passable by motor cats, between Ispahan and

• bad. 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. I acquired the concessionary rights ol the Imperial Bank of Persia for the roads Teheran-Kom-Ispahan, Kom-Mohanimerah, and formed the ' Persian Koad and Tran»]>ort Company,' which started construction on the Koui- Ispahan section in the summer of 1904.

Persia ha^ a system of telegraphs consisting of 6,812 milt-" of Hue, with 10,754 miles of wire, and 131 stations.— (1) 1,706 nii

of wire are worked by an English start, and form thr Telegraph Department,' a British Government department, estal ■'. in virtue of a number of conventions from 1863 to 1901 bel the British and Persian Governmetr ist convention was for the

construction and working by the British Government of a three-wire line from Kashan to British Beluchistan via Yezd Kerman, and Bam. graphic communication with India was miles

of line with three wires, 1,371 miles of wire bet ran and Julia on

the Russo- Persian frontier, are worked by the Ind. Telegraph

Company, Limited, according to its concession of 1368. # (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 .'here 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 pla charge of a Minister ol" Posts and Telegraphs, who is a mernl- -inet

but as to the number of letters, post cards, parcels, fcc, conveyed, and telegrams transmitted, very few statistics are obtainable. During the year

.3, about 284,000,000 letters, post cards and newspai>ers, 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 Measnres.

Peisia lias nominally a double monetary standard, but in practice the ri nances of the country are on a silver basis. The monetary unit is the kran, a silver coin, formerly weighing 28 nakhods (88 grains), then redu :_rhing on ;

nakhods ^71 grains) or somewhat teas. The proportion of pure silver was before the new coinage (commenced 1877) 92 to 95 per cent. ; it was then used at 90, but occasionally coins with only 89$ have been turned out from the Mint. In 1S74 a kran had the value of a franc, 25 being equal to 1/. The value of a kran was (September, 1919) about M.

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