In the autumn of 1896 the grand vizier (Amin-es-Sultan) encountered
much hostility from some members of the shah’s
entourage and various high personages. Amin-ad-daulah
was appointed chief administrator (vizier) of
Azerbaijan and sent to Tabriz. Shortly afterwards
the grand vizier found it impossible to carry on his
Ministerial Changes,
1896–1898.
work, resigned, and retired to Kum (Nov. 24), and the shah formed
a cabinet composed for the greater part of the leading members
of the opposition to the grand vizier. After three months of the
new régime affairs of state fell into arrears, and the most important
department, that of the interior, was completely disorganized.
The shah accordingly recalled Amin-ad-daulah from Tabriz (Feb.
1897), and appointed him minister president (raïs-i-vuzara) and
minister of the interior. In June Amin-ad-daulah was made
prime minister (vizir ʽazim) and given more extended powers,
and in August raised to the dignity of grand vizier (sadr ʽazim).
Nasru ʽl-Mulk was appointed minister of finance (Feb. 1898), and
made an attempt to introduce a simple system of accounts, establish
a budget, reorganize the revenue department, made a new assessment
of the land-tax, &c.; but resistance on the part of the officials
rendered it abortive.
In the latter part of 1897 E. Graves, the inspector of the English telegraph line from Jask eastwards, was brutally murdered by Baluchis, and the agents of the Persian government sent to seize the murderers were resisted by the tribes. A considerable district breaking out into open revolt, troops under the command of the governor-general of Kermān were despatched into Baluchistan. The port of Fannoch was taken in March 1898, and order was restored. One of the murderers was hanged at Jask (May 31).
Various attempts to obtain a foreign loan had been made during the previous year, but with the sole result of discrediting the Persian government in Europe. In the beginning of 1898 the shah’s medical advisers strongly recommended a cure of mineral waters in Germany or France, and as his departure from Persia without paying the arrears Abortive Negotiations for British Loan in 1898. to the army and to thousands of functionaries, or providing a sufficient sum for carrying on the government during his absence, would have created grave discontent, serious negotiations for a loan were entered upon. It was estimated that £1,000,000 would be required to pay all debts, including the balance of the 1892 loan, and leave a surplus sufficient for carrying on the government until the shah’s return. London capitalists offered to float a loan for £1,250,000 at 5% and on the guarantee of the customs of Fars and the Persian Gulf ports, and to give £1,025,000, or 82% to the Persian government. They stipulated for a kind of control over the custom-houses by placing their own agents as cashiers in them. This stipulation was agreed to in principle by the grand vizier, Amin ad-daulah, who in March, in order to meet some pressing demands on the treasury borrowed £50,000 on the customs receipts of Kermānshāh and Bushire, and agreed to the lenders, the Imperial Bank of Persia’s agents, being placed as cashiers in the custom-houses of both cities. He encountered, however, much opposition from the other ministers. Further negotiations ensued, and the shah’s visit to Europe was abandoned. The assistance of the British government not being forthcoming, the grand vizier’s position became more and more difficult, and on the 5th of June he had to resign. Muhsin Khan, Mushir-ad-daulah, minister for foreign affairs, then became president of the cabinet, and continued the negotiations, but could not bring them to a successful issue. Moreover, the Persian government, finding that the previous estimate of the money required for paying its debts was about 50% below the mark, now asked for double the amount offered by the London capitalists, without, however, proportionately increasing the guarantee. This disorganized all previous arrangements, and the negotiations for a London loan came to an end for a time at the end of July, leaving in the minds of the Persians the unfortunate impression that the British government had done nothing to aid them.
On the 9th of July the former grand vizier, Amin-es-Sultan, was recalled from Kum, where he had resided since November 1896, arrived at Teherān three days later, and was reinstated as grand vizier on the 10th of August. His immense popularity, his friendly relations with the clergy, and some temporary advances from the banks, tided over difficulties for some time. The reform of the customs department was now (Sept. 1898) taken up seriously, and the three Belgian custom-house officials who had been engaged by Amin-ad-daulah in the beginning of the year were instructed to collect information and devise a scheme for the reorganization of the department and the abolition of the farm system. In March 1899 the custom-houses of the provinces of Azerbaijan and Kermānshāh were given over to the Belgians. The results of this step were so satisfactory that government was induced to abolish the farm system and set up the new régime in the other provinces in March 1900, and a number of other Belgian custom-houses officials were engaged.
In September, when renewed negotiations for a loan from London
were not appearing to progress favourably, and the long-thought of
visit to Europe was considered to be absolutely necessary in
the following year, the shah issued a firman authorizing the Russian
Banque des Prêts de Perse to float a loan. Shortly after this it was
said that the London capitalists were willing to lend £1,250,000
without insisting upon the objectionable control clause; but the
Russian Loan
of 1900.
proposal came too late, and on the 30th of January
1900, the Russian government had permitted the issue
of a loan for 2212 million roubles (£2,400,000) at 5%,
guaranteed by all the customs receipts of Persia,
excepting those for Fars and the Persian Gulf ports. Only in the
event of any default of paying instalments and interests was the
bank to be given control of the custom-houses. Persia received
85% of the nominal capital, and the Russian government guaranteed
the bondholders. Money was immediately remitted to
Teherān, and nearly all the arrears were paid, while the balance
of the 1892 London 6% loan was paid off by direct remittance
to London.
Sir Mortimer Durand left Teherān in the early spring, and proceeded to Europe on leave. On the 12th of April the shah, accompanied by the grand vizier and a numerous suite, started on his voyage to Europe. The affairs of State during his absence were entrusted to a council of ministers, under the presidency of his second son, Shah’s Visits to Europe, 1900, 1902. Malik Mansur Mirza, Shua-es-Sultaneh, who had made a long stay on the Continent the year before.
After a residence of a month at Contrexéville, the shah proceeded (July 14) to St Petersburg, and thence to Paris (July 29), intending to go to London on the 8th of August. But on account of the mourning in which several courts were thrown through the death of the king of Italy (July 29) and the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (July 30), the visits to England, Germany and Italy were abandoned. On the 2nd of August an anarchist made an attempt upon the shah’s life in Paris.
F.—Russo-British Rivalry (1902–1907) and the Persian Revolution (1906–1909).
In 1902 Muzaffar-ud-Dīn Shah revisited the principal European capitals, and was received by King Edward VII. at Portsmouth in August. A mission headed by Viscount Downe was afterwards despatched to Persia, to invest the shah with the order of the Garter, a ceremony which took place in Teherān on the 2nd of February 1903. A week later, a new commercial treaty was concluded between Great Britain and Persia, which instituted various reforms in the customs service, secured to both countries the “most-favoured-nation” treatment, and substituted specific import and export duties for the charge of 5% ad valorem provided for in the treaty of 1857. These provisions to some extent counterbalanced the losses inflicted on British trade by the Russo-Persian commercial treaty signed in 1902, which had seriously damaged the Indian tea trade, and had led to a rapid extension of Russian influence. Between 1899 and 1903 the Russian Bank had lent Persia £4,000,000, of which fully half was paid to the shah for his personal requirements. Russian concessionnaires were given the right to build roads from Tabriz to Teherān (1902) and from Tabriz to Kazvin (1903); and the Russian Bank opened new branches in Seistan—an example followed in 1903 by the Bank of Persia. It was, however, in the Persian Gulf that the rivalry between Great Britain and Russia threatened to become dangerous. Great Britain had almost a monopoly of maritime commerce in the Gulf, and was alone responsible for buoying, lighting and policing its waters. The British claim to political supremacy in this region had thus a solid economic basis; it had been emphasized by the British action at Kuwet (q.v.) in 1899, and by the declaration made in the House of Lords by Lord Lansdowne, as secretary of state for foreign affairs, to the effect that Great Britain would resist by all means in its power the attempt of any other nation to establish itself in force on the shores of the Gulf. On the 16th of November 1903, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, sailed from Karachi for the Persian Gulf. His ship, the “Hardinge,” was escorted by four cruisers, and the voyage was regarded as a political demonstration, to be interpreted in connexion with Lord Lansdowne’s declaration. At Bushire, on the 1st of December, the Persian governor of Fars, Ala ad-daula, committed a breach of diplomatic etiquette which induced Lord Curzon to sail away without landing. This incident was considered by some British observers to have been brought about by Russian intrigue, and the fact that Ala ad-daula was dismissed in 1904, after the Japanese had achieved several initial successes in the Russo-Japanese war, was held to confirm this opinion. But Russian financial and commercial influence in
