Part 33 (1/2)

From the map accompanying this chapter show how the tributary streams of the great rivers have served to extend Russian commerce through Siberia.

Note the situation of the cities and towns of Siberia with reference to the rivers.

What effect has the high lat.i.tude of Russia on its agricultural industries?

From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports and imports of Russia by articles, and also the volume of trade with other countries.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the statistics of trade between Russia and the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

Commercial life in Russia--preferably from the article, ”Russia,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

For a rug of the Caucasus type, see ill.u.s.tration, p. 351; compare the Kabistan with the Persian piece--which has the floral and which the geometric figures?

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA

The countries of the Iran plateau extend from the Mediterranean Sea to the valley of the Indus River. The Arabian Peninsula is not a part of it, but its climate and general character are similar. The Iran countries are exceedingly rugged, and a great part of their surface is more than a mile above sea-level. The climate is one of great extremes; the summer hot-waves and the winter hurricanes are probably unknown elsewhere in severity. The greater part of Arabia is an unhabitable desert.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RUG-MAKING COUNTRIES]

The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp upon the population of the region. They are full of the intelligent cunning and ferocity that mark people living under such conditions of environment. In many parts the sterile soil and arid climate force the spa.r.s.e population into nomadic habits of life and predatory pursuits.

For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for the population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the question. The flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and a few of the river-valleys are highly productive.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ANTIQUE TREE-OF-LIFE, KERMANSHAH (PERSIAN) RUG]

Before the Christian era several trade-routes between Europe and the Orient lay across this region, and along the caravan routes there were the usual industries pertaining to commercial peoples. The cities of Sinope, Trebizond, Astrabad, Phasis, Mashad, and Bactra (now Balkh) grew into existence along one of the northern routes. Tyre, Nineveh, Tarsus, Palmyra, Babylon, and Persepolis were founded along one or another of the southern routes. Of these, Trebizond only retains its importance, being a seaport with a considerable trade. The commerce that once pa.s.sed over this route was crushed out of existence during the invasions by Jenghis Khan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A KABISTAN RUG--CAUCASUS DISTRICT]

Of the various industries of the Iran plateau, practically but one extends beyond its borders, namely, the manufacture of the textile fabrics known as Oriental rugs. These are unique; they are made of materials, colored with dyes, and are ornamented with designs that cannot be successfully imitated anywhere else in the world. The filling of the rugs consists of fine wool, selected not only from particular localities, but also from certain parts of the fleece. The dye-stuffs are common to other parts of the world, and their names--indigo, saffron, coccus, madder, and orchil--are familiar. But both the wool and the dye-stuffs possess qualities imparted to them by soil and climate that are not found elsewhere.

The absence of floors, and of the furniture found in European dwellings, make the rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The hearth-rug, the bath-mat, the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the saddle-mat must be regarded as necessities. Religion also has its requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes ornamented with the hands of the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment, whether of the nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have their own designs and methods of workmans.h.i.+p, and the rugs of each are easily distinguished.[76]

For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to convenient s.h.i.+pping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is obtained in this manner. As a rule the rugs are named from the town or district in which they are made. Smyrna and Constantinople are the chief ports of s.h.i.+pment. Many of them find their way to European dealers, but New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The great majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice fabrics, however, bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars.

Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a weaver frequently spends several years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than ten cents a day. The factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured product.

=Turkish Possessions.=--Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish possession formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs, however, to only a small part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the commercial people of the greater part of this region, and although thousands have been ma.s.sacred because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief power because of their business enterprise.

During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from Constantinople and other coast-points to the interior. One of these extended to Mesopotamia, and became a much-travelled route of the trade which centred at Constantinople. Within recent years German capitalists have built railways along these roads, thereby creating a considerable export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.

_Angora_ and _Konieh_ (_Iconium_) are important marts. _Trebizond_ is the chief port of the Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with the interior. _Smyrna_ is the chief port of the Mediterranean, and from it are s.h.i.+pped to European and American markets the fruit and textile fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, _Damascus_, one of the oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in textile manufactures. Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported to Europe through _Beirut_, its seaport, with which it is connected by rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. _Yafa_ is the port of Jerusalem. _Bagdad_ is the chief trade-centre of Mesopotamia.

=Arabia.=--Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by Arab traders, are s.h.i.+pped from the port of _Hodeida_. _Mecca_ is the yearly meeting-place of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty; it is also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. _Aden_, the chief coaling-station of the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also a free port, having a considerable trade in American cotton and coal-oil.