IOR/R/15/5/73

This volume primarily concerns the preparation and submission of annual trade reports. Most of the volume consists of copies of trade reports for Kuwait (for each financial year from 1912-1913 up to and including 1916-1917), which are submitted by the Political Agent, Kuwait (Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear; Lieutenant-Colonel William George Grey; Major Robert Edward Archibald Hamilton). Imports include arms and ammunition, rice, specie [coins], and sugar; exports include pearls, specie and tea. Each report records the total value (initially in rupees but later in sterling) of the trade for the year and discusses in detail the increase and decrease in trade of specific goods. Further items of discussion in later reports include public health, shipping and navigation, and transport.

Each report also includes in its tables of statistics the corresponding data (i.e. quantities and values of goods) for the two preceding financial years, as well as the countries from/to which the principal articles were imported/exported. The rear of the volume contains some trade statistics for the financial year of 1917-1918.

In addition to trade reports, the volume includes correspondence between the Political Agent and the British Residency at Bushire regarding occurrences of 'double entry' in the shipping returns of Persian Gulf ports. The Political Agent is instructed to include in his returns only those vessels that either bring cargo to Kuwait from outside the Gulf or depart with cargo taken from Kuwait which is destined for somewhere outside the Gulf.

Also included are the following:

• a letter, dated 22 July 1913, from the Foreign Office to the Political Agent, Kuwait, informing him that his trade report for the year 1912-1913 will not be published at present because of political reasons;
• a request, dated 20 January 1917, from the Chief Political Officer, Basrah (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Zachariah Cox), for the Political Agent to provide information regarding British and foreign trade at Kuwait, in order to assist a commission that has been appointed to enquire into the condition of British trade with Mesopotamia and the Gulf ports (the file includes a copy of instructions for the commission).

The Arabic material in this volume consists of three items of correspondence.