IOR/L/PS/12/3402

Copies of monthly commercial reports for the Khorasan [Khorāsān] district of Iran, submitted by Britain’s Consul-General for Khorasan at Meshed [Mashhad]. The file is a direct chronological continuation of Coll 28/7 ‘Persia. Diaries: Meshed/Khorasan Commercial: Jany 1931–Dec. 1940 (Inclusive.)’ (IOR/L/PS/12/3401).

Papers for each monthly report include:

• Cover sheets, with lists of recipients of copies of each month’s report.
• The report, containing lists of the chief items of imports and exports with quantities and prices, average wholesale prices at Zahedan for principal commodities (imports and exports), miscellaneous notes on trade, exchange and freight rates, low and high temperatures.
• Statements of imports into Iran via Zahedan, exports from Iran via Zahedan, and comparative statements of imports of British origin and from foreign sources into Zahedan.

The file also includes:

• A report entitled Annual Report Economic “A” written by the British Vice-Consulate at Zahedan (Major R P Watts), dated 15 June 1942, containing summaries on finances, foreign trade, agriculture, industry, transport, and state undertakings (ff 451-453).
• A report entitled Economic Report “A” written by the Consul-General at Khorasan (H A N Barlow, f 450).

The reports provide evidence of the impact upon trade in the region of significant contemporary events, including: the Second World War; the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941; changes to Iranian economic policy; deteriorating relations between Russia and the United States in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War; events in the Punjab and Pakistan in the wake of Indian Independence.