The commercial intercourse which has subsisted between Europe and the nations of Central Asia and India is of high antiquity: it flourished under the Greek monarchs of Bactria, the successors of Alexander, and is mentioned by Pliny, and earlier writers. The inroads of the Caliphs appear to have obliterated for a time the traces of this extensive commerce; but the inhabitants of modern Russia imported, during the tenth century, the riches and aromatics of the East into the “great Novogorod.” The opening of a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, in the fifteenth century, effected an eventful change in the channels of ancient commerce; but the fruits of that discovery continued for a long time in the hands of the Portuguese. In the middle of the following century, while that nation were reaping the advantages of this new line of trade, the English sent merchants and ambassadors to seek for other outlets of commerce, among the nations on the Caspian and eastward of that sea. These expeditions were productive of no salutary consequences, as we learn from the quaint and amusing accounts of Anthony Jenkinson, and those who followed him. “Cloth they will buy none,” says that traveller, in his Journey to Bokhara; “and there is little utterance, and little profit.”

The attempt to establish a commerce between Europe and these countries, in particular with Bokhara, at this time abortive, was not such as to discourage all future endeavours. The kingdom of Bokhara, though of secondary importance, politically considered, holds a far higher position in the commercial world. Fruitful in the productions of the earth, where all around is desolation, it lies between Europe and Asia, and is a central mart, where the merchant may exchange with advantage the productions of China, Persia, India, and Cabool. The proximity of the eastern parts of Europe pointed to it as an outlet for its commodities, since it appeared to lie beyond the influence of the line of maritime trade with India. But these advantages were only to be enjoyed by the nation that adjoined its territories; and, if the expeditions of the English were unsuccessful, the Russians, who enjoyed more favourable opportunities, succeeded, though at a much later period—about the middle of the eighteenth century. It was the design of Peter the Great of Russia to form a commercial communication between the Caspian Sea and the banks of the Oxus; but he was frustrated by the foulest perfidy. He succeeded, nevertheless, in opening the roads from the southern frontier of Asiatic Russia, eastward of the Caspian and Aral; and, for a period of about eighty years, they have been annually travelled by the caravans of Bokhara. I will not assert that, in this line of commerce, we have a revival of the exact channels of ancient trade; but a comparatively safe and easy communication has assuredly been opened between Asia and Europe.

While the bazars of Bokhara have been supplied by the over-land route from Russia, the merchant of India, who formerly resorted to them with the productions of his native soil, has likewise introduced the fabrics of Britain. The commerce of the English has been thus widely extended, and the Russian merchant discovers a formidable rival in the diminution of his trade. It is a curious reflection, that the manufactures of Europe should reach the central parts of Asia by a retrograde route, after they have half circumnavigated the globe, and that the opening of commerce between Britain and these countries, which had failed by the direct road of Europe, should be now firmly established from an opposite direction. The subject is curious and important; and it is the design of this paper to follow up that trade through its course, and to give such particulars concerning the general commerce of these countries as appear interesting, as well as to delineate the lines of communication by which it is conveyed. The flourishing condition of this trade will then enable me to speak of the means of improving our exports, and to state my hopes and reasons for believing that these may be further increased, to the great benefit of our commercial country.

Till within these twelve or fourteen years, the trade in European fabrics to Toorkistan, which includes Bokhara and the regions north of the Oxus, was principally confined to the Russians, who exported their goods into these countries from Orenburg and Troitskai; but it is now carried on more extensively through India and Cabool. There are four great lines of route between Russia and Bokhara, by which the commercial intercourse is carried on: the first of these leads from Astracan, across the Caspian, to Mungusluck, and thence to Orgunje and Bokhara, and may be voyaged and travelled in thirty days. The next begins at Orenburg, and passes between the Aral and Caspian Seas, to Orgunje and Bokhara, and is a journey of sixty days. The third commences at Troitskai, in Asiatic Russia, and, crossing the “Dusht-i-Kipchak,” or desert of Kipchak, passes eastward of the Aral, and across the Sirr or Jaxartes, near its mouth, to Bokhara. A caravan may march it in forty-eight days. The fourth and last commences at Kuzzul-jur, or, as it is also called, Petropolosk, on the Issim, considerably to the eastward of Troitskai, and leads down upon Bokhara by a south-west direction, passing through Tashkend. This is a journey of ninety days. A commercial intercourse is carried on between Toorkistan and the empire of Russia by all these routes; but that by Orenburg and Orgunje (Khiva) is the safest and most frequented. The great yearly caravan, which sets out from Bokhara in June, takes that route; and the portion of it intended for Astracan diverges to Mungusluck, on the Caspian. The stragglers of the year, and about two hundred camels of the less valuable merchandise, proceed to Troitskai, and march in August. The “Dusht-i-Kipchak,” which the whole of these routes traverse, is a flat and dreary country, without fixed inhabitants; and the traveller provides himself with the necessaries of subsistence, before he sets out on his journey. But this tract is not destitute of forage, fuel, or water; and its inhabitants, the Kirgizzes and Kuzzaks, wander over it with their flocks and herds in search of pasture. They are possessed of numerous herds of camels, of the strongest and most robust breed: these are the two-humped, or Bactrian camel. One of them will carry 640 lbs. English, which surpasses by 150 lbs. the burdens of those of India and Cabool. The caravan is entrusted to these shepherds; the merchandise is committed to their charge, and they are followed by their families in the journey. There is no road, and no guide but the stars of heaven; and the camels, in a line of fifteen and twenty abreast, in a slow but steady pace, only advance during night.

In the year 1819, the government of Russia despatched M. Mouravief on a mission to Orgunje, with the view of effecting a change in the established line of commerce: they desired to bring it at once to the Bay of Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian, which is a much nearer route, and where the merchandise could be shipped for Astracan with the same facilities as at Mungusluck. The Khan of Orgunje objected to the arrangement, and the negotiation failed. In the following year another mission was despatched to Bokhara, by the way of Troitskai and the east bank of the Aral, under M. Negri, which had also in view an improvement of the commercial communications between the two countries. The road was found practicable; and, on the return of the mission, a caravan of merchants, protected by a party of five hundred soldiers and two field-pieces, was despatched in due course to Bokhara. This attempt on the part of Russia also failed, for the chief of Orgunje took umbrage at a measure which turned the traffic from his own territories. He sent his army to the embouchure of the Sirr to obstruct the advance of the caravan, and, if possible, to plunder it. The detachment, taking up a position on a hillock, defended itself with great bravery, and succeeded in scaring off some thousand horse; but they only extricated themselves from the dilemma by burning the merchandise, and precipitately returning to Russia; for their provisions were exhausted. No attempt has been since made to avoid the territories of Orgunje; nor are the duties levied by the Khan of that state immoderate or unreasonable. It may be supposed that the government of Russia has taken offence at the conduct of this chief, and is not wanting in a desire to chastise his obstinacy. There is now no intercourse of a friendly nature between the countries, though the pertinacious chief of Orgunje is dead, and has been succeeded by his son. Russia has not entirely trusted to negotiations for the further extension of her commercial influence. Numerous fairs are annually held on the southern frontiers of the empire: that called by the Asiatics Mucrea (St. Macaire), on the banks of the Volga, is the most considerable: it commences in August, and lasts forty days. The merchants who carry on the trade of Central Asia make the most part of their sales and purchases at this market; and even Hindoos are found at St. Macaire.

The imports of Bokhara from India are the same as those of Cabool. About two thousand camel-loads of these goods reach Cabool yearly, and one half of the quantity is passed on to Toorkistan. The exports of Russia are sent from Orenburg and Troitskai, across the desert, to Bokhara. They consist of white cloths, muslins, chintses, and broad cloth, both of English and Russian manufacture; of imitation brocade (kimcob) velvet, with nankeen and gold thread; all of home manufacture; also furs, cochineal (kirmiz), locks, iron pots, iron, brass, and copper; wires, leather, paper, needles, inferior cutlery and jewellery, hardware, refined white sugar, honey, and a variety of other small articles. Much of the returns from Russia are made in specie, such as ducats and venetians. The annual caravan, which arrives at Bokhara, consists of about thirteen hundred camels, and leaves Russia in January. It will be seen that there is a large portion of the Russian exports that encounter no opposition at Bokhara from the Indian trade; and I am credibly informed, by respectable merchants, that three fourths of those articles, which are alike imported from both countries, are of British manufacture. Where two streams of commerce meet from opposite quarters, the prices of the one must be lowered, and approximate to the standard of the other, whatever may have been their original cost, or the expense of transport. The sale of British goods is discouraged in Russia, and their transit is impeded by heavy duties; still they find their way to Bokhara, and are there sold with profit. There are some articles, such as broad cloth and velvets, which only reach that country from Russia, though of British fabric.

The prices of merchandise, both British and Russian, when exposed in the bazars of Bokhara, will illustrate the relative value of the commodities, and exhibit, at the same time, the profit which is to be derived by their export. I give the prices in gold tillas of Bokhara, each of which is equal to six and a half Sicca rupees, or about thirteen shillings.

A profit of fifty per cent. is not unfrequently derived by the merchants on English chints: one merchant realised it while I was in Bokhara.

It will be seen that the British chintses sell more profitably than those of Russia; but that there are goods of a description from that country which do not appear to be manufactured in Britain. These chintses are of Polish or German manufacture: they are broader, and more highly coloured; they look like flowered velvet, and are much prized, both in Bokhara and Cabool. A knowledge of the pattern would also throw this into the hands of our merchants. It is broader than common chints, striped and exquisitely coloured: very coarse chintses should not be exported to Bokhara, as there is a native manufacture of that kind. It is about a foot broad, and striped: five pieces of sixteen yards each may be purchased for a tilla. About two hundred camel-loads of this commodity are annually exported to Russia, where the nobles employ it in clothing their slaves. Though the sale price of chintses be much diminished in Bokhara, a profit of thirty and forty per cent. is yet realised.

Of the white goods which are imported into Bokhara, the Russian muslins are better, and bear a higher price than those of Britain; but they are in less demand. All other Russian goods are inferior in texture, and none of them now find their way south of the Oxus. There are about one thousand pieces of long cloth, three fourths of which are short webs, expended yearly in Bokhara, and as many pieces of flowered muslin (jamdanes.)

The broad cloths of England are never brought from India to Bokhara: they are imported from Russia; and such is the present state of this trade, that a most intelligent merchant of Cabool, whom I met at Bokhara, was thinking of taking an investment of it to Lodiana in India, where he could afford to sell it cheaper than it is to be had there, notwithstanding the length of the journey! The finest English broad cloth, which sells in India for twenty-two rupees a yard, may be purchased for fifteen in Bokhara; but the merchants who bring it from Russia say they are losers by it. It is much more prized than the broad cloth manufactured in Russia, from its retaining its colour, and lasting better; and, if the price could be reduced so as to meet the means of the natives, it would soon supplant the other article. Velvets. Velvet is brought into Bokhara from Russia: it is flowered cotton velvet, and about two feet broad. There is a demand for it, and it is not imported from India. The Russians have imitated, with much success, the brocades of India, and export great quantities of what is called “false brocade” to Bokhara: it looks nearly as well as that of Benares, and sells for half the price: it is wove in narrow webs. There is nothing to prevent the successful fabric of this article in Britain. Nankeens. The staple commodity of Russian manufacture exported to this country is nankeen: it is seldom of a white colour, for they have imitated the patterns of this country, which are striped and dark. The article sells for 1½ tillas per piece of forty yards: it is in general use among the people for their pelisses, or “chupkuns.” I had at first imagined that it was a Chinese import; but it is brought by the Russian caravans, and sent as far as Cabool, and even India. I have seen it at Lahore. One of the most important articles of import from Russia is kirmiz die, or cochineal: it is used to die raw silk. Kirmiz die. Cochineal. Till lately, it was sent in great quantities from Bokhara to India and Cabool: but the article has been brought from the seaports of India to the Punjab; and the trade in kirmiz, like that in cloths, declines yearly, and will shortly be confined to Bokhara. It now sells there for eight or nine tillas a maund of Tabreez, which is equal to seven lbs. English, and it may be had cheaper than this at Cabool. It is an article which may be exported from India to Cabool with advantage. I bear an impression that the kirmiz, or cochineal, may be procured in Bokhara; but no one knows how to prepare it.

The demand for Indian goods in Bokhara is steady. Muslins. Dacca muslins of the larger sort sell for twenty tillas per score, the smaller being half the price. There are about five hundred pieces of Benares brocade (kincob), imported yearly: that from Guzerat is too expensive. The whole of the natives of Bokhara and Toorkistan wear turbans of white cloth which are imported from the Punjab: they are about thirty yards long and a foot broad, and sell for a tilla each. They are in universal use among both sexes, and might be manufactured in Europe, and sent with advantage into Toorkistan. Shawls. The shawl trade is only one of transit: it is not considerable. Two lacs of rupees worth of shawl goods have passed to Russia within the last year (1832). There is never more than double this sum risked in the trade. The number of pairs of shawls varies from one hundred and twenty, to three hundred; but they must be of the finest texture, since none others will bring a price in Russia. Several natives of the valley of Cashmere, have from time to time repaired to Russia; and the shawl fine-drawers, or “rufoogurs,” sometimes alter the patterns of the shawl to suit the taste of the purchasers, who, by all accounts, are not a little fastidious. The passion for shawls among the Russian nobles is great, and will account for the exorbitant prices given for them, to which I have before alluded. Indigo. The greatest import from India is indigo, which averages five hundred camel-loads a year. A portion of it is again exported to Yarkund, in the Chinese territories; where, though the plant is found, they are ignorant of the means of preparing it. The sugar of India is also brought into Toorkistan, for the cane does not grow in Bokhara. Sugar. The China sugar, brought by way of Bombay, will not bear the expense of a journey beyond Cabool; nor can the Chinese themselves send it further than Yarkund, for the same reason. This coarse sugar has not a very great sale, for the richer people use the refined loaf-sugar of Russia; and the poorer classes employ the “turunjbeen,” a saccharine substance, gathered like manna, which is found in this country, and which I have mentioned in the account of Bokhara.

Besides the Russian and British Indian trade, Bokhara carries on an extensive and direct commercial intercourse with the Chinese garrisons of Cashgar and Yarkund. A coarse kind of China ware, musk, and bullion, are received from that quarter, but the chief import consists of tea; and the extent of the trade, as well as the remoteness of the tracts by which it is brought, equally arrest our attention. The inhabitants of Toorkistan are inordinately fond of that beverage, which they drink at all hours; nine hundred and fifty horse-loads of tea, or about 200,000lbs., have been this year brought from Yarkund to Bokhara. The greatest part of this quantity is consumed in Toorkistan; but little of it finds its way south of the Hindoo Koosh. The trade is carried on by the natives of Budukhshan. These merchants praise the equity of the Chinese, and the facilities of transacting matters of commerce with them. They levy a duty of one in thirty on all traders, which is very moderate. The tea is brought from the central provinces of China in boxes, by a tedious journey of many months. It is transferred to bags, and then sewed up in raw hides, as the boxes would not stand the journey. A horse-load of 250lbs. costs sixty tillas in Yarkund, and sometimes sells for a hundred in Bokhara: it is entirely green tea. The best tea found in Toorkistan is imported overland from a place called Tukht, in China, situated on the banks of a river, and sent by way of Astracan, in small tin or lead boxes. It goes by the name of “banca” tea, I believe from the tin in which it is packed: it sells for four rupees the pound, and is very high-flavoured. This tea is superior to any which I ever saw in England; and I have been informed that it retains its flavour from never having been subjected to the close atmosphere in a ship’s hold or the sea air. The Yarkund caravans cross the high lands of Pamere, and follow the valley of the Oxus to Budukhshan, Balkh, and Bokhara. The road is unsafe, and in many places dangerous, from overhanging cliffs. An earthquake, which occurred in January, 1832, threw down several of these, and also destroyed many villages and people in Budukhshan. The traveller likewise experiences a difficulty of breathing in crossing the Pamere ridge; and the caravans are sometimes attacked by the wandering Kirgizzes. Obstacles both natural and political endanger the path of the traveller and merchant. There is another and better route from Yarkund to Bokhara by the valley of the Sirr, or ancient Jaxartes, and Kokan, but less frequented than that by Budukhshan, from differences which exist between the Khan of Kokan and the Chinese. The Kokan route may be travelled by a caravan in forty-five days; and, as far as that town, the merchandise is conveyed from Bokhara in carts. The route by Budukhshan is more circuitous, and occupies a period of sixty-five days. At Khooloom, which is a mart between Yarkund, Bokhara, and Cabool, the ponies are exchanged for camels, and the load of two horses is borne by one camel to Bokhara. Trade with Persia. The Persian trade is inconsiderable, from the unsettled state of the roads, and the hatred which subsists between the people, who differ in their religious tenets. The shawls of Kerman form the principal article of import. Opium has also found its way from Persia to Bokhara, and is again exported to Yarkund and Cashgar, in China, where the same demand exists for it as on the sea-coast. In Bokhara it is sold for five tillas per maund of Tabreez.[40] These articles, as well as others of inferior note, are despatched by the route of Meshid, in Khorasan.

I shall next notice the exports of Bokhara; and these are far from inconsiderable, since it has silk, cotton, and wool. The silk of Bokhara is chiefly produced on the banks of the Oxus, where the mulberry thrives luxuriantly; and nearly all the Toorkmuns are engaged in rearing silk-worms during the months of summer. It is exported in considerable quantities to Cabool, and even finds its way to India. At Bokhara it varies in price from nine to ten tillas for eight English lbs. The silk is wound and manufactured at Bokhara into a stuff called “udrus,” of a mottled colour,—red, white, green, and yellow,—which is the fashionable and most expensive kind of dress in Toorkistan. It sells from one half to one and a half tillas per piece of eight yards long and a foot broad. It is woven by the Mervees, now settled in Bokhara; but is not exported. Cotton. There are likewise extensive cotton manufactures in Bokhara. I have mentioned the coarse chints which it exports to Russia; but most of the people dress in the native manufactures. There are dark and striped coarse cloths of different hues, of which a pelisse, or “chogha,” may be purchased for half a tilla. I do not suppose they would be worth imitating in Europe. The cotton thread of Bokhara seems to be in as much demand as that of Britain: it is exported in quantities to Russia, and much of the raw material is sent to Balkh, Khooloom, and Koondooz. Wool. The wool (pushm) of Toorkistan is sent across the mountains to Cabool and the Punjab, where it is manufactured into a coarse kind of shawl. It sells from six and a half to eight tillas per maund of Bokhara, which is equal to 256 lbs. English. A few years since it sold for double the price; but the articles manufactured from it have been found inferior, and the sale of the wool has declined. It is procured from among the Kuzzaks and wandering tribes about Bokhara, who were long ignorant of its value, and yet use it in the common ropes by which they bind their horses and cattle. Skins. The lamb skins of Bokhara are celebrated in the East: they are only procured at Karakool, a small district that lies between Bokhara and the Oxus. They are exported to Persia, Turkey, and China, but chiefly to the former country; the merchants of which purchase them for ready money, being afraid to risk a commercial investment across the desert. It is not possible to negociate a bill between Meshid and Bokhara.

The duties demanded on European goods at Bokhara are most moderate. They are levied according to the Koran, and are fixed at one fortieth of the capital, or 2½ per cent. A merchant who was not a Mahommedan would have to pay higher duties; a Christian so much as 20 per cent.; a Hindoo 10 per cent., since the law so enacts it; but the greater part of this trade must ever be carried on by Mahommedans. The same principles guide the authorities in Cabool, though the chiefs eastward of the Lower Indus are more extravagant in their demands. Trade, however, is not obstructed by their exactions; while the upper routes, through the Punjab, are nearly closed on that account. Besides the regular customs, there is a transit duty levied in several places between the Indus and Bokhara; and some increased disbursements arise from the hire of escorts through troubled parts of the route. The merchants do not consider them exorbitant, and complain much more loudly of the rapacity and malpractices of the subordinate native officers of revenue in the British provinces. Abuses in the British Custom-house. It is stated that these persons, when on duty at the custom-houses, purposely delay the merchants in their journey, though provided with the requisite passes; and that it is impossible to get their goods cleared without bribery. One merchant of Cabool assured me that he had been mulcted, in copper money, for one cart in which he was travelling, without goods, to the amount of eighteen rupees, between Hurdwar and Benares. The mercantile community of Cabool and Bokhara complain of this evil, and feel it the more, as the public duties are considered moderate, and their property is well protected. The Russian government, on the other hand, is free from such corruption, though it levies heavier duties: these have been made the subject of remonstrance on the part of the king of Bokhara, and are now partially reduced.

When we review the productions of Bokhara, and the apt uses to which they are applied by her native population, we may wonder at the great outlet which exists to our commerce in that quarter; but the demand is steady, and its constancy leads to a belief that it may be improved. There is no country in the Mahommedan world where a merchant is safer, and more free from oppression and exaction, than in Bokhara. If the people are bigoted on account of their religion, they are also bigoted to the injunctions which that religion imposes upon them. The Koran enjoins the most strict protection of the merchant in a variety of passages: nor are these violated or evaded by the ruler of the country. The goods which are imported into Bokhara are again sent to Samarcand, Kokan, and Yarkund, in China; also to Orgunje, and all the little cantons around the capital. Coarse articles are in more request than the finer fabrics, for the Uzbeks are very indifferent judges. We have seen that this market is supplied by two great European nations; but the females of both Cabool and Bokhara prize more highly the manufactures of Britain: and the influence of the ladies is of no mean weight in any country. The chints, while it has almost superseded the demand for shawl goods, has instilled a desire for novelty, and given a general taste for other articles of British import. Russia possesses such an extent of inland navigation, that she can bring the whole of her goods to the confines of Asia by water-carriage; and it is the superiority and cheapness of our manufactures that alone enable us to appear in the contest by the Indian route. We must surrender to her, I imagine, all trade in metals, and other weighty articles made from them; but we may successfully compete with her in our manufactures. To a mercantile country like England, a demand for goods is of the highest moment; and it is to be presumed that increase of demand will generally be attended with a diminution of price, while the increased sale would still bring an adequate profit to the manufacturer. A more extended exportation of British goods into these countries, in particular of white cloths, muslins, and woollens, I am assured by the first merchants, and even by the Vizier of Bokhara, would have the immediate effect of driving the Russians from that branch of commerce. The present exports of these articles from that country have been gradually declining; and the increase of the custom-house duties of Cabool affords the best evidence of the cause—the late increase of our own exports. I have taken pains to investigate this fact in other quarters, and the result of my enquiries leads me to believe, that we may not only throw the Russian part of this trade into the hands of our own merchants, but very materially augment the trade to Toorkistan in the whole of these articles. There are merchants in Cabool who would willingly push speculation still further, though some of them have a capital of eight or ten lacs of rupees floating in the Toorkistan trade. The transport of merchandise by the route of Cabool costs little; and, if Russia navigates the Volga, the greatest of the European rivers, Britain can command like facilities, by two more grand and equally navigable streams, the Ganges and Indus.