The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-18 00:00:00

THE IN

TRADE AND COMMERCE.

Destitute of proper roads or navigable rivers, the trade
of Affghanistan, by reason of its being an inland
country, and mountainous, is carried on entirely by
beasts of burden. 'Wheeled carriages not being known,
camels are the animals chiefly employed. The principal
trade is with India, Persia, and Chinese and Independent
Tartarv. The caravans which set out fur Tartary con•
sist of horses or ponies, which are alone able to
traverse roads that lie in one part over the
mountainous ridges of the Hindoo Coosli. They set off
from Cashmere and Peshawur. Caubul is the great mart
of Independent Tartary; Candahar and Herat that of
Persia. Merchants ordinarily travel at the rate of about
eight or ten miles a day in large caravans, the roads
often lying through close and craggy defiles and narrow
' stony valleys; among bare mountains, or along the beds
of torrents, or over waste plains, where there is neither
water nor provisions. The trade of the north of India
centres in Peshawur. That which crosses the desert,
from Jypore and other countries still further south, comes
to Shikarpoor, Bahawulpoor, and Moult= ; and that
which is carried on by sea comes to Koratchee, and
thence to Shikarpoor and Candahar. The exports to
Hindostan, which form the most considerable trade car-
ried on by the Affghans, consist of horses and ponies,
which chiefly come from Balk, on the northern side of
the Hindoo Coosh mountains : furs, shawls, made at
Cashmere, and fruits. The imports are coarse cotton
cloths, which are worn by all the common people of the
country: muslins, silken cloth, brocade, 'indigo in great
quantities, ivory, chalk, bamboos, wax, tin, sandal-wood,
sugar, musk, coral, drugs, and spices of all kinds. To
Independent Tartar-, the exports are chiefly white cloth,
`shawls, India turbans, chintz, and indigo previously ex=ported from India. The imports arehorses, gold-, and
silver; the latter consist of the gold coin of Bukharia,
Dutch ducats, Venetian sequins, and ingots of silver from
China: cochineal, cloth, British hardware, looking-
glasses, Russian leather from Bukharia, to which place
they come from Russia ; also a fine cloth, made from
camel's wool. The exports to Persia are shawls and
shawl goods, indigo, carpets of Herat, chintz, Indian
brocades, muslins, and other cotton cloths. The imports
are raw silk, silken stuffs, a coloured cotton manufacture,
and silken manufactures, which are used in quantities by
all ranks; embroidered satin, velvet, and Persian bro-
cade. which are confined to the rich. Indian chintz,
manufactured at Masulipatam, on the Coromandel coast.,
comes by sea to Bushire, in the Persian Gulf, and is
thence- brought-by- land :to Affghanistan, where it is
much used. The exports to Chinese Turtary are the
same ,as to Bukharia. The imports are woollens,
Chinese silk and satin; -tea in small boxes of thin lead,
china, porcelain, raw silk, cochineal, crystal, gold dust,
and ingots of gold and silver, with the Chinese stamp.
The inhabitants of the towns differ in their origin and
character from the cultivators and peasantry. The
.greater part of them in the western country consists of a
race called. Tanjiks, originally descended from the
Arabs and Persians ; and in the east of Hintlikies, who
are of Indian origin. No AfTgban ever keeps a shop,
or exercises any handicraft trade. Those employments
are chiefly left to the classes mentioned above, and to
the Persians, some of whom have acquired great wealth.
The banking business is chiefly prosecuted by. the Ilin-
doos. They lend money at an enormous interest by
negotiating bills of exchange ; and they occasionally ac-
commodate Government with loans, for which they re-
ceive billy on the revenues of the provinces. Many of
them are 'rich, and they conceal their wealth. Mr.
Elphinstone relates that one of them who gave him cash
for bills on India, would only make his payments in the
dead otnight, when he dug up the money, and paid it
with the utmost secrecy. The food Of the common people
is leavened bread, rice, flesh, vegetablas, sometimes
cheese, and always dried curds, of which all classes
are fond. Provisions are cheap, and there is a prodi-
gious abundance of fruit.

POLICE AND IWILITAZZY.
There is a very strict police in the towns, which being
exercised by the Mahomedan priests, often affords
pretexts for extortion ; but this body of men is gene-
rally defective : watchmen are appointed in all large
towns, paid by the inhabitants of the different wards.
Parties are stationed in dangerous places for the protec-
tion of travellers, who find, however, the purchase of
security from the clans a more efficient guard.
The military of Affghanistan may be estimated at
30,000. One-third of these are Gholaums, or militar3
adventurers, who enlist for life • about 10,000 are fur
nished by landholders at a stated rate ; and a large con-
tingent is supplied by the Dooratmee clan, as the condi-
tion on which they hold their lands. Their soldiers are
chiefly horsemen, and their arms are swords and match-
locks.