(a.) Agriculture.

Taken altogether, it is incredible how fertile all the cultivable land is in these three Khanats, which rise like oases out of the monstrous deserts of Central Asia. In spite of the primitive system of culture adopted, fruit and corn are luxuriantly abundant, one might even say, in many places, superabundant. The excellence of the fruit in Khiva has been already mentioned; and although Bokhara and Khokand cannot be placed, in this respect, in the same rank with Khiva, the following produce of those Khanats deserve, nevertheless, mention, e.g., the grapes, of extraordinary excellence (of which there are ten kinds), the 'magnificent pomegranates,' and particularly the apricots, which are exported in immense quantities to Persia, Russia, and Afghanistan. Corn is met with everywhere in the three Khanats, and is of five kinds: wheat, barley, Djugheri (Holcus saccharatus), millet, (Tarik), and rice. The best wheat and Djugheri are {420} said to be found in Bokhara and Khiva, a genial soil; whereas Khokand is in high repute for millet. Barley is nowhere of very good quality, and is made use of, either alone or mixed with Djugheri, as fodder for horses.

In cattle-breeding the inhabitants of Turkestan concentrate their attention on three animals alone, namely, the horse, the sheep, and the camel.

The horse is regarded by the Central Asiatic as his alter ego. Different races are met with here, possessing too different qualities and excellences. Volumes might be written to show how it is reared, and what are its varieties; but this not being my province, I will confine myself to a few observations. As countless as the stocks and branches of the nomads themselves, so countless are the races and families of their horses. The following classification deserves to be noted:--

(1) The Turkoman horse: and here a main distinction exists between the Tekke and the Yomut breeds. The former, of which the favourite races are the KÖrogli and the Akhal, are distinguished by extraordinary height (sixteen to seventeen hands). They are slightly built, have handsome heads, majestic carriage, wonderful speed, but no bottom. The latter, those of the Yomuts, are smaller, finely formed, and unite speed with unparalleled endurance and strength. [Footnote 153] In general, the Turkoman horse is distinguished by a slender barrel, thin tail, handsome head and neck (it is a pity that the mane is cut off), {421} and a particularly fine and glossy coat; the latter quality is owing to its being kept covered, summer and winter, with several housings of felt. With respect to the value, a good Turkoman horse may be had at a price varying from one hundred to three hundred ducats, but never under thirty ducats.

[Footnote 153: I have seen many horses of this description which had carried each his Turkoman rider with a slave behind him in the saddle at a constant rapid gallop for thirty hours.]

(2) The Özbeg horse resembles the Yomut, but its form is more compact, and denotes more power; its neck short and thick, rather suited, like our hacks, for journeys than serviceable in war or Alamans.

(3) The Kasak horse, in a half wild state, small, with long hair, thick head, and heavy feet. He is seldom fed by hand, but is accustomed to seek himself his subsistence, summer and winter, in the pastures.

(4) The Khokandi sumpter or cart-horse is a cross between the Özbeg and the Kasak breeds, and is remarkable for its great strength. Of these four races, the genuine Turkoman horses have only been exported to Persia, and the Özbeg horses to Afghanistan and India.

The sheep is everywhere of the race with fat tails; the finest are met with in Bokhara. Its flesh is the best I have tasted in the East.

There are three kinds of camels, the one-humped and the two-humped, the latter called by us the Bactrian, and only met with amongst the Kirghis, and the Ner, of which we have already spoken when treating of Andkhuy.

Finally, I must not omit to mention the asses. The finest are those of Bokhara and Khiva. Of these the Hadjis export yearly many to Persia, Bagdad, Damascus, and Egypt.{422}

(b.) Manufactures.

Two hundred years ago, when Turkey was less accessible to our European commerce than is the case at the present day, the native manufactures of EngÜrÜ (Angora), Broussa, Damascus, and Aleppo were certainly more active. Central Asia is even now far more remote from us than was Turkey in the times alluded to; our trade there is still very weakly represented--the consequence is that the greater part of the articles requisite for clothing or household purposes are the produce of native industry, of which we will give in this place a short account.

The principal seats of Central Asiatic manufactures are Bokhara, Karshi, Yenghi Ürgendj, Khokand, and Namengan. Out of these cities come the different stuffs, whether of cotton, silk, or linen, as well as the articles manufactured from leather, which supply the native demand. The principal and most widely-diffused material is the so-called Aladja, a stuff employed for the dresses of man and woman. In Khiva it is woven of cotton and raw silk, in Bokhara and Khokand of cotton alone. As there are no distinct tailors' shops, the manufacturer busies himself also with the scissors and the needle, so that a great part of the produce consists in ready-made clothes. When we were in Bokhara, the high prices of clothing were a general complaint. The following were those then current:--{423}

Besides the Aladja, they fabricate stuffs of silk, woollen shawls for turbans, linen, for the most part very coarse and bad, and from the latter a sort of calico, with dark red figures, used as coverlets for bedding throughout Turkestan and Afghanistan.

In the manufacture of leather they are famous; they excel us in the preparation of shagreen ('Sagri' in the Tartar language), which, as is well known, is green, with little elevations like bladders. With the exception of Russia leather--which they import from that country, and employ in fashioning their water-skins--their coverings for the feet, and their harness and accoutrements for horses, are manufactured of native leather. Bokhara and Khokand produce these articles of the best quality. Khiva has only one kind of thick yellow leather, employed both for soles and upper leather. Of fine leather they prepare the Meskh (under-shoes like stockings); and of the coarser kinds, the Koush, or upper galoshes.

Paper manufactured in Bokhara and Samarcand enjoys a high repute throughout Turkestan and the adjoining countries. It is made of raw silk, is very smooth and thin, and well adapted for the Arabic {424} writing. Articles of iron and steel, as the raw material is wanting, are only weakly represented. The rifled guns from Hezaresp, the swords and knives from Hissar, Karshi, and Djust, are in great renown.

An important manufacture of Central Asia, which reaches us in Europe by way of Persia and Constantinople, is that of carpets, which is, however, the exclusive product of the industry and skill of the Turkoman women. Besides the beautifully pure colouring and solidity of the texture, what most surprises us is how these simple nomad women preserve so well the symmetry of the outline of figures, and even betray often a better taste than many manufacturers in Europe. One carpet gives work always for a number of girls and young women. An old woman places herself at their head as directress. She first traces, with points, the pattern of the figures in the sand. Glancing at this, she gives out the number of the different threads required to produce the desired figures. In the next place, the workers in felt demand notice, but the Kirghis women here distinguish themselves most.

(c.) Trade.

As it was before mentioned, in the chapter respecting the mode of communication, that Russia maintains the most extensive and regular relations with Central Asia, so also must it be stated that it is Russian trade which deserves to be styled the most ancient and the most considerable. It is a trade ever on the increase, and, at least in this field, remains without a rival. The extraordinary progress which it has made in these regions is best seen from the following most {425} authentic data. M. de Khanikoff [Footnote 154] states, in his work published in 1843, that every year a number of from five to six thousand camels is employed in the transport trade; that goods are imported into Russia from Central Asia to the value of from three to four millions of roubles; and that the export trade, which in 1828 amounted to £23,620, had risen, in 1840, to £65,675 16s. This estimate applies to the years from 1828 to 1845. Her Majesty's Secretary of Embassy at St. Petersburg, Mr. T. Saville Lumley, in his Report upon the Russian trade with Central Asia, drawn up with great industry and ability, informs us that, in the period from 1840 to 1850, the export trades rose to £1,014,237, and the import trade to £1,345,741. [Footnote 155]

[Footnote 154: See the English translation of his work by the Baron Bode, 1850. Madden.]
[Footnote 155: The Report above alluded to furnishes itself all the necessary details: we have appended them as given by Mr. Lumley himself.]

Table of the Trade between Russia and the Countries of Central Asia for the Decennial Period from 1840 to 1850.
EXPORTED. [Amounts in Pounds Sterling]

{426}

Even without these data, a glance alone at the bazaars of Bokhara, Khiva, and Karshi would suffice to convince us of the importance of this branch of Russian trade; and it is by no means any exaggeration to assert that there is no house, and even no tent, in all Central Asia where there is not some article of Russian manufacture. The most important trade is carried on in cast iron, for the most part consisting of kettles and water cans, and imported from South Siberia; but particularly from the manufactories in the Ural Mountains. In the trade with Bokhara, Tashkend, and Khiva alone, more than three thousand camels are employed in the transport of this one article. After cast iron come raw iron and brass, Russian cotton goods, cambric, muslins, tea-kettles, army and miscellaneous cutlery.

IMPORTED. [Amounts in Pounds Sterling]

For further details see 'Reports by Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Legation on the Manufactures, Commerce, &.c.,' 1862, No. V. p. 313.{427}

Cloth, from its high price, meets with few purchasers, and is seldom found. The before-named articles are transported from Bokhara and Karshi, not only to the remaining parts of Turkestan, but to Maymene and Herat, and even as far as Kandahar and Kabul. The latter two cities are, indeed, nearer to Peshawur and Karatchi; but give, nevertheless, the preference to the Russian merchandise, although far inferior to that of England.

The circumstance may seem surprising to the reader, and yet the reasons are simple. Orenburg is just as distant from Bokhara as Karatchi, which, being in the Indian territory of Great Britain, might form the outpost of English commerce. The route thence by Herat to Central Asia would be far more practicable and more convenient than that leading through the desert to Russia. That the English trade is here supplanted by the Russian is, in my humble opinion, to be ascribed to the following causes:--(1) The commercial relations of Russia with Tartary are now several centuries old, and in comparison with it that of England deserves to be denominated new, and it is notorious how tenaciously Orientals cling to old usages and customs. (2) The Russians occupying adjoining frontiers, in matters affecting the taste and requisitions of the Central Asiatics, are more experienced than the English manufacturers of Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow, &c., an evil only to be remedied by European travellers being able to move about more freely in these regions than is the case at the present day, when journeys, not only in Bokhara, {428} but even in Afghanistan, are attended by so much risk and peril. (3) The Herat route, in spite of its possessing every element of convenience, has very much to deter foreign merchants, in consequence of the organised system of what may be styled bandit governments, as may be seen from what was before said upon the subject. [Footnote 156]

[Footnote 156: See Chapter XIV.]

Besides these commercial relations with Russia, Turkestan maintains also others, almost uninterruptedly, by the way of Herat with Persia, whither it sends lambs' wool, dried fruit, materials for red colouring, and certain native stuffs, receiving in exchange a great quantity of opium [Footnote 157] from Meshed, some English wares through the house of Ralli & Company, sugar and cutlery. There is a route from Meshed to Bokhara which can be performed in ten days, but the karavans are forced to take the circuitous way by Herat, which requires thrice as much time. From Kabul is exported to Bokhara a sort of cotton shawl, with blue and white stripes, called by the Tartars Pota, and by the Afghans Lunghi. It is used universally for summer turbans, and looks like an English manufacture, which may perhaps be imported by way of Peshawar; it is the only article having a good sale, because in accordance with the national taste. The Kabuli besides bring indigo and different kinds of spices, receiving in return Russian calicoes, tea, and paper. {429}

[Footnote 157: Opium, called here Teryak, is prepared in the south-eastern part of Persia as follows:--The head of the poppy has incisions made in it lengthways on three of its sides at a fixed time in the evening, and when only half ripe. The next morning after it has been so cut a dew-like substance shows itself at the place; this must be removed before sunrise, and, after having been boiled, the resulting product is the Teryak. It is singular that from the three places where the poppy has been cut issue substances of different quality, and of these that in the middle is most esteemed.]

With China there is only an insignificant trade in tea and porcelain; but these articles are quite different from those seen in Europe. The Chinese seldom set foot over the frontier, the communication here being almost entirely kept up by Kalmucks and Musselmans.

Lastly, let me not omit to allude to the trade carried on in Persia, India, Arabia, and Turkey, by the Hadjis. The reader may think that I am jesting; but still my experience justifies me in saying that this also merits the name of commercial transaction. The fifty or sixty Hadjis who came with me from Central Asia to Herat transported with them about forty dozens of silk handkerchiefs from Bokhara, about two thousand knives, thirty pieces of silk stuff from Namengan, a large quantity of Khokandi Dappi (caps upon which the turban is wound), &c. These were the Hadjis upon one route only. As for the imports, account must also be held of the Hadjis; for it is very easy to understand that the largest part of the European cutlery that finds its way to Central Asia has been introduced by them.{430}