es there. Germany also has invaded this market.

The staple articles of export are hides, wool and dates. The export trade
of Bagdad amounts to about L750,000 annually, and the import trade to about
L2,000,000. The imports consist of oil, cheap cottons, shoes and other
similar goods, which are taking the place of the picturesque native
manufactures. Even the Bedouin Arabs wear headdresses of cheap European
cotton stuff purchased in Bagdad or thereabouts, while the common water
vessels throughout the country are five-gallon petroleum tins, which also
furnish metal for the manufacture of various utensils in the native
bazaars.

Bagdad is in communication with Europe by means of two lines of telegraph,
one British and one Turkish, and two postal services. There is a British
consul-general, who is also political agent to the Indian government. His
state is second only to that of the British ambassador at Constantinople.
Besides the gunboat in the river, he has a guard of sepoys, and there is an
Indian post-office in the residency. Formerly the British government
maintained a camel-post across the desert to Damascus. This was abandoned
about 1880 when the Turks established a similar service. By means of the
Turkish camel-post letters reached Damascus in nine days. There is also a
Russian consul-general at Bagdad, and French, Austrian and American
consuls.

The Euphrates Valley (or Bagdad) railway scheme, which had previously been
discussed, was brought forward prominently in 1899, and Russian proposals
to undertake it were rejected. British proposals followed, but were opposed
by the Germans, who, as controlling the line to Konia in Asia Minor,
claimed preference in the matter. A provisional convention was granted to a
German company by the Porte, and an irade was obtained in 1902. In 1903
there was considerable discussion as to the placing of the line under
international control, and the question aroused special interest in England
in view of the short route which the line would provide to India, in
connexion with fast steamship services in the Mediterranean and the Persian
Gulf. It was decided by the British government that the proposals made to
this effect did not offer sufficient security. The financial arrangement as
finally agreed upon was that German financiers should control 40% of the
capital of the line; French (through the Imperial Ottoman Bank), 30%;
Austrian, Swiss, Italian and Turkish, 20%; and the Anatolian R