donkey-boy in Persia is as quick with bold reply as he is in Egypt and
elsewhere. There is a story that a high Persian official called out to a
boy, whose gang of burden-bearing donkeys obstructed his carriage, 'Out
of the way, ass, you driver of asses!' and was promptly answered, 'You
are an ass yourself, though a driver of men!'

As a finish to this reference to the Tobacco Régie in Persia, I may
mention it is believed that, had the company started as ordinary
traders, they, having the command of ready money, would have succeeded
well. The commencement made in the centres of tobacco cultivation
impressed the peasant producers most favourably; they appreciated the
advantages of cash payments, and regretted the cessation of the system,
and the governors benefited by the readiness with which the taxes were
paid. But the explanation of monopoly, a word which was then unknown in
Persia, raised the fears of the people, and those who had the money to
spare laid in a supply of tobacco before the concession came into force.
This was regarded by the poor as proof of the coming rise in price, and
they therefore hailed the Moullas as their deliverers from the
threatened calamity of dear tobacco.

The only public debt of Persia is that of a loan contracted in order to
pay the compensation for cancelment of this concession, and the expenses
which had been incurred; but the sale by the Government of the foreign
export (part of the cancelled concession) very nearly provides for the
loan. The Société de 'Tombac' of Constantinople, which bought the
monopoly of export, has had difficulties to contend with, caused by a
Persian combination to buy from the cultivators and sell to the foreign
agents. A prominent Moulla was named as interested in this business,
which was in reality at direct variance with the principles on which the
priesthood had declared the original concession to be 'unlawful.' This