It is said that the alignment of the Russian road from Resht is to be made in view of a railway in the future.  The same will probably be done in the Hamadan extension, and it is believed that the German road will be similarly planned.  All this would mean that behind the concessions are further promises for the time when railway construction comes.  Looking into the dim distance, the eye of faith and hope may see the fulfilment of railway communication from India to Europe by a connection between the Quetta or Indus Valley line and Kermanshah.

This brings us to the agreement of 1890 between Persia and Russia to shut out railways till the end of the century.  This agreement, when made known, was regarded as proof of a somewhat barbarian policy on the part of Russia, unwilling or unable herself to assist in opening up Persia and improving the condition of the country.  But there is some reason for the idea that the Shah himself was ready to meet the Russian request, so as to keep back the railway which he feared would soon connect his capital with the Caucasus.  There was much railway talk in Persia in 1890, and Russia knew that it would take quite ten years to complete her railway system up to the Northern frontiers of Persia and Afghanistan.  The railway now being made from Tiflis to Alexandropol and Kars will probably send out a line down the fertile valley of the Aras to Julfa, ready for extension across the Persian frontier to Tabriz, and a branch may be pushed forward from Doshakh, or Keribent, on the Trans-Caspian railway, to Sarakhs, where Russia, Persia, and Afghanistan meet, to facilitate trade with Herat as well as Meshed.  In the meanwhile also the cart-roads, ready for railway purposes if wanted, from the Caspian Sea base to Kasvin, Tehran, and Hamadan, will be completed.

Russia insisted on regarding the opening of the Karun to the navigation of the world as a diplomatic victory for England, and a distinct concession to British commerce, which is predominant in the South.  She therefore thought out well what to get from the Shah in return, to favour her commercial policy in the North, and the ten years’ prohibition of railways was the result.  Russia desires commercial predominance in Persia just as England does, and she will use all the influence which her dominating close neighbourhood gives to obtain the utmost favour and facilities for her trade.

While Russia and England were thus engaged in strong commercial rivalry, Germany unexpectedly made her appearance in the Western region of Central Persia, where their competition meets.  Nor has Persia been idle in trading enterprise; her merchants are not only aiming at getting more exclusively into their own hands the interior commerce of the country, but they have established direct relations with firms in foreign countries, and now work in active competition with the European houses which in old days had almost all the export and import trade in their own hands.