MAKING MONEY IN AFGANISTAN–THE FIRST WESTERN ENTREPRENEURS 1880–1919

Abstract

The story of three businessmen who worked in Afghanistan in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, during the reigns of Abdur Rahman and then Habibullah, The businessmen, Messrs Martin, Thornton and Jewett faced formidable problems in dealing with the autocratic and arbitrary Amirs, who might be a force for progress or inertia, depending on their moods. Many Afghan officials were both venal and indolent-not a productive combination. But the workmen, though almost all uneducated and unfamiliar with machinery, proved adaptable, though their working conditions were grim.

Notes

Charles Masson of Afghanistan: Deserter, Scholar, Spy'. Asian Affairs Vol. 39. Issue 2 (2008): 199–216 and ‘“Will we make it to Jalalabad?” 19th century travels in Afghanistan’. Asian Affairs Vol. 37. Issue 2 (2006): 161–174.

There are various other relevant writings in the RSAA library from other Western visitors at that time, including At the Court of the Amir by J.A. Gray (London, 1901), and in the earlier incarnation of the Society's Journal, the Proceedings of the Central Asian Society, a speech by Walter Saise, a geologist, on a visit to Afghanistan in 1911 (given on 12 April 1912); his account of the primitive conditions of the working of gemstone mines is startlingly similar to those which prevail today. Some visitors left accounts of their residence in other periodicals or newspapers, for example the doctors Lillas Hamilton and Kate Daly. Unpublished accounts in the India Office British Library are also illuminating. Business visitors to Afghanistan often described their experiences to British political agents (see for example IOR/L/PS/11/31, interview with Darby, IOR/L/PS/11/78, interviews with Halliday, Darby, Jewett and Sir A. McRobert). I am indebted to Bill Woodburn for suggesting I read the personal diary of Curzon on his trip to Afghanistan in 1894 (Mss Eur F111/56). There is no more vivid picture of the European inhabitants of Kabul during this period than in this place.

For a full overview of the economic and governmental problems of this period, see pp. 115–228, Government and Society in Afghanistan, H.K. Kakar (University of Texas Press, 1979) and pp. 129–205, The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan, V. Gregorian, (Stanford University Press, 1969).

Martin's account in chapters 9 and 10 of his book describing prisons and tortures under the time of Abdur Rahman and Habibullah are not for the faint-hearted; they make the Taliban look like the Howard League for Penal Reform. Martin's account constitutes one of the main sources for the history of criminal justice in Afghanistan at this time. Thornton includes photographs of the iron cages in his book.

According to Curzon, the Amir had grown tired of Pyne's constant drunkenness (Mss Eur F111/56). When Pyne announced to the Amir that he was giving up drinking, the Amir replied that he imagined it meant that Pyne would now become a 15 rather than a 20-bottle-a-day man. Pyne's deeper knowledge of engineering was also questioned, and he was also accused of hoodwinking Abdur Rahman into asking the British Government to give him a knighthood.

The mashin khaneh desperately needed electricity. The machines were up to this time run on steam generated by burning wood, which since the 1880s had fallen into deep scarcity in the areas around Kabul for many miles. There are records of people being crucified for stealing wood from trees owned by the government to cook food. Projects to mine and burn local coal seem to have foundered. Walter Saise (see note 2) inspected a number of lignite seams north of Kabul during his visit and found them not to be viable, although the Amir was burning it in his grate.

Curzon was more forthright, speaking of the “solid maze of backbiting and lies of which the European society here [in Kabul] seems to be made up” (Mss Eur F111/56).

Those with an interest in gossip might enjoy reading Curzon's description of the rumours of adulteries amongst the Western community in Kabul. He found himself socially on the “edge of a small volcano” according to his diary (Mss Eur F111/56).

Menus which Mrs Thornton prepared for the Amir included “Tomato soup, roast veal, mash, boiled celery in white sauce, melon charlotte, whipped cream” and “Cock-a-leekie soup, boiled fowls with tomatoes of two colours and eggs, green peas, salsify in white sauce”, finished off with his favourite “treacle pudding”.

A respectable three-bedroom terraced house in central London might be had for around £300 at this time.