No. 551.
Mr. Pratt
to Mr. Bayard.
Teheran , April 25, 1887. (Received June 4.)
Sir: I have the honor to report to you that there are no American houses doing business here, and that in order to protect themselves against imposition our merchants and manufacturers desiring to enter this market should be represented on the spot, either singly or colleatively, by an agent or agents, sent out by them from America for the purpose.
The numerous communications that are addressed to me by producers and exporters asking to be recommended reliable parties with whom they can enter into trade relations, the impossibility of the legation furnishing such information, and the danger to be apprehended from European adventurers in the East, seeking as a last resource to obtain the agency of established American firms, makes me feel that at this time it will only be due the manufacturers and merchants in the United States to give them a word of warning and advice.
For that purpose I would therefore respectfully request, should such a course meet with your approval, that you have the contents of the present dispatch published in our leading journals, so that it may be brought to the immediate attention of the trade.
At the same time I should like it to be stated that from observation I am firmly inclined to the belief that a reliable American agency in Persia, established from America, by Americans, and exclusively under American control, would, with due economy and proper management, soon prove a commercial success., and that, in my opinion, of our home manufactured products, hardware, wall-papering, oil-cloths, coarse, strong cotton goods, sewing-machines of low price, good cheap watches, and ordinary mechanics’ tools axe those most likely to meet with ready sale here.
I have, etc.