- panies engaged in the carrying trade between European
ports and Mesopotamia. After a futile rate war the British lines, represented by Lord Inchcape, came to an agreement, in 1913, with their German competitors, ending a rivalry which had been the cause of considerable concern on the part of their respective foreign offices.[32]
In order to coöperate with the attempts of Germans to have a share in the trade of the Mesopotamian valley, the German Government established a consulate at Bagdad in 1908. The services of this consulate, supplementing the pioneer work of the Hamburg-American Line, had immediate results in the development of commercial relationships with the Land of the Two Rivers. The value of exports from Basra to Germany increased from about half a million dollars in 1906 to slightly in excess of a million dollars in 1913; German goods received at Basra during the same period increased from about half a million dollars to almost nine million dollars. Herr von Mutius, the German Consul at Bagdad, conducted an active campaign of education and propaganda, urging upon business men at home the importance of participating further in the development of the economic resources of the land of the Arabs.[33]
The establishment of steamship communication between Europe and Asiatic Turkey was welcomed by the Bagdad Railway Company. To widen the scope of usefulness—and, consequently, to increase the revenues—of the railway it was essential that every feeder for freight and passenger service be utilized. This was a consideration in the agreement with the Smyrna-Cassaba line and in the purchase, in 1906, of the Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway.[34] The establishment of connections with the former system developed a satisfactory volume of traffic with Smyrna. The acquisition of the latter line provided direct connections with the Mediterranean coast.
