Charles Marvin’s first study on oil, The Region of Eternal Fire: an Account of a Journey to Petroleum Region of the Caspian, came out in 1884. In subsequent years he wrote several books on the problems of the Caspian and Central Asian regions. His most famous work, The Russians at the Gate of Herat, was written in 1885 and published soon thereafter with a total print run exceeding 65,000 copies.
The London Evening News wrote the following about him: “Charles Marvin has already published 12 books and pamphlets on Central Asia containing 300 printed sheets and over 100 maps and illustrations. This is not bad for an author who is only 30 years old, especially if you note that all of his books have come out since 1879, and that during this time he made four trips to Russia and also wrote hundreds of articles.” The Russian newspaper Kavkaz (Tiflis) echoed the British publication: “Charles Marvin is a remarkable traveler and a great writer on issues of the policy of Russia and England in the East.”
Charles Marvin made his first visit to the oil-bearing regions of the Transcaucasus for in 1883. His first impression was fairly reserved: “The train landed us at a demolished, small shanty station in the middle of the desert, placing us with our great apprehensions in the hands of a Tatar, the driver of a phaeton.” But his pessimism soon gave way to positive impressions and surprises: “Baku in fact literally enchanted me.” In subsequent books, he continually noted how Baku had grown and become more attractive. He called it the “oil breadbasket of Europe,” due to the active development of the oil fields. Charles Marvin naturally compared the volumes of production of Baku oil fields with Great Britain’s indicators, in particular, on the recovery of whale oil. The Briton stated with surprise that in the entire 1886 season, 44 whaling ships had recovered 20,307 barrels of whale oil, yet this “quantity corresponds to the entire daily standard output of just one oil well in Baku.” The British columnist also cited the words of a certain Captain Grey, who—no longer seeing the possibility of the return of advantageous prices for whale oil—was ready to “set up transporting bulk petrol.”40
Marvin was astonished by the growing volume of oil production in the region and indicated that even the oil-bearing regions of the United States could not compete with the Baku oil fields. As if foreseeing the future oil triumph of Russia, he commented that “America’s song is sung. It has nothing in this regard that could parallel the current productivity of Russia. The wells of the brothers Nobel and Company have yielded enormous quantities of oil. Many of these wells have been closed down so as not to give away the oil, which is currently very cheap.”41
Incidentally, the British consul in Batumi also shared his impressions of Baku at that time: “The amount of oil wealth near the Caspian is so great, and the wells yield so much, that Baku merchants are capable of working and sending raw material to the market, and the issue of depletion should not create fear among people directly or indirectly involved in the Baku oil industry, at least not for many years to come. It is almost painful to observe the total lack of British merchants in Baku.”42
And here Marvin was in total agreement, calling upon his compatriots to take a more active part in the development of Russia’s oil industry. The columnist stressed: “Currently the attention of all the European countries is focused on Baku. If England does not show rapid energy, then not only the Baku, but all oil trade in general will pass right through its hands.”43
Marvin was especially interested in issues of transporting Russian petroleum products and oil. “The factor that has the most important impact on the past, present and future of the Caspian oil industry is the issue of transportation,” the British columnist stressed. The rapidly growing volume of oil and petroleum product exports from the Baku oil fields had already forced the Russian Empire to look for new means of transportation, and he thought that it was precisely in this area that England could become a major supplier to Russia of requisite equipment and transportation services.
To start with, Marvin urged the British companies to participate in the competition announced by the Russian government to build an oil pipeline 600 miles long, a massive endeavor for the time. The enterprise promised significant financial gains since the oil pipeline, whose capacity was to be 160 million gallons per year, was to be licensed under concession for 20 years. Considering that priority in this matter was given to European companies, England stood a good chance, especially given the prior experience of British firms in building pipelines in Russia.
Next, Marvin pushed for British companies to invest in the railroad sector. In one of his works, the British writer indicated that “what is really necessary for expansion of this export is an increase in the quantity of railroad rolling stock.” Moreover, the Russian government was already planning to build a 10-million-ruble tunnel through the Surami mountain pass to reduce transportation distance and lower its cost.
Finally, he argued that England should take an active part in creating a tanker fleet. The columnist noted that in 1885, ships had hauled 87 million gallons of kerosene, 33,433,220 gallons of oils, 115 million gallons of oil residue, 9 million gallons of crude oil, and 90,000 gallons of gasoline. Marvin believed the primary obstacle to exporting kerosene from Batumi was the rate of tanker vessel construction, which lagged behind oil production.
Citing the successful experience of the Caspian tanker fleet (by the mid-1880s, 100 tankers were already operating in the Caspian Sea), the columnist argued that this type of oil transportation also had a great future in the oceans. Transportation of bulk kerosene on European waters was soon made possible by the Black Sea Steamship Line Company. In June 1886, after surviving a storm in the Bay of Biscay, the Swedish-built steamship Svet delivered 1,875 tons of kerosene to the very heart of the British Empire, London. Charles Marvin wrote in this regard: “The arrival of the steamship with a cargo of over half a million gallons of kerosene stored in tanks, not in barrels... silenced those who doubted the possibility of carrying out this task.”44
Marvin was likewise interested in the issue of the status and sales prospects of Russian petroleum products in Europe. In 1883, after displacing American kerosene in the domestic market, Russian kerosene gradually began to gain European and world market share. Charles Marvin was one of the active proponents of importing shipments of Russian petroleum products to the British Empire instead of American ones. He emphasized that the Baku “refineries produce the best lamp kerosene for only 3 farthings per gallon instead of a wholesale price of over 6 pence (eight times higher) for the same quantity of American kerosene in London!”45 In addition, he lauded the Russian kerosene’s superior physical properties: it was essentially odorless, with a very clear color and higher ignition temperature (which was especially important for the British Crown Indian territories, with their hot climate).
“The highest grades of Russian kerosene have become famous so quickly that in the near future they will be valued above the American,” wrote Charles Marvin. “There is no place in Europe to which Russian kerosene could not be transported today.”46 He urged British plants (in Birmingham, in particular) to produce lamps for Russian kerosene, since most lamps adapted for the transoceanic product were not suitable for use with the denser Russian counterpart.