Turkey and its Resources, its Municipal organization and free trade; the state of English Commerce in the East, the new administration of Greece, its revenue and national possessions

Front matter

TURKEY AND ITS RESOURCES: ITS MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND FREE TRADE; THE STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ENGLISH COMMERCE IN THE EAST, THE NEW ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE, ITS REVENUE AND NATIONAL POSSESSIONS. " While the West confers on the East the benefit of enlighten ment, may it add also that of opinion. Moniteur Ottoman. LONDON : SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET 1833. LONDON: IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. TO HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY WILLIAM THE FOURTH. SIRE, It is with equal pride and satisfaction that I avail myself of your Majesty's most gracious permission to dedicate this volume to your Majesty. I am rejoiced not only at this opportunity of renderinga subject's homage to his Sove reign, but also of bearing testimony to the enlightened and philanthropic interest of the Monarch of England, in the regeneration and welfare of the country to which it refers. I am, Sire, Your Majesty's most devoted, obliged, and humble servant, DAVID URQUHART. London, May 20, 1833.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. The lingering adhesion of the parts of Turkey to each other, is far more surprising and less easily ac counted for, than the dismemberment of that empire. The destruction of the Janissaries dissolved its in ternal bond of union, relieved it from the pressure that had brought it so low, but threw off entirely the weight which had steadied so long the jarring ele ments of which it is composed. Rebellion has been successful, habits of resistance have been formed, the hands of the government have been weakened, its authority insulted, and it may be truly said at this moment, the political organization is in a state of paralysis ; authority, under whatever name it is exercised, whether of the Sultan or Me hemet Ali, is only a form ; and this vast body lies with life in each articulation, without corresponding sympathies, without a ruling mind, or the powers of common action. But even still more alarming than its internal state, are its foreign relations. Its political weakness and VI

Chapter I

Hopeless state of European Turkey in the commencement of 1831 — Improvement that followed the subjugation of the Albanians — Choice and measures of the Grand Vizir — Reforms in the Administration — Parties favouring and opposed to these reforms — Causes of the permanency of the Turkish dominion . Page I

Chapter II

Municipal organization ; its general effects — Appears at first accidental, but is a fundamental principle of Arabic legislation — Opinions of a Mussulman on the Turkish and European systems of finance — Term, municipal institutions, correspond with free states of ancient Greece — Amphyctionic Council — Degraded condition of the Eastern empire — Elevation of the character of the Greeks under the Turkish dominion — Its subversion of the previously existing political institutions— Election of municipal officers ; their functions — Collection of government taxes ; municipal taxes — Management of communal debt — Civil functions . 14

Chapter III

Nature of the office — Priests, arbitrators and judges, purchase ordination—The municipal officers generally the wealthiest individuals ; their character— Effects of the institution ; has preserved X CONTENTS. the language and creed of the Greeks — Greeks, under all other government, have lost both — Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, &c. possessed of municipal organization ; preserve their faith — Albanians, Bosniacs, &c. who have no such organization, have become Mussulmans . . . . . . .31

Chapter IV

Different aspect of urban municipalities, accounted for by taxation in cities being indirect — Commercial muncipalities of the middle ages compared with those of Turkey — Ambelakia ; its history, prosperity, and decay — Had no peculiar advantages — Marine of Greece ; its rise — Character of Hydriots — Prosperity of the communities of Magnesia — Turks and Christians living in perfect harmony— Mining district of Chalcidicy ; its fedral government of 12 burghs and 360 villages — Supposed origin of this administration — Representative Committee — Unanimity of decision — Melt Spanish dollars to pass for extracted ore — Comparative decrease of the Turkish and Greek populations — Actual indifference of Greeks to their municipalities — Confound them with their general political condition — Understand wrongs, but not rights — Facility with which emancipated Greece fell into the representative system — Testimony of Capodistrias — General effects of these institutions -44

Chapter V. Finances Of Turkey

Surprise of Envoy of Tunis, at Europe's taxing commerce — General irritation produced by the indirect system in Europe ; its effect on the fall of Napoleon — All great empires of ancient history supported by direct taxation — Customs applied by Greeks, Romans, and Mussulmans, to making roads, &c. — Ancient direct taxes of England; their conversion into indirect — Immense finance bureau at Constantinople — - Theoretical complication and practical simplicity — Heads of taxation — Arabic system — Municipal bank and council — Interest of a government raising its revenue directly — Effect of direct and indirect taxation CONTENTS. XI on artizans — ■ Direct taxation acts as a loan — Effect of such loan on industry — Same effects obtained by postponing the demand — Comparison of Turkish and Spanish peasants — General easy circumstances of Turkish peasants . . . . .79

Chapter VI. Provincial Administration Of Turkey

Pashas' authority maintained, by division among the armed race, in their service — Character of Albanian and Janissary ; their contrast and animosity — Subordination of Pashas to the Porte, how ensured — Pashas belong to no regular system, attached by no interests — Become farmers of revenue, and require surety — That surety furnished by Armenian bankers — Secret and incessant control of the banker over the purse and the actions of the Pasha, who is rendered perfectly dependent on the Armenian — Manner in wliich the banker disguises his profits — Influence of Armenians to be corrected by government collectors, and arbitrariness of government agents by organized troops — Pride at the root of the ills of Turkey — Requires to be humbled, that the government may be preserved — Opinions in Turkey respecting Mahmoud — Effects of his policy — Believed at first Sultan mistaken in destroying the aristocracy — Reorganization of Turkey can never proceed from the general administration — Costume of the Nizzani; judicious applied to the Turks; injudicious where applied to the other Mussulmans — Misfortunes of Turkey, necessary to her regeneration — Disposition to nationalization by race and language — No science or instruction required in a Turkish administrator ....... 103

Chapter VII. Commercial Resources Of Turkey

Commercial restrictions of the West prevented in the East by sanctity of hospitality, under the dominion of Saracens and Turks — Exchange only right respected ; hospitality only obligation obobserved — Freedom of commerce claimed from Princes of central CONTENTS. Africa, because merchants are their guests — Equal rights granted by Turkey to the most powerful and the weakest state — Extract from Moniteur Ottoman ; Turkish declaration of free trade ; vastness of internal traffic — Connexion of commerce and religion ; trade respected where agriculture and manufactories are not — Facilities commerce affords of civilizing the East — Change of circumstances and taste — Demand for English cottons greater than supply — Why — Effect of our restrictions — Expense of domestic manufacture — -Extent to which the demand may be increased . . ...... 123

Chapter VIII

What nations can compete with England — America — Germany — Exports and imports — Former prosperity of this traffic ; altered circumstances — Quarantine, effect of — How enforced — Undersold by England — Facility of smuggling English goods into Austria and Russia, through European Turkey — Commercial system of Russia — Free port of Odessa — Navigation of the Danube — Prospects of opening a free passage to the Euxine — Probable effects on commerce and on capital — Opposition of Russia — Proposed canal to the Euxine — Rudshuck, the geographical point of union of Persian, Russian, Turkish, Austrian, and English commerce — Opposition of Austrian interests to the Prussian commercial plan . 154

Chapter IX

Raw materials of Turkey — its mines — Cotton of Egypt, soil of Macedonia and Thessaly more suited to its culture — Turkish silk, its quality, mode of reeling ; introduction of Piedmontese mode, difference from theirs — Increase of expenses 25 per cent., of profit 100 per cent — Great importance to England of opening a new supply of fine silk — Capabilities possessed by Turkey — Effect on English commerce, of its emancipation from the Company, and of Greece from Turkey — Greek caravan trade, its utility to us — CONTENTS. XIII Turkish monopolies of silk and opium — Reasons for establishment — Simplicity of commerce a consequence of free trade — Mode of operation — Mercantile journey to China ; to England—Speculation in silk ; in tobacco — Effect of our duties on articles of consumption — Conversation with Governor of Durazzo on the advantag-e of foreign commerce to Turkey — Why the Turkish government exacts 3 per cent. ; not justified in doing so — Opinion that if the Turkish peasant bought his clothing from England, instead of manufacturing it, Turkey would be benefited equal to a quarter added to its population ..... 175

Chapter X

Consular system, difference of the duties of consuls in Turkey and in Europe — English commerce extended through the emancipation of Greek merchants and the freedom of the port of Malta — Antipathy of Franks and Greeks — Growth of the Frank population is the cause of separation between Turks and Europeans — Vice-consuls — Consuls should not be allowed to trade — Injurious effects of their interference with commerce, the administration of local justice, and with political intrigues — Their power; irresponsibility — Their character among the Turks — Delicacy of our position with regard to Turkey ; necessity of a decent demeanour towards her — Character qualities, and instruction a consul ought to possess — Summary of the prospects of our commercial relations with Turkey ...... 203

Chapter XI. Relations Of Turkey With Russia, Austria, And France

Russia, since 1830, has lost her influence over the Christian populations of Turkey — Necessity of adopting a new policy in furtherance of her object — Has found it in protecting the Sultan — St. Petersburg Gazette indicates Mount Taurus as the limits between Russia and Egypt — Austria wishes the maintenance of Turkey, but not her regeneration — Apprehends the independence CONTENTS. of both Greece and Servia— Strug-g-le between Austria and Russia secret but inveterate — Austria expends her energies in repressing the disaffection produced by her religious, police, and custom house despotisms — Russia foments these divisions to prevent her having disposable forces — Necessary union of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, to secure their Polish provinces — That necessity ex ists no longer — Policy of France in direct opposition to Russia — Connexion with Egypt — Acquisitions in Africa to counterbalance acquisitions of Russia in Asia and Europe — Places herself on the south in the same position as Russia on the north — Pretence for attacking Algiers tete de pont across the Mediterranean — Mehemet Ali having possession of Syria, Mount Taurus, and Acre, becomes quite independent of France — Miscalculation of France exposed by conduct of Admiral Roussin — Advantages which the supremacy of the Porte affords to its tributary states illustrated by the late conduct of the Servians and Bulgarians — Christians now keep the Albanians in check — Political advantages of the position of Constantinople — Opinion of Polybius — Difference between the revolt of Mehemet Ali and Greece — Delimitation of Arabic and Turkish languages — Our security in our strength favours the progress of Russia ..... 218

Chapter XII

To understand the state of Greece it is necessary to consider her state before the revolution — Comparison of the measures of the Grand Vizir in pacifying Roumelie, and of Capo dTstrias in Greece — His introduction of police, customs and farmers of revenue — Popular discontent — Otho may profit by his experience — Greeks have no predilections for republicanforms — -Military, naval, judiciary, and civil establishments — -Expenditure — Principles of the Hellenic monarchy — Impossibility of guarding the coast, and reasons for preserving the Mussulman financial system — Danger of altering it — The monarchy must rest on the municipalities — Napoleon's opinions of republics of Switzerland — Parcelled affections of Greeks — Greece must not exact a higher import duty than Turkey — Greece forms the link between the commerce of the East and the West — Views of Alexander the Great — Conclusion. ..... . CONTENTS. XV

Appendix

. No. I. 267 II. 270 HI. ... 273 Comparison of the mode of raising the Revenue in Turkey, Rome, England, &c. .... MUNICIPALITIES 01 TURKEY.

Chapter I

The unfavourable aspect of the Turkish empire at this moment, and the triumphant progress of Ibrahim Pasha through its finest provinces, but too plausibly and too conclusively, as far as they extend, establish that the government retains no influence over its pro vinces, and that the provinces contain within them selves no elements of internal and independent or ganization ; but this conclusion holds good in those provinces only where the agricultural population is Turkish; namely, Asiatic Turkey; those provinces have hitherto been held in subjection by the superior energy and warlike disposition of European Turkey, and their conquest by Ibrahim Pasha is an additional proof of the weakness of the Porte, but is no acces sion to Mehemet Ali's power, unless the authority of the Porte itself is finally subverted by the indirect effects of his rebellion.

The institutions which I propose to examine are those of the Hellenic and Sclavonic races, inhabiting European Turke)r. In 1831, after visiting Albania and the greater portion of European Turkey, during the struggle be- B tween the Porte and the Albanians, I returned to England with very little hope of seeing the country tranquillized, or the Turkish rule prolonged ; but a few mouths afterwards, returning to that country, I visited almost every portion of it, and was perfectly amazed at the incredible change that had taken place. It was then that I set myself seriously to inquire how the misfortunes of Turkey might be remedied ; how the sultan could attach to himself the Greek and Raya population, the proofs of which attachment met me at every turn. It was then that I clearly saw the value of the elementary municipal institutions, and the facilities for political reorganization which they afforded.

This was a brilliant epoch in the history of Tur key; may it not prove the flicker of an expiring light! But for the hopes with which the state of the country, after the subjugation of the Albanians, and the energies that led to that event, inspired me, I should never have deemed the national and local in stitutions, which I shall endeavour to describe, of sufficient importance to merit attention, at a moment when results are to be considered, and events alone are to be dealt with. After the Persian war; after the long and exhausting struggle with Greece, and the all but fatal blow of her independence ; after being laid prostrate before the Russians at Adrianople — the humbled and unfor tunate administration of the Sultan had to make head against domestic euemies of a more formidable character than ever yet had threatened the throne of the successors of the Califs.* The Servians had ob- * The dangers ot this critical moment were never appreciated in tained independence, the Bosnians scorned all inter course with the Sublime Porte, and the whole of Albania was under arms.

Albania, on which Turkey had depended for the reduction of Greece, now that Greece was triumphant, turned its arms against the Porte, was supported by the warlike inhabitants of the mountain ranges of Roumelie, and was at that period joined in hatred to the Sultan, and to the new administration, by tlie Raya Greeks, both agri cultural and armed, the first forming the mass ofthe population of Turkey in Europe, the latter composing a body, powerful by its numbers and its strong positions, and commanding the whole of the passes that surrounded Thessaly and Macedonia. Though the Albanians dreaded the Nizzam, the Rayas had not yet felt the good effects of the system, and had there fore no reason to look more favourably than hereto fore on the Porte, which has so long to them been an object of terror and of hatred.

Europe; few persons in Europe are sufficieiitly well acquainted with Turkey to see in the revolt of Albania, with Greece and Servia in dependent on either side, any thing more alarming than in a revolt of Zebecs or Metualis. The importance of Albania is strikingly illustrated by the events of the Egyptian rebellion. The regulars of Ibrahim positively owed the character wliich enabled him to push his daring invasion through Asia Minor, to being resisted by the hordes of Hussein Pasha. What had the sultan to oppose to him ? Only the as yet scarcely subdued Albanians. True, they did not muster more than 6000 men in the army of the grand vizir, but they were its nucleus and its strength. If the rash impetuosity of the grand vizir gave the victory unto the hands of the retiring Ibrahim, still is it not the fault ot the Albanians if Ibrahim was not expelled from Anatoly.

The whole dependence of the empire was on the Albanians. b2 military strength of Turkey in Europe; the Albanians, the industrious population ; the Rayas ; the Greek Armatoles, and the Turkish proprietors, were therefore at this moment all opposed to the new administration. The conservative party were op posed to the Sultan on account of his reforms, the others would not support him unless he granted fur ther reforms ; but their opinions were far from being decided or their objects fixed, because they were not certain of the future intentions of the government, because they had no earnest of the effectiveness of that organization which the other party so much dreaded. The Christians had enabled the Sultan to triumph over Ali Pasha, but ten years of subsequent anarchy had given them abundant reason to regret the election they had then made.

At the moment to which I allude, had another Ali Pasha existed in Al bania, I am convinced that every class of the popula tion, every portion of Turkey in Europe, would eagerly have submitted to his authority. Thus the moral strength of the nation remained for the moment neutralized, dreading on the one hand, the anarchy of the Albanians, and doubting on the other, the inten tions of the government. The decision taken in this crisis by the Sultan, to break through old routine and prejudice, to declare equal rights to Raya and Mus sulman, and the election of the talented individual who has pacified Roumelie, subjugated Albania, at tached the Raya population to the cause of the Sul tan—saved the empire, or preserved to the Porte the allegiance of those provinces, by granting to them a portion of the demanded reform which the Sultan is supposed in Europe to be forcing on his people. grand vizir, a man of strong and original mind, and unconnected with the intrigues of the Rorte, was alone capable of carrying such a reform into execution; he was invested with all civil and military authority in Turkey in Europe, without limi tation of power or time.

Never had such authority been entrusted to a Turkish satrap ; never had there been greater occasion for the interposition of a dic tator's arm, and certainly the choice could not have fallen on an abler man. Erom Adrianople he ad vanced, in the early part of 1830, westward, into the heart of the disaffected country. With a handful of troops he had to rescue from the Albanians the territory they held, and were fast depopulating ; he had to overawe the growing disaffection of the Turks, and, above all, he had to conciliate the Greeks, who were assembling in numerous and armed bodies, ex asperated on one hand, by the oppression under which they laboured, and encouraged on the other, by the example of independent Greece. He clearly under stood that the campaign he was undertaking was an administrative rather than a military one, and that his success depended rather on the friends he could con ciliate to his master by his policy, than the enemies he could subdue by his arms.

As far as I could judge from his own opinions, from the opinions of his favourites, and from his first measures in reorganiz ing the province of Monastir, his plan was as follows : — * * I mention here only the financial and administrative reforms ; but there are others of a moral nature, perhaps equally important, which in the commencement of this year (1832) I observed with no less gratification than surprise in passing through Turkey in Europe. 1st, To substitute for all exactions, legal and illegal, a property tax, to be assessed by their own municipal authorities, on land, houses, shops, and yokes of oxen. The amount was greatly to exceed the sum for merly paid to government, but on this consideration they were relieved from the robbery of all classes of government officers, and from the grievous oppression of forced labour, and conack, that is, furnishing officers, soldiers, and Turks in general, with lodging The Greeks were allowed to wear turbans, yellow slippers, and generally any dress and any colours they chose.

This may appear a mere trifle, but it is far from being so. The marks of distinction between Greek or Christian and Turk, are dress, name, and mode of salutation ; the most important, however, is dress ; every one must have felt this who for a day has worn the two costumes in Turkey. When these distinctions are no longer matters of right and law, they will fall into disuse ; nor would they be considered, as hereto fore, even if preserved, badges of oppression or slavery. The two people will, I doubt not, in time amalgamate, if nothing interferes from without to disturb the progress commenced ; with the acuteness of the climate (I know not what word to employ to designate the pecu liar intelligence of these races) they even themselves anticipate this event. I recollect a Vlach 6aying to me at Monastir — " If the grand vizir lives ten years longer we shall sup with the Turks in Lent, and they will dine with us in Ramazan."

At the time to which I allude, in approaching Constantinople, I met several deputies re turning with firmans for the erection of churches. The difficulties thrown in the way of the building and repairing of churches by the Turks are well known, as also the heart-burnings thereby caused to the Greeks. Now, not only was permission freely granted, but the grand vizir himself subscribed 80,000 piastres towards the erection of one at Monastir, which was erected of solid stone masonry, in an incredibly short period, the whole Greek population contributing labour as well as money, aud was completed by the end of 1831. The Turks asked the Greeks, " Why they had not added four minarets to it." How much meaning lies in this taunt ! and board ; all servants of the government were henceforward to be paid by the treasury, and were to provide for themselves ; and all expenses on go vernment account to be defrayed by government.

I am not prepared to say to what extent this arrange ment would improve the revenue, or relieve the people throughout Roumelie, but I am not, I think, beyond the mark when I say, that with one season of tran quillity the revenues might be quadrupled, and yet the people remain the most lightly taxed of Europe. 2nd. The Greek capitani, the Albanian derven-agas guards of the mountains, and no better than banditti themselves, and the Turkish pashas, beys, ayans, musselims, vaivodes, agas, zabitis, with their train of chaoushes, cavashes, gramatiki, Jew and Arme nian brokers and sarafs, were to be swept away, to be replaced by a military police, composed of regular officers, as military commandants, and by treasurers, whose only duty would be to receive the taxes col lected by the municipal officers.

I must entreat the most particular attention to this all-important consideration, which is the key both to the present state and future prospects of Turkey, that in sweeping away these functionaries, you burst asunder no ties, you destroy no institutions, you injure no interests, you leave no blank to be filled up. There is cen tralisation of power in Turkey, but not of administra tion. The population administers itself— has recourse to Turkish law or authority in no case, except through violence ; each community apportions its own bur thens, collects its own taxes, and whether these taxes are paid into the hands of a provincial collector, or extorted by swarms of locust functionaries, makes not the slightest difference in the relations in which the provinces stand to the Porte, though it makes the difference of prosperity or misery to the people — of strength or weakness to the government.

Instead of these swarms of functionaries, the passes and prin cipal villages were to be occupied by small detachments of regular troops, having fixed pay, and restrained from demanding a single para from the inhabitants, who were themselves to collect their own taxes, and pay them to the chief collector of the province. The Pashas were also to be paid, by the administration, a regular salary, and placed on the footing of the prefects of France, such as those prefects were before their functions extended beyond civil and correctional police. In fact, the functions of the executive would have been restricted to the maintenance of police; no difficult matter in a country possessing the ample means of employment, and the frugal and industrious habits of Turkey. Here moral sanction renders even constables and sheriff's officers unne cessary; a man cited before a judge is compelled by opinion* even to hasten to attend.

The Rayas_ sub- * The Turkish word, wliich we would render in English, opinion, chatir, is most expressive aud comprehensive ; it signifies, in its first intention, memory, but expresses also favour, good-will, aud character; the employment of this word in a sense equivalent to our vague term opinion, shows the great respect paid to opinion. On political questions no complications of interests confuse public opinion ; so that with respect either to individual character or public acts, opinion may be expressed with more or less boldness, but it is decided and universal. They say, " 1 will do this on account of my opinion," not on account of the opinion of others, — thus marking a necessary connexion between conduct and character. The Greeks have adopted the word, and have combined it both in mit their disputes and differences to their priests, whose decisions are not the less final because destitute of legal validity.

In the communities the reciprocity of responsibility gives public opinion the right of censorship — a right which is most despotically exercised. Crimes are unheard of, save amongst those whose office is the preservation of order ; and the most re markable industry and frugality, 1 will not say cha racterize the body of the nation, but form the essen tial features of each individual disposition.* This plan for the reorganization of the administration, so admirably simple, so practicable, so advan tageous to the government and to the people, is now placed beyond all danger as to its ultimate success, by the overthrow in the provinces of the bodies in terested in the continuance of misrule ; it may be more or less retarded by the intrigues of the Porte itself, or by the failure of the organization of the new troops, on which it depends.

The class of men interested in the old system are now, as a faction at least, annihilated; the chief organization expired with the Janissaries, the subjugation of sound and sense with their own soft and poetic xaP'f' by the trans position of the P and T in the oblique cases. The ancients used it precisely in the same sense ; riiv Merrcrriviwv \dpiri. — Thucyd. b. iii. c. 95 ; would be expressed in Romaic, cid to xUT'Pl T®v Me<r ar\viuiv. * Turkey is so full of contradictions that it is utterly impossible to come to one single decision without neglecting contradictory facts. Lest the truth of the above observation should be contradicted by partial experience, I must observe, that the population I allude to is that of the agricultural rayas of Roumelie, excepting some of the duller Sclavonic tribes to the north, the Armatoles to the south, and the generality of those who wear pistols in their belts.

Albanians, and their conversion, which sooner or later must happen, into regular soldiers, will strengthen the hands of the Porte, whose most dangerous enemy Albania has been for tbe last few years, because most essential to its support. As to the new troops, their discipline and subordination is certainly superior to what could reasonably be expected from them, and they seem to have realized the hopes of their founders in the situations in which they have hitherto been placed.* I speak not in a military point of view, but with regard to the more important considerations of the maintenance of order, and the organization of a Mussulman party opposed to Janissaries and Alba nians, and dependent on the executive, which itself must now become directly or indirectly dependent on general prosperity and public opinion for its pecu niary resources, and consequently for its army.-j- * In the two actions at Perlipe, and at the Dervends, between that place and Kiupreli, the conduct of these troops surpassed every expectation, and gave them a pride in their uniform, and an esprit de corps, which will greatly assist their organization, and which are an earnest of future success.