The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-30 00:00:00

venue as between ene year and another; and it is
fact of no small consequence to Turnish finance, a
a verification of this correction of the telegram by fe
reference to our impression of last Tuesday will,
evince. The estimated revenue of Turkey is fully
£14,000,000 for the financial year on which W 3 have
just entered, while the public income on the se-
cession of the present Sultan was not more thee'
£11,000,000. Proportionately considered, this is
a more rapid increase than, that of any other
European revenue; and it represents the prac-
tical result of a course of financial reforms which
were often deemed rather imaginary than real by
those who were apt to cling too implicitly to the
miserable traditions of the late reign. But this
increase in the revenue, as it stands in its pre-
sent figures, is far from being the only one.
Hitherto the taxes have been collected in paper
money, namely, in the caimeq, which are now ex-
tinguished, and were at all times more or less de-
preciated. For the present financial year, however,
the calculation is made in metallics. We are hardly
able to strike an average of the depreciation of the
paper money during the last few years. But that
average, if ascertained; could hardly be found to
have been less than 20 per cent., and the premium
upon gold was often very much higher. Bat, now
that the paper money has been extinguished, all.
taxis are paid in metallies, and the revenue hence-
forth will therefore represent its real and internee
tional value, whereas the revenue of previous years,
being more or less collected in paper, appeared
greater than it really was. The interest on the pub-
lic debt forms a prominent item in the schedule of
expenditure. Ostensibly there is a great increase
of charge on this account for 1863-64 as compared
with 1862-63; and in fact there is a slight increase
in the actual debt. But it must be remembered
that much of the increase in the foreign debt has
been obtained by the consolidation of anomalous
internal loans, as well as through the expenditure
required for the suppression of the paper money.
Thus the foreign loans of 1862 and 1863 have been
contracted, not to satisfy current expenditure, but in
part to withdraw and cancel the paper money, and
in part to pay off local loans contracted of different
Galata capitalists under the reign of the late Sultan,
ac higher rates of interest. Some of the consoli-
dated internal debt has also been created for the
same purpose—the requisite amount having been
obtained from the market at Constantinople as well
as from the markets at London and Paris. In point
of fact, therefore, the real debt of Turkey has very
slightly increased during the present reign, the
essential difference being that the debts of all
kinds have been brought forward, avowed, and
consolidated. The total charge of the whole debt,
foreign and domestic, is now 800,000 purses; or
about £3,600,000 of our money, inclusive of the
sinking funds provided for the redemption both
of the foreign debt and of the Consolides. This
is a proportion of about 25 per cent. upon the whole
revenue, whereas the proportion of the British
revenue that is paid away for interest on its
national debt, without any provision for the
ultimate redemption is about 40 per cent. The
current expenditure has at the same time been dimi-
nished in several of the departments in which it
had been alleged that the predilections of the pre-
sent Sovereign were extravagant. Thus the navy
is to cost for t'ie present financial year only 210,000
purses as compared with 245,000 purses in 1862-63.
The army is further reduced. It cost the treasury
during the last year 959,000 purses, and during the
present it is restricted to an outlay of 827,000. The
Ministry of Finance, at the same time, is reduced.
from 153,000 to 120,000 purses. These figures are
marked by very great moderation. The army will
cost no more than the annual charge upon the debt,
or about £3,600,000. For a Sovereign who rules
thirty millions of subjects, this is, in our judgment,
an estimate marked by extraordinary moderation ;
nor is it intended to expend so much as £1,000,000
on the navy. It is hard to say, therefore, from
whence certain prevalent notions of the present
Sultan's disposition to military extravagance could
have had their origin. Looking merely to the credit
of the Turkish empire, it is surely better that it
should possess fair means of defence, whatever be
the improbability of its being again attacked, than
that it should again invite attack by its defenceless-
ness. The table of receipts evinces the gradual
progress of the new system of collection, and of the
new tariff. The former is necessarily of slow deve-
lopment. When the present Sultan came to the
throne nearly all the taxes were farmed out. This
Asiatic mode of proceeding involved a great loss to
the State. But to replace it by a general system of
collection presupposed the presence of a local orga-
nisation throughout the empire. Of course this
great staff could not immediately be had. Conse-
quently it was needful to apply the new mode of
collection—province by province, and district by
district—as the organisation could be obtained.
When it is complete, it is probable that a large fur-
ther augmentation of revenue will be experienced.
Nor is it without reason to anticipate that the new'
tariff will soon promote the commerce of the coun-
try sufficiently to do more than cause the small re-
duction that at present involves in the customs
revenue. Before many days we shall probably have
this budget before us without any of the inevitable
inaccuracies of the telegraph ; and we shall then
perhaps be still better able to judge how it augural
for the future of Turkey.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

..- ,y.._.___.__

BIRMINGHAM—TnIntsmiy.

Wheat was in fair supply to-day, and sold slowly, last
week's rates being about maintained. In foreign wheat ra-
ther more doing. Barley, oats,beans, and peas as of late.
English wheat was sold at 48 to 48s for white, and 40s
to 44s per 36 stone for red. Barley, new malting, 36s to
42s per qr; grinding, 26s to 30s Oats, old, 24s to 300
per 30 stone; Irish, 21s to
.255. Beans, 40s to 44s per qr.
Peas, 36s to 44s per 36 stone.