The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1853.

THE TURKISH BUDGET OF 1850.

The following will be found interesting at this
moment, as it is the last account, so far as we are
aware, of the condition of the Turkish finances :

[FROM THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES OF 1850.]
Turkey has entered into a period of calmness and peace,
which would perhaps have been remarkable at any time
when the attention of Europe had been perfectly free.
If we except the movement in Moldo-Wallachia, which
is a country absolutely western in ideas, nothing has
occurred for the last two years in the Ottoman empire
which at all resembles the agitations just now so fre-
quent elsewhere ; for it is impossible to regard as serious
the troubles so promptly repressed, which for a moment
disturbed Bosnia and Bulgaria. The Turkish empire is
at peace just at a time when formidable insurrections are
staining neighbouring countries with blood. The only
grave difficulties which it has had to endure came to it
from without, but, by the policy which it owes to the
energy as well as to the prudence of the men who govern

it, it passed through them happily. The Divan may,
therefore, now freely pursue the work of progress with
which the prosperity of the empire is identified.
If the Ottoman race have not hitherto manifested that
impatience for improvement which distinguishes the
other people of Europe, and the Latin races principally,
they have not been curbed so much as may be thought
under the yoke of a blind fatality, expecting benefits
from the caprices of time and chance. They have per-

fectly comprehended the conditions of political existence.
They have begun to feel that God has devoted man to
effort, and that life henceforth is the price of labour,
just as in the times of conquest it was the price of
courage. The instinct of command has never been
wanting in the Osmanlis. But they have very rarely
been permitted to acquire the taste and the science of
administration ; and it was not an ordinary enterprise to
destroy, among a people accustomed to live under the
tent, their native repugnance for the work of the econo-
mist and the administrator. One of the principal ob-
jects of the charter of Gulhane was, it is known, to re-

form the old Turkish Administration, and to create a
new one, in which the experience acquired by modern
nations might accord with the peculiar genius of the
people of the East. This object, we may be sure,
was not attained without difficulty, if we remem-
ber the exhaustion of the State, the ignorance of
the greater part of the functionaries, and the
ill-will of the majority of the Pachas, who felt their in-
dependence menaced. The reform is still far from being
finished. It was in the nature of things that it should
proceed slowly ; it has, however, progressed year by
year, the Turks are fond of saying, and we ought to do
them the justice of acknowledging it. The charter of
Gulhane dates from 1839 ; and since 1844 the work of
centralization begun under that charter has borne its
first fruits. The army and the navy have received a
regular organization ; the post-office has been put into
operation along the principal lines of communication ;
lines of steam-packets have begun to unite the different
ports of the empire ; useful results have sanctioned the
adoption of the new system of quarantine ; the Medical
School of Galata-Serai, and the military schools, have
fulfilled the promises which they held forth ; and lastly,
manners have been sensibly influenced by the conciliatory
principles which animate the Government. Prodigiously
irritated, lately, against the Christians by the crusade of
1827, attempted under the name of Christianity, the dis-
position of the people appeared at first to be opposed to
the sentiments of tolerance with which the Government
wished to [inspire them ; but they have yielded to the
councils of a policy attentive to respect every form of
worship. They have ceased to inflict capital punish-
ment upon those who abandon Islamism in order to em-
brace some other faith ; the exactions and the arbitrary
conduct formerly practised upon Christians have ceased
by degrees in the neighbouring provinces of Constanti-
nople ; and, at last, without renouncing their position
as the governing race, the Turks have admitted Christians
to undertake, with them, a certain number of public
functions, like, in this respect, those aristocracies which
know how to open their ranks to merit.

It is fortunate that the Turkish Government is deriv-
ing encouragement from the success of that which it has
itself undertaken. If it has done much, there remains
not less for it to do yet ; and, if we had not confidence
in the intentions and in the energy of the men who now
direct it, we should have reason to be uneasy at the sight
of so many important questions still waiting for solution.
General reforms are sterile when reforms in detail are
not made to complete them ; and it is this new path, the
financial system, which must in the foremost place occupy
the attention of the Turkish Government. Money, it is
said, is the sinews of war. It is, by the same rule, the
sinews of peace. There can be no real justice where
taxation is not regularly established ; there can be no
proper means of action where there is not adequate taxa-
tion. The power and prosperity of a State depend, if
not exclusively at least principally, upon its system of
finance ; but nothing is more imperfect than the organi-
sation of the finances of the Ottoman empire. It is not
that the vices of legislation have led to false ideas and
erroneous theories upon the principles of revenue, or upon
the conditions of circulation and of credit. No, for it
may be said, to the advantage of Turkey, that there are
not systematic vices in its laws, though there are unfa-
vourable traditions and customs which partake a little of
empiricism. There is no unity, nothing fixed, nothing
stable. It is in these respects that the position of
Turkish finance merits at this moment all the attention
of the Divan.

In ordinary times the Government would not disturb

itself at all about the revenue, if it balanced the expenses.
Unfortunately, it has been sufficient if the harvest had
disappointed the expectations of the cultivators, or if the
produce of corn was diminished by some evil influence of
the climate, to place the Turkish budget in a deficit ; or
else there arose some diplomatic incident of a nature t 3:
require measures of defence, and it was necessary :tt
augment the contingent of the army, so that again the
expenses would infallibly exceed the receipts. How
would it be if, for the want of reform, the Government
shou'd think of adequately endowing all the services
which, like that of public instruction, are still upon suf.
ferance ? In the present state of the financial legisla-
tion of the empire, the revenue depends, we perceive,
a little upon the caprices of chance. It has no certain
basis. It might, however, be increased in enormous
proportions without embarrassing the people by the
mere effect of an intelligent organisation. A rapid exa-
mination -of qhe Turkish btidget, of which 'we do not
pretend to embrace the whole, will leave no doubt, we
believe, as to the importance of the advantages which
financial reform would ensure to the empire.

For some years the ordinary revenue of Turkey has
not exceeded the amount of 750,000,000 piastres, and
it has not been below 650,000,000. In order to explain
this variation, it is sufficient to say that the principal
sources of income are the tenths upon the produce of
the soil and the Customs. The expenses, which are
more easy to determine than the receipts, have reached
to 733,400,000 piastres. The details of a Turkish bud.
get are very different from those of a budget among the
people of the West. • We may judge;of this by the follow.
ing table of receipts and expenditure, which, indeed, it
is otherwise curious to compare. The expenditure is
divided in the following manner among the different
services :

Piastres.
The Sultan's civil list
Civil list of the Sultan's mother and of his
married sisters
Army
300,000,000
Navy 37,5C0,000
Materials of war, artillery, engineers, and
fortresses
Salaries of employes in all the empire, and
in every branch of the administration 195,000,000
Subvention to the administration of vakaufs
for the establishments dependent on them 12,500,000
Contingent annuities
Interest at 6 per cent. bons du tresor 9,000,000
Annuities payable in compensation for
ancient fiefs to proprietors dispossessed 40,000,000
Foreign affairs—ambassadors and consuls 10,000,000
Expenses for objects of public utility 10,000,000

Total piastres

Such are the whole expenses of the Turkish Govern-
ment. Here are its different sources of income;—
Piastres.
Tenths

Income-tax
Personal taxes on non-Mussulman subjects 40,000,000

Customs
86,000,000
Tribute from Egypt 30,000,000
Wallachia
1 f lf 2,000,000
~ Moldavia 1,000,000
' „ Servia 2,000,000
Indirect taxes (patents, stamps, octrois,
mines, and ports) 150,000,000

Total peastres...

... 731,000,000

We thus know the elements of the budget and the
financial resources. Wbat measures, then, should be

taken to establish this budget upon a firm and regular
basis ? These measures are indicated by the nature of
the obstacles which it is the question to overcome, and
which it remains for us to enumerate.
Among these obstacles we must reckon in the first
rank the existence of the Vakoufs. They call by this
name all the property consecrated to the mosques and
religious foundations, whether they have proceeded
from pious legacies or have been confided to the admi-
nistrators of the mosques by virtue of a convention.
Free property takes the name of multi. It is well known

that the desire to contribute to the support of the

mosques has not been the sole motive for these dona-
tions, of these faithful stewards. The real end of the
proprietor has most often been to ensure one portion of
his fortune against the caprices of tyranny. The
chances of the reversion to the profit of the mosque,
and the annual rent which the depositor pays to it,
are not considered too high a premium, when the
question is how to avoid either a confiscation or a

forced sale at the suit of impatient creditors. What-
ever be the reason which may have determined pro-
prietors to put their lands into the hands of the admini-
stration ofthe Vakoufs, this administration is the nomi-
nal proprietor of three-fourths of the real property in
the Turkish empire. Nevertheless, the annual revenue
of the administration of Vakoufs is not valued at more
than 20,000,000 piastres. There is one fact still more
strange— the budget of the State is obliged to furnish
12,500,000 piastres for the support of mosques and
charitable establishments. This apparent contradiction
is explained by the small rent stipulated at the begin-
ning in money of which the name has not changed, but
which has twenty times its value now ; by the frauds

common in the declarati of prices at sales ;by pre-
cautions taken to avoid the case of remainder ; and,
lastly, by concessions made to relations for the redemp-
tion of titles where cases of remainder are presented.
Without changing the system, it is evident that some
well-devised measures might produce great benefit to the
Treasury ; but results much more important would be
obtained if they were able to disinterest the mosques,
and to give to the actual tenants new titles, which would
render them real proprietors. This reform is generally
desired. There is nobody who, in order to re-enter upon
the full property of his real estate thus engaged, would
not give willingly a right of mutation, and consent fur-
ther to pay annually to the Treasury fifty times the
value of the rent now due to the mosques, so true is it
that property in Turkey no longer fears a return either
of spoliation or violence. It has been calculated that,
by increasing to 50,000,000 piastres the sum which the
state would allow the mosques in exchange for the
32,000,000 which they now receive, and without taxing
the income derived from real property at more than five
per cent., the Treasury would realise a benefit of more
than 60,000,000 piastres. From this single result we
may obtain an idea of the influence which this reform
would have in the end. Being made general, it would
embrace all properties, till at last it would become the
natural principle of a land tax, and would give security
to the finances of the empire.

The tax called vergu, formerly salian, corresponds to
the English income-tax. It varies according to locality,
from 10 to 25 per cent. It is a tax raised upon the pre-
sumed fortune—real, personal, or commercial. It is
placed indifferently upon all the subjects of the Grand
Seignor, Mussulrnans or Rayas. The municipalities
which exist everywhere in Turkey are charged with its
apportionment and its collection, and they turn over the
produce to the financial agents of the Government.
This intervention of the municipalities in financial ques-
tions is one of the principles of their organisation in the
East; but this principle supposes in the municipalities
enlightened and equitable views which are not always
met with. There are some in which the patriarchal and
fraternal spirit of the earliest times is preserved ; the
fortune of each, consisting generally of land and cattle,
is of public notoriety. The distribution of the tax
is easy, and its collection is effected without reclamations
or resistance. In some communes of Asia Minor jus-
tice is not so scrupulously applied. Although munici-
pal functions are elective they are too often the prize of
intrigue, and the privilege of great influence, from which
it follows that the great fortunes are not always those
which have to bear the highest tax; the small ones
suffer, and the Treasury with them. Without attacking
the organization of the municipalities, which have been
in periods of oppression the safeguards of individual
liberty, the Government ought more narrowly to super-
intend their acts. This intervention would no longer
facilitate, as formerly, tyranny and exaction, and the
Government would be able to protect itself in some
municipalities against the very plausible pretext of re-
ductions which have been in their favour. The munici-
palities are no longer at the charge of lodging for military
and employes on travel, and forced labour is suppressed,
which too frequently impoverished the population. The
Government may then, without much scruple, undertake
to verify the labours of the municipalities in the distri_
bution of the tax.

The tenths are not the vergu, the most productive
branch of the revenue of Turkey. They are collected
upon all the. productions of the earth, fruits, and cereals.
In Roumelia they extend to sheep. It is the same in
some localities in Asia Minor. In others, immunity is
compensated by a surcharge upon the tax. With the
view of receiving money instead of the produce of na-
ture, the Government has recourse to a disastrous expe-
dient, which is one of the principal vices in the financial
legislation of the empire. It puts this tax to auction
the same as the Customs of many cities. The putchasers
effect their reimbursement by means of special agents,
with the concurrence of the municipalities and of the
representatives of the central authority. We may
easily conceive the inconveniences of this system. But
altogether, vicious'as it is, it is a step in the way of pro-
giess, if we call to mind the times when governors of
provinces, farmers of tenths and of all the other taxes,
used and abused their power without limit, and ground
down the population in a thousand different ways.
For some years the principal functionaries of the Go-
,
vernment have presented themselves at these auctions,
and have become purchasers either in their own name or
under that of some Armenian bankers (sarrafs). These
bankers are their sureties with the Treasury, their part-
ners in the profits, or their brokers to re-sell at a profit.
We are tempted, with reason, to exclaim against such
an anomaly. It is necessary, however, to remember
that the spirit to gain is not at this moment the only
motive which instigates Turkish functionaries to endea-
vour to-obtain the farming of the tenths. They obey,
at the same time,- the idea of the Government, which
wishes to establish on this subject the most serious com-
petition. Thus the price of these purchases has been
considerably augmented, and the Government knows
much better the extent of its resources. It is, in every
case, a minimum result, if we compare it with the immo-
rality of the speculation, with the waste which the sys-
tem provokes, and, in a word, with the enormous losses
thus caused to the people and to the Treasury, to the
profit of the fortunate farmer of the tenths and the Cus-
toms. The inconveniences of this system are perfectly
appreciated by the Government itself. The farming,
already condemned by the hatti-cheriff of Gulhanb, has
just been the object of consideration by a committee ap-
pointed to examine some financial questions ; and the
opinion of this committee, composed of some of the prin-
cipal functionaries of the empire, was, that Government
agents ought not to be authorised to present themselves
at auctions. This is a decisive step towards the com-
plete abolition of this ruinous system ; let us hope that
it may not be long before it is attempted.

The capitation tax (haradje or djizie) extends only to
the rayas—that is to say, to the non-Mussulman sub-
jects of the Grand Seignor. Every male adult is liable
to the haradje, which is divided, in proportion to their
fortunes, into three classes. The most rich pay 60 pias-
tres annually ; the middle class, 30 piastres ; and others,
only 15. Generally this tax is considered as compen-
sation for military service, to which the rayas have
not hitherto been subject. For a long time the
haradje was collected by special agents, who spared
the rayas neither gratuituous humiliation nor exactions.
Although these abuses have disappeared, it is only
just decreed that the mode of collection shall be
changed, but in the meantime there is no doubt the
character of the impost will be modified. Here-
after the Patriarchs, heads of the different Chris-
tian communities, as well as the Ichakanz-bach,i, or chief
of the Jews, will be the intermediaries between their co-
religionists and the Treasury. It is difficult to believe
that this new mode of collection can be more profitable
to the Treasury than the former—at least until, by a sys-
tem of subscription, the state is able to guarantee a fixed
sum to itself. The tax appears less onerous upon the
population ; this, perhaps, is the single advantage to be
expected from the innovation.
' We shall now touch upon a subject of an interest not.
less great, and which takes us less from the economic
ideas of the West--the Customs. The Customs system

of Turkey is based upon treaties concluded with the
European powers. In 1838 the Porte negotiated simul-
taneously with France and England a treaty of com-
merce, which England first, and France shortly after-
wards, signed with the Sultan. According to this treaty,
merchandise imported into Turkey pays an import duty
of 5 per cent., which is divided thus— 3 per cent. for the
import duty, properly so called, and 2 per cent. supple-
mentary duty on leaving the Custom-house, in replace-
ment of ancient traffic dues in the interior. Merchan-
dise, the produce of the soil or the industry of the Otto-
man empire, pays an export duty of 12 per cent.-9 per
cent. upon its arrival at the place where it is to be
embarked, and 3 per cent. upon embarkment. This duty
of 12 per cent. replaces many duties, which incessantly
varied, to which merchandise was subject when mono-
poly absolutely prohibited sale and importation. To lay
a duty of 12 per cent, upon the export of native pro-
ducts when the importation of foreign merchandise is
only subject to a duty of five per cent., may appear to
some minds a ruinous absurdity. The arrangement, in
fact, seems contrary to the principles which regulate
the customary relations of industrious and commercial
countries. But, independently of the political interests
which made it the duty of Turkey to sign this treaty,
two fundamental circumstances justified it in the eyes
of the Sultan. An agricultural power, he imposed
nothing upon the land ; he might then, and ought to,
impose a duty upon its products. From this point of
view the organisation of the Customs is the least pre-
pared for criticism, and it is the least susceptible in it-
self of improvements profitable to the Treasury. The
Turkish Government may at once draw from it a very
superior revenue to that which it now receives. In
what manner ? Not by endeavouring to modify its
commercial conventions with foreign powers, but by
encouraging production and circulation at the same
time within the bosom of the empire. Who can doubt
that upon this territory, at once so vast and so fertile,
agriculture could not do wonders, if with practicable
means of communication for conveyances between all
the great cities, and in the neighbourhood of the sea ?
On the other hand, the same advantages of transport,
more rapid and less costly, having for its purpose to
bring nearer to the doors of its population foreign com-
merce and manufactures, imports as well as exports,
would receive new encouragement and fresh develop-
ment. This is the only means of augmenting the Cus-
toms revenue, and a reform of this kind, would, with-
out any doubt, give the most happy impulse to the for-
tunes of private individuals as well as to those of the
State.

It remains for us now to describe the difficulties
which 'constitute a deplorable clog to commercial de-
velopment and financial progress. We wish to speak
of the coin of Turkey, and of the enormous difference
which exists between the intrinsic and the nominal value
of the greatest part of its circulating medium. The
necessity of arresting the depreciation of the piastre has
provoked the organisation of an ensemble of operations
called at Constantinople "le system du maintien des
changes." It is useless to add that the efficacious-
ness of these measures is as important to European
commerce as it is to Turkey. Commerce is no
longer possible where a bargain for time, the stipu-
lation being in piastres, may, by a sudden deprecia-
tion not unexampled, be attended,. to the seller, with a
loss of 50 per cent. Admitted that commerce may be a
Proteus sufficiently skilful to find other means of ex-
change, it is manifest that the transition cannot be ac-
complished without some great financial catastrophe.
As to the Turkish Government, in the position in
which the nature of its riches and commercial treaties
place it, it ought to be able to pay for the products of
Etirope with European money, instead of losing at a
single coup all the difference which there is between the
real and the nominal value of the Turkish piastre.
For snore than a century the Ottoman Sovereigns,
perceiving the amount of their extraordinary expenses,
have adopted the ruinous and immoral practice of alter-
ing the standard of the Mint, leaving to their successors
the unmerited chastisement of an improvident abuse of
their absolute power. The Turkish piastre corresponded
at the first in value to sf. 20c. Since its last alteration,
at the time of the war against Russia in 1828, it has be-
come, under the form of beehliks, or piece of five pias-
tres, a coin of a standard so reduced that in cases where
its current value, if regulated by the real value, should
be eight piastres, it will pass for only lf. The two ex-
treme terms then are, the piastre before the year 1710
was worth more than five francs ; while the piastre of
1828 does not correspond to twelve centimes. It is esti-
mated that there are 400,000,000 piastres of this coin in
circulation. These pieces, with notes (Kaymes), con-
stitute almost alone the original Turkish money in the
Ottoman empire. The other coins current in Turkey
are, with the piece of six piastres (altilik) of an altered
standard, which formerly contained about 462 millibmes
of pure silver, the ancient gold pieces of 20 piastres,
the new gold pieces of 100 piastres, and of 50 piastres,
the new silver pieces of 20, 10, 5,2, and 1 piastres,
which contain, in gold or in silver, a proportion equal to
the quantity admitted into the fabrications of money by
pie European Governments. It is estimated that about
200,000,000 piastres i s about the value of the money struck
in these coins since 1844. Unfortunately, they have
by degrees completely retired from circulation, by
reason of the speculations which they have caused. To
this enumeration of coin of Ottoman origin must be added
foreign coins, the number of which varies according to
the rise or fall in the prices attributed to them. The
following is the tariff established in 1844 by the Turkish
Government, for the principal foreign moneys in the
Constantinople market :
Good Spanish piastres 22 piastres 32 paras.
Talaris of Austria 21 „ 30 „
Five-franc pieces 21 „ 10 ~
Carboranz Russes 16 „ 37 ~
Ducats—Holland, Venice,
and Austria 50 ~ ~

There are 40 paras in the piastre. Unfortunately this
official tariff never has been, and is now still less likely
to be, the measure of foreign values. In commercial
transactions the Carboranz is received for 18 piastres,
the ducat for 52, and so on for the rest.
From 1828, the date of the last alteration in the
piastre, to 1834, the exchange—that is to say, the prac-
tical relation between the piastre and the pound sterling
—has varied from 60 to 98. It has not since exceeded
these figures, although by reason of the intrinsic value
of the pieces of five piastres, the piece of English gold
had a real value of 225 piastres. We may conceive what
disastrous fluctuations resulted from this to European

commerce in. Turkey. ' .
In 1834, when Turkey received from Greece, as the
price of her cession of territory, the sum of 18,000,000
piastres, the idea was conceived of a banking operation
to prevent further great disasters. This operation con-
sisted in furnishing to the merchants established in Turkey
all the paper which was necessary for them to maketheir
returns to Marseilles, Vienna, Paris, and London. They
succeeded in effect in maintaining the exchange at 981
for the pound sterling for about two years. After some
fluctuation it rose to 1271. In 1843, the Divan again
put in force the system of maintaining the exchanges,
combined with a gradual emission of a coinage of good
alloy in replacement of the altered mouey, which they
should have demonetised at the rate of 7,500,000 piastres
per annum. The operations commenced, and they have
not been interrupted ; only they have renounced too soon
the demonetisation of the beehliks.
This time they took for the basis of the real value the
ancient gold piece of 20 piastres, and they fixed at 110
the reY.ation of the piastre to the pound sterling. At the
same time an imperial ordonnance interdicted the circu-
lation of all foreign money, and of all the ancient foreign
money which had induced so much speculation. These
were received and changed in the Mint. As to the
foreign moneys the exchange was facilitated by transac-
tion s with Europeans. The subjects of the Grand
Seig nor, howover, were prohibited from receiving them
in p. ayments. These resolutions, notified to all the em-
bassies, and put into force did not excite any serious re-
clarna tions. All the financial agents had at their disposi-
tion the necessary funds to operate the exchanges.
Abuses re-appeared in proportion, and with the conse-
quo- aces of political commotion in Europe there was in
the end a financial crisis disastrous to Turkey. Such
are at the present moment the consequences of the abuse
off °reign money. Constantinople is not only the princi-
pal entrepot of the commerce of Turkey, but it is at the
s ante time the point through which pass all the colomal
d
p roduce, and all the manufactured articles intended
stuffst de
f )1- Persia and the states of Western Asia. The
and the fabrics of England penetrate equally equally
by
ban
means of' a very active and
etxtheend Caucasus, and
trade into the provincess of
All this
time this Russian
merchandize is
11 ipnatiod
ftohre i
nh eEtt ruts s
ioafn
oRa
rubsia
0 r
an z .
Every
rmeoanl evyalonbe,tatihnesraet
isC n ona efflux of them ; and what hap-
Constantinople a rate higher than its
pens ? Why the Turkish Government is reduced to