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

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IPRIOE 5De

send to Europe the return in paper for the merchandise
furnished by contraband to Persia, to the neighbouring
states, and to Russia. The commerce of Odessa and of
all Southern Russia, profiting by this exaggerated value
of foreign money in Turkey, then uses the Bank of Con-
stantinople to send funds to Europe, speculations are
organised to buy piastres with carboranz, and to de-
mand, piastres in hand, Bank bills. It is thus that the
drafts of this bank have risen lately to the annual sum
of more than 400,000,000 piastres. The exports of
Turkey, without doubt, procure for it the values with
which it covers its correspondents in London ; but these
values are far from being sufficient, although it may be
that in good years the exports balance the imports. We
comprehend the causes of this insufficiency. The amount
of the drafts which the Turkish Government ought to
furnish to commerce, in the place of being only the dif-
ference between the imports and exports of Turkey, is
augmented by all that which Persia and part of Russia
owe to the merchants of the west. The Bank of Con-
stantinople is then for some time obliged to cover its
correspondents by sending the coin which it possesses,
and this accounts for the disappearance of all the new
gold and silver money. In 1848, a year otherwise de-
plorable for the commerce of all Europe, the loss was
14,000,000 piastres. This is an intolerable situation,
which weighs heavily upon the budget, and of all the
vices of the financial system of Turkey it is that which
requires the most energetic and prompt remedies.
Let us hasten to say that the Divan is under no illusions
in this respect, and that a reform in the coinage more
radical than the preceding is at present within its con-
templation. The only reproach it will incur will be that
it is too late.

May, then, the present ministers of the Sultan profit
by the calmness which is now reigning in all the pro-
vinces of Turkey ! It is no longer a question of mani-
festing sentiments of equity and tolerance ; it is a period
to do justice in the organisation of the finances, and to
modestly condescend to practise a little political economy.
There must be an increase to a considerable proportion
in the movement of property and commerce, to augment
the revenues of the State. The budget of the current
year presents a deficit of 110,000,000 piastres. There
are besides roads to open, public instruction, the service
of mines, rivers, and forests, the maintenance of fortifi-
cations, all requiring special dotations which do not
figure in the budget. These dotations cannot be
reckoned at less than 100,000,000 piastres. There is
therefore a sum of 210,000,000 piastres for which Tur-
key must seek in new resources. These resources the
Divan may supply either by a new emission of paper
money at 6 per cent., or by a loan, or lastly, by reforms,
which will sensibly raise at once the produce of the
tenths, and facilitate the establishment of a land tax by
the transformation of the vakoufs into free lands. If
they prefer the most honourable of the boldest means,
there ought to be no hesitation about it, it is that of re-
form. Those who have seen the waste and abuse ne-
cessarily produced by the existing system do not fear to
affirm that this will suffice to reestablish, before three
years are over, an equilibrium between the receipts and
the expenditure. The obstacles which the reform party
may yet have to meet in the evil disposition of its adver-
saries are doubtless numerous, notwithstanding the im-
provements already accomplished ; but these improve-
ments, of which everybody can appreciate the character,
have been opposed in their time by obstacles far more re-
doubtable. Since the bloody day on which the Sultan
Mahmoud rendered the institution of a new regular army
possible by the extermination of an undisciplined militia,
to the calmer period of the proclamation of the Hatti-
cherif of Gulhane, which has inaugurated toleration, the
Ottoman empire has passed through very terrible vicis-
situdes. It has been tried by all sorts of calamity. But
it was in the midst of a succession of civil and foreign
wars, all equally unfortunate, that the idea of reform
grew and spread. There was much opposition and many
obstacles ; and how much reason to hope for success ?
Without, Europe indifferent or hostile ; within, the
Christian population, excited by the example of Greece ;
and Turkey, with complete administrative anarchy and
with faithless and ignorant functionaries. Such was the
spectacle which the Divan had before their eyes. Every
one predicted the approaching ruin of the Turkish em-
pire. So much evil, they said, was irreparable. The
Government of the Sultan did not, however, turn back
from the attempt ; and if they have not succeeded in all
things to the full extent of their wishes, they have at
least obtained results upon which the population may
depend to give them more energy and vigour. The good
which is accomplished is an aid and an encouragement
to undertake that which remains. The attempt, al-
though still laborious, is become easier than it was in
the first days of reform, and the men who have taken,
with the Sultan Mahmoud and his young successor, the
initiative in these innovations,;have too much patriotism
to stop half way.