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

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
Europe 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 more 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 arc 400,000,000 piastres of this coin in
circulation. These pieces, with notes (ICayines), 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 j
standard, which formerly contained about 462 millimes
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
the European Governments. It is estimated that about
200,000, 000 piastres is 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 If
Ducats—Holland, Venice,
and Austria 5O ~ PP

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 make their
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 money, 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.