The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-15 00:00:00

STATE OF TURKEY.

A letter from Constantinople, dated Jan. 4, says :
I have more than once alluded to a proposal, now

under consideration, for the revision of the com-

mercial treaties subsisting between the Porte and
the various States of Europe. By the convention
of 1838, known as the treaty of Balta-Limen,

between Great Britain and Turkey, " all articles
being the growth, produce, or manufacture of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and

its dependencies, and all merchandise," imported

into the Ottoman dominions by British subjects,
are liable to an ad valorem. duty of 5 per cent. Of
this import duty, 3 per cent, is
,`payable imme-
_ _

ately on the arrival of the goods in a Turkish port,
and the remaining 2 per cent. on their being sold,
or carried into the interior by the importer. On

the other hand, " any article of Turkish produce,
growth, or manufacture,":purchased in the Ottoman
dominions by a British merchant is chargeable on
its arrival at the 'place of shipment with a 9 per
cent. ad valorem duty, and with 3 per cent. more
on exportation: Nearly all the States of Europe
have similar treaties with this country, which may
therefore be taken to have bound herself to a 5 per
cent. maximum import, and a 12 per cent.maximum
export duty.

Little need be said to prove that these treaties are
open to serious objection. The Western Powers
which have made such considerable sacrifices for

the Turk;sh empire, might be content to inquire

whether the maintenance of those treaties is

not inconsistent with the prosperity of this
country—whether in the interests of Turkey
alone some changes should not be made. The
argument need not, however, be confined to
such narrow limits. Any thing which operates as
a clog upon the producing power of one of the
richest countries in the world is an universal and
not a mere national evil. The main objection to
the treaties in question may be broadly stated thus :
—So heavy en export duty as 12 per cent. of the
value of her produce necessarily operates prejudi-
cially on the development of the resources of the
country. Obviously the produce of the richest soil
in the world may be so taxed before its arrival in a
foreign market as to render it impossible for the
exporter who shall have paid a remunerative price
to the grower to compete with the less heavily
taxed crops of even an inferior soil. In other words,
the charges levied by the State on its exports may
be so heavy as to render agriculture unremunera-
tive, and thus to prevent the cultivation of the
land. This is largely the case with Turkey. In
one way or another her exports are enormously
overtaxed, and, consequently, much of her soil lies
uncultivated. Turkish Ministers allege, and with
some degree of truth, that the evil is to be attri-
buted to the fact of their Government being bound
by treaties to impose no more than a 5 per cent.
duty on any imports from foreign countries. Re-
venue must be had for the State. To reduce the
ruinous export duties is to diminish, for the moment
at least, the receipts of the Treasury—a course
which can only be contemplated in the event of
means being found to supply the deficit. An in-
creased import duty is, they further allege, the
only alternative. This proposition may be open to
doubt ; but it seems ineradicable from their minds.
If, then, we would see one of the difficulties in the
way of the prosperity of this country removed, let
us by all means make some concessions.
A proposal, emanating, I believe, from M. de
Lavalette, hasLbeen made to fix both import and
export duties at 8 per cent., on condition that a
diminution of 1 per cent. shall be made each year
on the export duty, which would thus be altogether
removed after eight years. The import duty, which
will remain at 8 per 'cent. during that period, may
then be reduced from time to time as the financial
position of the empire improves. No system by
which uniformity of rate of Customs' duties on every
description of merchandise is established can be
really good. It may be, however, that insurmount-
able difficulties would arise in the present case were
a more satisfactory adjustment proposed. The
rights of the several countries having commercial

treaties with the Porte are identical. The nature
of their imports into Turkey varies, To propose
to visit the imports from some countries with a
higher percentage than those of others would pro-
bably lead to discontent, and to a refusal on the
part of certain States to suffer any alteration what-
ever of their treaty rights. This is not, however,
a question upon which I at present propose to dwell.
Coupled with the scheme for a revision of the com-
mercial treaties, a question of some importance both
to this country and our own has arisen.

It is certain that there are immense tracts of land

in the Sultan's dominions eminently suited to the
cultivation of cotton. The lowest of the series of
plateaux of which Asia Minor is composed contains
many thousands of square miles of such land.
Smyrna used, in the days of the Levant Company,
to export this material largely. How is it that, in
proportion as the demand has increased, the supply
of cotton from Anatolia and Syria, where the plant
is indigenous, has fallen away to utter insignifi-
nance ? It is a question not difficult to answer.
The reasons are simple and manifold.
First and foremost, thinness of population and a
consequent dearth of labour is a difficulty with
which the cotton grower in Turkey has to contend.
It is a formidable obstacle to meet with at the out-
set and one which may be fatal to the culture of
land remote from the towns and larger villages.
Some compensation for this drawback is, neverthe-
less, to be found in the fact that with cotton, the
main part of the labour—viz., the hoeing and pick-
ing, is so light that it may be performed by women
and children. Of this labour there should in many
places be no dearth.
Next in the catalogue of impediments to success-

fal and remunerative cotton-growing come the im-
posts levied for the purpose of revenue. I have
said that exports are enormously overtaxed. The
objection is not applicable to cotton alone; but as
that is the article under consideration, let us see
how it fares in this respect. The chief imposts to
which exports are subjected before leaving this
country for a foreign market are :—The Sulquin,
the tithe, and the Customs' or export duties under
the commercial treaties.
The Sulquin, or Yergu, is at once a property and
an income-tax, assessed upon what principle it is
extremely difficult to say. Übicini, in his Lettres
sur la Turquie, describes it as a tax raised upon
the presumed fortune of all private individuals, de-
rived from their real, personal, or commercial pro-
perty. This tax, he adds, is not uniform, amounting
in Roumelia to 10, while in many districts of
Anatolia it attains to 25 per cent. All I can add to
the definition is an account of the manner in which
it is apportioned among the population, and which
shall also show the inequality with which it bears
in different districts, and on different sorts of pro-
perty. The imposition of this tax would appear to
have originated in the following way :—A certain
sum was required for the Exchequer. This amount
was apportioned arbitrarily—how could it be other-
wise, in the absence of all statistical information ?
—among the various sandjaks, or provinces of the
empire. No more scientific division has ever taken
place. The burden thus arbitrarily imposed upon
each sandjak is as arbitrarily apportioned among
the cazas (judges' districts). The Muschir and chief
authorities of the cam determine the amount each