New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-12
THE REAL ISSUE IN TURKEY.

Oriental Question the English journals have not more
boldly demonstrated the vital interests which should
render Great Britain the and unyieldpg oppo-
nent of the Russian projects of annexation and aggran
dizement. England cannot afford to allow Russia to
become the possessor of the DardaneLes and Bospho
rus Both commercially and politically such an event
would be deep if not deadly blow at British power
This will appear from simple statement Of facts as to
Der trade with Turkey
Before the discovery Of the direct route to India
CODstantinople was the mart of an extensive COM
merce. And now, though the products Of India lind
their way into Europe by the overland route through
Persia Turan and Turkey yet the Turkish ports carry
on avery important and rapidly increasing traffic both
with Europe and the interior Of Asia. To understand
this it is only necessary to look at the map From
the Black Forest to the sandy nights of Novogorod
Veki, the whole inland country is drained by rivers
flowing into the Black or Caspian Sea- The Danube
and the VOlga, the two gant-rivers OF Europe, the
Dnester, Dnieper and Don, all form so many natural
channels for the carriage Of inland produce TO the Black
Sea-for the Caspian itself is only accessible through
the Black Sea- Two.thirds of Europe-that is, a part
of Germany and Poland, all Hungary, and the most
fertile parts of Russia besides Turkey in Earope, are
thus naturally referred to the Euxne for the export
and exchange of their produce and the more SO, as
all these countries essentially agricultural, and the
great bulk of their products must always make water
carriage the predominant means OF transport. The
corn of Hungary, Poland, Southern Russia, the wool
and the hides of the countries appear in yearly In
creasiDg quantities in Western markets, and they
all are shipped at Gaata Odessa Taganrog, and other
L, hen bara ia i'm
Of trade carried on in the Black Sea. Constannope,
and particularly Trapezunt, in Asiatc Turkey are the
chief marts of the caravan trade the interior Of Asia
to the valley of the Euphrates and Tgrls, to Persia,
and Turkestan. This trade too, rapidly increasing
The Greek and Armenian IN 'rchants Of the two towns
Just named import large quantities Of English manu-
featured goods the low price of which is rapidly supel
seding the domestic industry of the Asatic harems
Trapezunt is better situated for such trade than any
other point 1t has in its rear the hills Of Armenia,
which are far less impossible than the Syrian desert,
and it lies at convenient prOximtyto Bagdad Schraz.
and Teheran which latter place informed
late mart for the caravans from Khwa and BOkhara.
How important this trade, and the Black Sea trade
generally is becoming, may be seen at the Mancbes
ter Exchange, where darkcomplexioned Greek buyers
Greek and South. Slovenian dialects are heard along
with German and English.
The trade of Trapezunt is also becoming matter of
most serious political consideration, it has been the
means of bringing the interests of Russia and England
anew into conflict in Inner Asia. The Russians had,
up to 184O an almost exclusive monopoly of the trade
in foreign manufactured goods to that region Russian
goods were found to have made their way and in
some instances to be preferred to English goods
far down the Indus. Up to the time Of the
afghan war; the conquest of Scinde and the Punjaub,
may be safely asserted that the trade OF England
with Inner Asia was nearly null The fact is now diff
ferent. The supreme necessity of a neverceasng ex-
pansion oftrade-this atum which, specterke, haunts
modern England and, if not appeased at once, brings
on those terrible revulsons which vibrate from New
York to Canton. and from ST Petersburg to Sidney
this inhexbe necessity has caused the interior of Asia
to be attacked from two sides by English trade: from
the Indus and from the Black Sea; and although We
know very little of the exports of Russia to that part
Of the world may safely conclude from the increase
of English exports to that quarter that the Russian
trade in that direction have sensiby fallen Off
The commercial battlefield between England and Rus
Ella has been removed from the Indus to Trapezunt,
and the Russian trade formerly venuring out as far
as the limits Of Englands Eastern Empire is now re-
duced to the defensive on the very verge of its own
line of custom-hOuses. The Importance Of this fact
with regard to any future solution of the Eastern ques
ton, and to the part which both England and Russia
may take in it, is evident They are and always must
be, antagonists in the East
But let US come to more definite estimate of this
Black Sea trade According to The London Economist,
the British exports to the Turkish domnions including
Egypt and the Danuban Principalites, were:
In $780, 40 500 In 1874 $50 In Gs6asA
In lS42 2o6sS42 In lS6.... 27o75 In l8O 3762S0
In 1851 't5opoSo
Of these amounts at least twOthrds must have gone
to ports in the Black Sea- including Consnntinople.
And all this rapidly increasing trade depends upon the
confidence that may be placed in the power which rules
the Dardanees and the Bosphorus the key to the Black
Seas Whoever holds these can open and shut at his
pleasure the passage into this last Of the Medte
ranean Let Russia once come into possession Of Con-
stantinople, who will expect her to keep open the
door by which England has invaded her commercial
domain
So much for the commercial Importance of Turkey.