ODESSA, a city of Russia in Europe, within the circle of Tiraspol, in the government of Cherson. It owes its present state, and the rapid advance it has made, to its position on the north-western shore of the Black Sea, between the mouths of two great rivers, the Dniester and the Dnieper, and being not more than twenty-four miles from the Bug, which is navigable from Poland.

From the reign of Peter the Great, Russia had been steadily looking forward to a maritime preponderance, both military and commercial, on the Black Sea; and soon after the peace of Oczakow, by which the province of Cherson was ceded to Catharine, that princess selected as the place for a commercial emporium a village called Kodschabey, then inhabited only by a few fishermen. At first several regiments were marched to the spot, and the erections of public buildings commenced. The first civil settlers were a number of Greek families, who were induced to remove thither from other portions of the country which had been recently given up by the Turks. When the Emperor Alexander ascended the throne, he entered with zeal into the project which Catharine had formed. The French emigrant Duke of Richelieu, who had entered the Russian service, was appointed governor, and displayed great zeal and judgment. By an imperial ukase, all taxes were suspended for sixty years; in consequence of which a considerable number of persons were induced to fix themselves in Odessa, so that by the year 1804 the inhabitants had increased to 15,000. With the progress of population that of public buildings kept pace. A fortress, a lighthouse, and a lazaretto, were constructed, as well as a mole to secure 300 sail of vessels from the south-west winds, which sometimes blow with prodigious force. The war between Russia and Turkey, which was terminated by the general European peace on the capture of Paris, had impeded till that event the growth of the city; but soon afterwards the port of Odessa was declared to be an open one. All goods of every kind could be imported without duty for the consumption of the city, or for re-exportation, but were chargeable with duty on passing into the surrounding country. This gave a great impetus to its advancement, which still operates, till the population has increased to nearly 50,000 persons. The inhabitants, as is natural in new settlements, are of very mixed races. The chief part of them consists of Russians, Greeks, and Jews; but German handicraftsmen are found amongst them in considerable numbers, whilst the more extensive mercantile houses are composed of Italians, English, French, or Armenians. In no spot perhaps in Europe are there so great a number of languages spoken as on the exchange of Odessa. The admixture of oriental dresses, manners, and languages, presents a very novel and lively picture. A stranger might imagine himself translated into one of the trading towns of the Levant; for the bazaars contain all the productions of the East, from Persian shawls down to rose-pastilles; and the Italian language is universally understood.

1he prosperity of Odessa has risen in a great measure from its maritime accessibility. It has a spacious bay, [7:16:322]which, though open to the easterly winds, is tolerably secure; it is very extensive, and the anchorage ground is good. There is a kind of harbour formed by two moles, about two thirds of a mile in length, and a handsome quay capable of receiving vessels of 500 tons burden. The situation of the town on the shore, the land rising very gradually, gives it a good appearance on approaching it from the sea. Like most new places, it is regularly built; the streets are wide and straight, crossing each other at right angles; and the houses are for the most part built of stone, and two stories in height. The streets are however unpaved, and consequently in rainy weather present a mass of mud and dirt; and, on the other hand, when the weather is dry, the clouds of sand which arise prove a terrible annoyance. The place is defended by a strong citadel on the northeast, which has a double ditch, and also several outworks. The walls that surround the city are of more use in a financial than a military point of view. Amongst the public edifices, the most conspicuous is the cathedral, a large and elegant pile. There are eight other churches for the Greek worship, some belonging to the orthodox faith, and others to schismatics. The Jews, Roman Catholics, and German Lutherans, have their respective places of worship. A college has been established, with a museum and botanic garden. There is a large hospital, an assembly room, and a theatre, where plays are performed alternately in the Russian and Greek language, and which is sometimes used for the performance of Italian operas. There are several institutions for educating the poorer classes of both sexes; those for females being under the superintendence of the wife of the governor of the province, who resides here. Most of the water is brackish, and to provide that necessary element in purity, an aqueduct has been constructed, at an expense of more than a million roubles, which conveys it from a distance of nearly twenty miles. All the absolute necessaries of life are remarkably cheap, as must be the case where a single town draws its supplies from a vast and fruitful plain like that which surrounds this city on the land side.

As the rapid growth of Odessa, and the prospect of its continued and increasing extent, depend wholly upon its commerce, it is desirable to take a view of the sources of that commerce. These are to be found in the fertility of its surrounding soil, and that of the more distant districts, to which there is easy access. The steppes, which form a semicircle around Odessa, being the Sors Deserta of the ancients, extend to nearly 100 miles from the city. This district is destitute of trees and of water, but the soil is said to be favourable to the growth of corn, especially of wheat. From February to May the growth of grass is most luxuriant, so that it is said to become so high as to hide the cattle; but in the latter month it begins to wither, and in the summer the land is so totally deprived of all verdure, as to present the picture of a dry sand-bank on the sea-shore. The first rains of autumn cause vegetation to shoot forth again with rapidity, till it is checked by the sharp frosts, sometimes of November, but more commonly of December. The slight attempts which have been made to cultivate this portion of land have for the most part been abandoned, and the labour of the residents has been chiefly applied to the feeding and propagating of sheep, and that more for the sake of the wool than of the flesh.

It is from districts bordering upon the northern side of the steppes that the land is to be found, the soil of which, even with the negligent husbandry it receives, is the most abundantly productive of wheat. Whether from the climate or the soil, or from the combination of both, or from other causes of which we are ignorant, there is no part of the world known in which, in propitious seasons, the increase of that grain is so great It is, however, liable to great variations in its growth, and sometimes years occur when the increase is very insignificant.

There are two kinds of wheat cultivated in the district, distinguished by the properties of the hardness or the softness of the grain. They are both white. The hard wheat is most proper for the countries bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, where it is not ground in mills, but is pounded in mortars, and used as food under the names of macaroni, vermicelli, and other similar preparations, which are eaten in those countries as a substitute for bread. The soft wheat comes from the most distant parts. It is the same as that grown in Poland, and brought to England sometimes by way of Dantzic, and occasionally by way of Odessa, and is, by grinding, converted into excellent flour. The hard wheat is sown in the spring of the year, and ripens almost as speedily as barley. The soft wheat is sown in October or November, before the frost sets in, and both ripen nearly together. The extent sown is in some measure regulated by the intelligence received of the productiveness of the preceding harvest in the several countries of Europe. If an extensive failure in the west of Europe is known to have occurred, the intelligence must arrive too late for any great extent of additional land being sown with winter or soft wheat; but as soon as the frost ceases, great activity in the labours of the field is applied to the preparation of the land, for the reception of the seed of spring or hard wheat. Thus the proportion which the two kinds of wheat bear to each other varies with the state of the annual product in those remote countries which draw their supplies from the Black Sea.

The greater portion of the wheat comes from a distance of 200 miles, some of it 250 miles; and in years when the demand is very great, a portion is brought even a distance of 400. A part of it is sent by the growers, or by mer∙ chants who have purchased of them, to be sold by the commission-houses in Odessa; but in some seasons large contracts are entered into for the wheat by Odessa merchants at a fair, to which sellers and buyers resort in great numbers, and which is held at the city of Kiew, from the 15th to the 25th of January in each year. The contracts are made for the corn to be delivered on shipboard by the sellers at their own expense, and the money to be paid on delivery; but it has occurred, in seasons when a very great demand was expected, as in 1817, that money has been advanced beforehand on the credit of the future delivery.

The wheat is brought in small waggons, drawn by two bullocks, and the number arriving in Odessa in one day has sometimes amounted to 500 or 600, and in several instances to 1000. Each of these waggons conveys eight sacks of wheat, and the whole load is three quarters and a half, weighing about 1700 pounds. They are dragged along at the rate of about ten miles a day. Though the cattle are grazed free of expense, on the pasture-land on the way, except over the steppes, where, in the months from May to July, the greatest periods of shipment, there are no vestiges of vegetation, the expense is still so considerable, that it has been often found to amount, when the prices have been low, to as much, and in some instances to even more, than the load would sell for at Odessa; and that, too, although the value of a day’s labour for a man and two bullocks is only sixpence in Podolia, the province from which most of the wheat is brought.

The wheat is not dried before shipping at Odessa, as is done at Dantzic, and is, therefore, not well calculated for a long sea voyage, when, from heating, it becomes spoiled This has been the case with cargoes sent to London, where, on its arrival, the grain has so run together as to be utterly unfit for food, and has been dug out with pickaxes and thrown into the Thames. The principal portion of the wheat from Odessa is sent thence to Constantinople, Malta, and the ports of Italy, France, and other depots in [7:16:323]the Mediterranean. It is there often a substitute for wheat grown near them; and when this grain is scarce in England, and other distant markets, the produce of their own harvests is exported. The following table will show the fluctuations in the exports.

An Account of the Quantities of Wheat exportedfrom Odessa in each Year from 1814 to 1836, ι ∕∕wa consular returns.
[table]

The variations in price during this series of years were excessive. Thus the average price of the year 1825, which was the lowest, was only 13s. 6d. the English quarter; and the average price of the year 1817, which was the highest, was 49s. 1 Id., being fluctuations to the extent of 375 per cent. The excessive fluctuations in the price k as well as the quantity of the exports, have had a great influence on the prosperity of the city, the chief export consisting of a single article. In the year 1817, the wheat shipped at Odessa was 870,893, at an average of 50s. the quarter, and thus amounting to L.2,177,232. The quantity shipped in 1825 was 170,370, at !3s. 6d. the quarter, thus amounting to no more than L.l 15,100. It is natural to suppose that a declension in the amount of a single article of exportable produce, to the extent of more than nineteen parts in twenty of its value, must have caused a great convulsion amongst the mercantile establishments at Odessa; and accordingly, in the eight years from 1817 to 1825, almost the whole of them were reduced to a state of "insolvency. As regards the producers of the article in question, they too suffered severely. The high prices obtained in 1816 and 1817 gave an impulse to agriculture, which induced the proprietors of land to apply to its cultivation whatever capital they could obtain, either by their own credit, or by mortgaging their estates. The latter was effected with great facility, and to an extent which was severely felt for a long period by the larger proprietors. Many of the small cultivators, who occupied land belonging to the crown, on long leases, with neither rent nor taxes to pay for die first twenty-five years, were induced, by the low prices of wheat, to abandon their holdings, and to repair to die city, where they could obtain employment in the commonest kind of labour, with a better reward than cultivation yielded. Experience has taught the inhabitants the very fluctuating state of the commerce of wheat, and at length many of them have applied their capital and their industry to the cultivation of other articles. The soil is found to be highly favourable to the growth of flax, but more especially to hemp; and large quantities of both are now raised. The breeding of black cattle has also been much extended, and creates a large export of hides and tallow. The tallow shipped increased between the years 1816 and 1831, from the value of 100,000 roubles to that of 2,000,000. Large flocks of sheep have also been reared, and the ancient breeds in many cases have been so effectually crossed by sheep of the Merino race, that much wool of an improved and still improving quality is despatched to Italy, France, England, and Germany. The old commercial houses, who had been ruined by the great depreciation in the price of wheat subsequently to 1817, have been replaced by new firms from Russia, Italy, Germany, France, and England, furnished with ample capital and credit. Some manufactures have been established, which yield a surplus of sail-cloth, cordage, and soap. The value of the exports, since the decline in the wheat trade, has more than doubled during the last ten years. The imports consist for the most part of coffee, sugar, olive-oil, cotton wool, wine, cotton, silk, and woollen goods, timber, coals, fruit, dye-stuffs, tea, and hardware. Odessa has also become a dépôt for an increasing trade with the ports of Asia on the Black Sea.

The number of vessels, and the flags they bore, that entered Odessa in the course of six years, were—
[table]

The tonnage of these is not known; but as the Austrian and Russian vessels must have chiefly consisted of coasters from the ports of these nations within the Black Sea, it is probable they were of much lighter burden than the vessels of the other nations which had come through the Bosphorus. The vessels under the British flag belonged mostly to Malta and the Ionian Islands. The situation of Odessa is in latitude 46. 28. 54. north, and longitude 30. 43. 22. east. The climate is healthy, and the winter, though short, is severe, the sea being more or less frozen for about two months. The summer is intensely hot, but it is deemed salubrious.