Year: 1879

TURKEY


lFRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THB TRIBUSE'l


CoxsrANTINoPLE. May III any man wish to
sec an utterly wOe-begone and miserable people let
him visit COnstantinope. In Bulgaria ana East
Roumelia everybody seems happy. In Greece there
is freedom from care and ght-hesrtedness among
the people. But inside of the Sultan's domains men
are anxious and careworn. In Constantlnople they
are more so than anywhere else. In Constanti-
NOBLE the people have borne the bulk of the loss oc-
casoned by the reputation of paper money. Inc
financial ouestion is the key to the political sitla-
ton i'm Turkey, but the Government does not know
It, II it does, it does not know how to handle the
financial question. the financial Digwlgs lack
elementary instruction in political economy The
result is that the people of COnstantinople and
vicinity have been forced into a struggle for life
against the financial measures of the Porte. Bread
is all man absolutely needs for life, and multltndes
Of villagers about the city felt aboundng gratitude
to God if they were able to get that. The Govern
ment has made many uncouth efforts to rid itself OF
the paper money. First it causod to be diligently
circulated the opinion that paper money is curse.
Then that the people must be willing to make any
sacrifice to rid itself of a like paper money.
Then it proclaimed that it about to redeem its
paper at 400. The Finance Minister had an i'm
preston, think, that there was something wrong
about the decision for he gave labOrlous reasons OF
justification. He said the Porte could no longer leave
the country in the agonies of a struggle with de-
precated currency, but has no money to pay more
than % per cent; that tho Government has noright
to pay one class of obligation In full while Others
arc unpaid that the price of gold beng 43O,
holders Of paper would get more than the market
price for it..


The price of gold refused to be influenced by this
proclamation As it crept up the Sultan announced
that he would give all his surplus plate to the
Treasury to be minted and used for redeeming paper
money at the market price. The gold aud silver
bowls and cups and vases of the palace were taken
with much ceremony from the palace TO the mint
and delivered over to various special commissions
to be weighed melted and coined Still the price OF
gold advanced. All this time the Treasury was buy
ing paper and burning It, The Treasury was In
terrible straits. The army was becoming disaiected,
the clerks of the departments were reduced to the
verge of starvation. No one had been paid for
months Unsuitable creditors demanded payment for
material furnished. Cautious dealers declined to
furnish goods any longer on credit Even the palace
was in greyous suffering for its daily expenses,
The prospects Of a European loan diminished and
then came q new proclamation. The Minister OF
Finance said that the Porte was troubled by the
SufIerings of the people. 1t would magnanimously
come to their aid in casting OFF the incubus of the
paper currency. One-ffth Of the whole revenue of
the Empire would be devoted to the removal of the
paper currency. To this end the remaining four
fifths would be collected in coin. From date paper
currency would no longer bcreceiyed at any Govern
ment Office except in that proportion All debts. old
and new must be paid four-ffths in coin and one


fifth in paper, reckoning the dollar of paper at 20
cents. The proclamation further said that III order
to simplify this process Of suppressing paper, the
officials would be paid in coin ut is needless to say
the coin for this purpose is not on handl and the
Government would subsidize the bakers so as to en-
able them to sell bread at the old rate in paper.
These measures were styled benevolent, and the
people were called upon to praise the tender fore
thought of the Sultan. But gold went up. The
Government treated the paper as public enemy.
TheshOpkeepers followed the example of the Govern
ment Gold went TO 600, 800 1000, 1,2OO Dealers
everywhere refused paper. Some were arrested and
TO paw their fines the Government refused to receive
paper money. The bakers sold bread at the original
price paper and the Government paid out in a
single month SGOO,0OO IN gold 10 make mp 10 the
bakers the difference between the paper they had
taken in and the cost of the bread sold


This subsidy opened the door to fraud. The
clumsy methods adopted to protect tho Treasury
caused delays in the payments to the bakers. The
delays led the bakers to diminish their amount of
bread prepared. The people found their bread sup
ply doubtful, and beseged the ovens. For days
every oven was surrounded with line of soldiers,





the bread out to them. In the regions outside of
Constantinople there was no such subsidy given TO
bakers, and the people could not command tho
means to get bread. Some actually starved to
death. Some sent to this city and bought bread
But tho Government prohibited the transport of
bread, and seized many boat-lOads as cOntraband
goods. Hence many battles between the people
and the police But the nature of the subjects of
Turkey is to submit to every i'll unavoidable
So shOpkeepers, day labOrers and all revised their
price-lists and dealings began to be conducted
specie basis. The paper currency disappeared from
ordinary trade. The Government made another
proclamation saying that the paper currency being
no longer in general circulation. 1t would be
hardship TO the people to have 1t refused by the
bakers. The subsidy to the bakers therefore
stopped. No one dreams of using paper money in
trade. Only at the bridges across the Golden Horn
is it current for tolls. The consequence of this is a
thriving business on the part of u multitude of
urchns who Iniest the brldge-neads, with their
hands full OF paper currency, bawllng out: Fifty
paras for ten Fifty paras for temp II there was
one spark Of independent life left in these people
there would have been trouble for the Government
arising from tins reputation OF the paper currency
Full $50,000,00O nominal value of this paper is
still IN circulation. But the people are submissive.
and they tataiIsts. What Is must be fOre-or-
daned by God. That is the end of it. And so this
terrible struggle for bread, which has been tragedy
in many village, IS irreslstby comic i'll its aspects
to those VINO view Inc aIlalf aS phase OF GOYern-
ment reform.


The progress of reform under the Treaty of Berlin
is absolutely nothing. Nine months have elapsed
since the ratification of that document. Turkey
was to have got on its legs financially was to have
endowed Armenia, Macedonia and the remains of
its ThracIan possessions with good government.
The first step in this direction has not yet been
taken. The Ofical class do not believe it ever will
be taken. Many determined it shall not be
taken. The Treaty of Berlin has accomplished
the preservation of peace in Europe for year. 1t
Is a failure ii it was intended to make that peace
permanent by stopping Turkish administrative
fOllies.