' J3, ^ ,r-^3 • LIBRARY
dA^A. '. P' 1 BUREAU OF RAILWAY ECONCi
' /j WASHINGTON. D. C.
UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES
OF
TUE KEY IN ASIA,
WITII
NOTES ON THE RAILWAY TO INDIA.
ESSAY
B Y
ó. E. AUSTIN, M. INST. C.E.
LONDON:
WILLIAM RIDGWAY, 1G9, PICCADILLY.
1878.
Heb 0.0.5-
• As-
LONDON t
O. NORMAN AND BON, PRINTERS, 3g, MAIDEN LANE,
COVENT CARDEN.
ö< ^
~)Wa i9y ï °iof
PREFACE.
Many changes have occurred in the state of the
Ottoman Empire since the Author began this
Essay, and the text of the Introduction has
been as repeatedly modified. At the time he
commenced it, incomprehensible ignorance * as to
the condition of Turkey seemed to reign in the
minds of those English Statesmen who then gave
publicity to their notions.
Had the real fact,—the power and wealth of the
Christian when compared with the destitution of
the Mussulman population,—been appreciated,
it had been incredible that matters should have
followed the course they have since taken.
The nescience of Turkish affairs, and the heed¬
lessness with which the claims of British subjects
on the Porte and the Ottoman Government itself
have been slighted for the last twenty years, has
caused the desultory protests breathed during
that period in favour of the Christians by the
Western Powers to he politely ignored by the
iv
Porte; whilst it has left Russia,—who always
demonstrated a peculiar interest in Turkey and,
regardless of treaties, has always obtained what¬
ever she demanded,—all powerful at Stamboul.
This fact must have been clearly set forth in
the truthful reports and letters of H.M. Ambas¬
sador ; but the power by which Great Britain
holds her sway,—the power of Truth in its com¬
prehensive sense,—was not appreciated by those in
authority; or the Russian Army had never crossed
the Pruth.
How incredible will the fact appear in future
history, that our Statesmen had not profited by
the experience derived from the result of the
diplomacy which heralded the Crimean war ; nor by
the words of the Emperor Nicholas, who intimated
that if Britain had then spoken in plain terms, his
armies had never invaded the Principalities.
Had the protest and resolutions of the Con¬
ference at Constantinople been in favour of all the
subjects of the Ottoman Empire, the Government
of the Sultan would have been compelled to accept
such of those resolutions as were practicable ;
Justice, supported by the voice of a united people
who had long sighed for aid from the West, would
have brought about reforms ; and Turkey would
V ' '
have been regenerated, not destroyed as it has
now been by the Russian Sabre.
During this critical period a better acquaintance
■with the Turkish Empire has been ingested, and
we now find good cause to desire the development
of its unemployed sources of wealth.
The holders of Turkish Securities must be
anxious to know if resources for replenishing the
coffers of the Treasury exist and in what they
consist ; and therefore the Author, who has had
the superintendence of public works and made
many journeys in Asia Minor during the last
twenty years, ventures to lay before the Public in
the following Essay the facts acquired, and the
ideas and calculations which he has formed and
made with regard to the. undeveloped Resources
of Turkey in Asia.
UNDEVELOPED EESOUBCES OE TUEKEY
IN ASIA.
INTRODUCTION.
The Author proposes, in the present Essay, to
describe the most prominent sources of revenue
yet unemployed in the Ottoman Empire in Asia ;
the measures necessary for their development ;
and the mode of applying some of them to the
redemption of its external loans.
This redemption he would the more especially
effect by the appropriation, mortgage, and coloni¬
zation of State lands, and by Crown grants of
mining and forest rights.
For this purpose colonists must be induced to
emigrate from Western Europe, and every facility
that the Government can give must be afforded to
the immigrant. The European colonist will be
thrown in contact with peoples having other feel¬
ings and modes of thought than those to which he
is accustomed ; derived, in some cases, from the
principles inculcated by their form of religion, and
in others from the habits and customs acquired by
constant contiguity and co-existence with races so
indoctrinated.
1
2
To insure success in his transactions with such
peoples, he will, of necessity, be bound to enter
into their moods and feelings, and to appreciate
the circumstances which have been instrumental
in producing them.
A concise examination, then, of these hetero¬
geneous tenets and circumstances will not be
inappropriate as an introduction to this Essay.
It should be borne in mind that all the dealings
of the bondholders have been transacted, not
with the Mussulman people in general, of whom
apparently, very little is known in England, but
with the Government at Constantinople, which is
composed of men of various races, most of whom
are born or educated within the influence of that
city.
The governing Osmanli, with few exceptions,
are, and have long been, more or less depraved by
the vices inherent to their contact , with—to them
—a heterogeneous but predominating state of civi¬
lization, and they thereby contrast unfavourably
with their purer Mohamedan brethren, who, in
respect to their simple style of living and their
easily contented dispositions, may be held up to
the purest of Christians as examples for his imita¬
tion.
When the Osmanli crossed the Bosphorus to
take up his quarters in Europe, he found himself
conqueror of a people degraded by the effects of
unprincipled civilization, and under the perverse
3
religious influences of an idolatrous Christianism :
a form of religion for the extermination of which
Mohamet had often unsheathed the sword. Such
was the religious state of the Christian races
which he conquered. He gave them three options :
to pay tribute and acknowledge his sovereignty;
to become converted to the Mussulman faith and
hold equal rights ; or, to adhere to their own dog¬
mas and descend to the usual servile position of
all conquered races. Mohamet waged war against
idolatry not only amongst those races which pro¬
fessed Christianity, but also, and firstly, amongst
the numerous Arab tribes who held a faith com¬
pounded of Judaism and Paganism, in which some
of the tones of Christianity had become adventi¬
tiously blended. He inculcated the dogma of the
immaculate conception, held Christ to be the
greatest of- prophets, and established the principle
that no man could be a good Mussulman who did
not accept Christian doctrine : whence the ordi¬
nance that none but Christians, when converted,
can be qualified for Mussulman baptism.
The governing Osmanli, having imbibed, in his
contact with European civilization, inappropriate
and luxurious ways of living, found e'ventually
that his income hardly sufficed to support his state,
and then it appeared that the public revenue was
insufficient to cover the expenses of the new and
unmethodical. mode of administration which had
been gradually instituted in Constantinople by the
1*
4
pseudo-reforms of Sultan Mahmoud, and the inju¬
dicious counsels of his Western allies.
When by their advice the Turk centralized and
changed the form of Government, deprived the
Divan of the executive, and made the Sultan
despotic ; when the ancient ciistom of electing
the Sultan by a national vote had long been super¬
seded by that generally obtaining in Europe—the
custom of hereditary right ; and when the funds
of the nation were dissipated in pandering to the
caprices of its governors, the natural progress of
the country was stayed, and its diminished avail¬
able resources became inadequate to the increased
expenditure. He found, however, amongst his
European acquaintance many anxious to lend him
money on what he was informed were easy and
unembarrassing terms ; and, like an inexperienced
spendthrift, having found less effort in procuring
money from his usurious bankers than in improv¬
ing his estate, and obtaining thence a larger
revenue—being constantly threatened with in¬
vasion from the North—supine from luxurious
indolence, his eye riveted on the overwhelming
progress of his neighbours, impressed with the
power of Christian civilization, and the inability
of the Turk to stem the tide, he gradually yielded
to the dogma of his inborn fatalism, and adopted
for his motto, " Let us eat and drink, for to¬
morrow we die."
Nevertheless, loans were still easily procured so
5
long as he did not hesitate to accept the terms
proposed by the lenders, who appear to have had
no thought of estimating the value of the securi¬
ties nor of checking his extravagance until it
became evident to the simplest reader of facts that
his revenues were inadequate to the payment of
the interest due. Then apparently the lenders
hesitated in continuing to pander to the Turk's
extravagance and inaction ; and, having obtained
from him promises of reform, made him a final
loan from which they deducted forty per cent, for
commission and interest, leaving him the remainder
wherewith to pay the money due on the debts
already incurred.
When the season for the next payment of
interest arrived and adequate funds were not forth¬
coming, he was insidiously stimulated to take
arbitrary and energetic measures for his immediate
relief from part of this burthen, without consult¬
ing his creditors : but instead of repudiating his
debts as many a government in like circumstances
has done, the Turk,—who is intrinsically a man
of honour,—confessed his inability to pay all he
owed out of revenue, and announced that he would,
for the ensuing five years, pay half the sum due, and
give bonds bearing five per cent, interest for the
remainder ; hoping at the expiration of that term
to'be enabled, by the improvement of his estate,
and the carrying out of a system of rigid economy
in the management of his affairs, again to possess
6
the means of fully discharging his obligations to-
his creditors. It unfortunately happened, however,
at that critical juncture, when all the Western
world felt the dire effects of his extravagance,
embarrassed for want of means to defend himself,
that a certain neighbour disputed his title, ignored
the mortgage, and asserted a prior claim to . his
estates, the entail to the Christian inhabitants of
the Empire.
Machiavelian counsels first caused him to embar¬
rass his creditors, and then to raise the disgust
and ire of the West to a climax by heedlessly
causing a massacre by the'measures wherewith he
intended to subdue an insurrection. This served as
a pretext to the Northern neighbour who coveted
the Turk's estate, for exacting immediate and
impossible measures of reform in its government,
and, having succeeded in inducing other neigh¬
bours to join him in the interpellation,—on the
Turk refusing to institute measures of reform
which he considered impracticable and preferring
to carry out the reforms by means of a constitu¬
tion, the other neighbours having protested and
retired from the contest,—the Northern neigh¬
bour was enabled to proclaim himself their instru¬
ment, and consequently to make war and lay
waste the most productive region of the Turkish
territory.
Thus the most fertilè part of the estate being
now exhausted and disabled, for many years to
7
come, from yielding a revenue, it behoves - the
bondholders to take immediate steps for securing
the repayment of, or an equivalent for, their lent
capital. This will be feasible if the Turk redeem
his present mortgages by bestowing on the bond¬
holders the usufruct of real estate; sanctioning
the incorporation of a society who shall invest, as
his locum tenens, in the colonization and cultiva¬
tion of certain of his properties.
- If the bondholders are to receive interest on
their loans the remainder of the estate must be
preserved intact and immediately. subjected to
improvement. It behoves us therefore to encour¬
age all possible measures taken for its preservation,
and at the same time to assert the right to and
obtain all necessary information as to its real value,
and as to the sources from which an augmentation
of the revenue will most speedily be derived : to
insist on the carrying out of such measures as
shall eliminate the sources of danger which might
now prejudice persons desiring to become resident
in, and to colonize the Turkish Empire, and of such
as will modify the present laws of tenure and
insure the peaceable holding of a landed estate
under a secure title.
The well-informed and wealthy Christians, resi¬
dent in the Ottoman Empire, will assure us that
there must still be a dominant race in Turkey,
and that theirs is not fitted to hold the reins.
They feel themselves, however, firmly seated, and
8
they know- very well that they can use the whip of
wealth to some purpose on Eastern teams, which
are, in their present state, easily guided by that
instrument. They hold quite as much command
as if they sat on the driving-box, and can, when¬
ever they please, either flick and excite the team or'
leave it to slumber in slothful inaction.
Now the bondholders have likewise power over
the' whip, and if they will act in the same manner
as the wealthy native Christian, and superintend
the driving without striving to seize the reins, it
may be asserted that they will eventually find
themselves safely landed without loss or damage.
Those who know Turkey will certainly hold the
opinion that the Osmali is still the only native
race who can be permitted to govern, and they also
will know that the. constant petty interference
(often injudicious) with the administration of
justice by foreign envoys, on behalf of resident
Christians, which has continued, without inter¬
mission, since the Crimean war, has roused the
ire of the Mussulman, and has thereby much
impeded the carrying out of the several edicts for
radical changes, discordant with the views of the
governing class, but, which the Porte has been
induced to enact under the pressure of foreign
intervention. All this has been very detrimental
to progress in Turkey. But now a new era has
commenced : a Sultan has been chosen, it may be
said by the voice of the ruling race, and a man
9
who has proved himself capable and honest is his
chief adviser. A very liberal Constitution has
been given and promulgated by the present Sultan,
and unless some fortuitous circumstance occur,
such as the death of one of its authors or a renewal
of this barbarous war, there is no doubt that it
will be now established with astonishing facility.
A revolution in the Ottoman Empire has been
made without bloodshed : made by the Turk, not
by the Christian, after long patient endurance of the
worst evils of despotic • power in the hands of a
madman.*
The misappropriation of large sums by the late
Government and the derangement in the allocation
of the revenues thence ensuing has been more
instrumental than any other cause in impoverishing
the landholder, in causing discontent, and in placing
the Government in its late state of incapacity.
The Osmanlis have now had many severe lessons,
and, if they are let alone, , will be inclined to profit
by them. In reverting to the Kurahn and the
primitive law they will not, as the Times fears,
become intolerant, but, on the contrary, they will
be bound to consider every obedient subject on an
equality.
_ *
* It will be evident to tbe reader tbat this was written
some time ago. The author who has already changed the
text of this introduction several times with the change of
circumstances which have so often lately occurred, trusts that
the stato of afTairs here described will soon return, and that
Midhat Pasha now in exile will soon again bo recalled to
administer the Government.
10
It must not be forgotten that Mohamet adopted
for his faith such of the Christian tenets as would
assimilate to the dispositions of, be acceptable to,
and amalgamate the surrounding populations who
■ had no common religion at the time the Kurahn
was promulgated.
Thus, if necessity oblige the Mussulman to
assimilate Iiis laws to those of the Christian, it
will not be a very difficult matter ; and, if his
pride is not wounded by outward interference, the
Government will have a much lighter task than
otherwise in making the position of the Christian
in Turkey as supportable in all respects as that of
the Mussulman. As to his influence, the. Christian
merchant already possesses the greater part of the
monied wealth of the country, and many flourish¬
ing Christian villages are to be found in all
quarters of the Ottoman Empire.
The wealthy native Christian has held land before
the time of Sultan Mahmoud, and, before long,
under the present agrarian law, foreigners of all
denominations will probably become possessed of
extensive landed estates in this country, where it
has been truly said,
All save the spirit of man is divine."
m
As regards education, the Christian peasant
generally is in an equally deplorable condition with
the Mussulman, and he feels the more the oppression
of the laws as they were made for the dominant race.
In Asia and Bulgaria, the Christian rayahs,
11
before tbe war, formed a thrifty and pacific people,
whilst in Bosnia, Servia and • Herzegovina, they
were excitable and easily persuaded to rebel. The
conquered race of those provinces is Sclavonian.
As to the Bulgarian, of whom so much has been
left unsaid, and so little said by men who have
"visited their country ; the traveller must not expect
to find in them any Sclavonian type of feature, nor
to - avail himself of the Russian language with
much success in his travels. The dialect of Little
Russia will aid him, because it is a' mixture of
Sclavonian and Mongolian, probably imported and
brought into use by migration from the regions on
the northern bank of the Danube at the time when
Little Russia was conquered by the Muscovites.
Turkish was generally much better understood and
spoken before the late Russian invasion.
The clumsy pretext of freeing the Sclave,—the
war cry of Panslavism,—is quite inappropriate
to the liberation of this race. The physiognomy
of the Bulgarians is eminently Asiatic. Professor
Vischow, of Berlin, had asserted before the war
began, and has since decided from the examination
of many skulls, that their craniological development
is Mongolian.
This race, formerly governed by the Khans of
Kaptchak, appears to have migrated from some
part of Turkestan and settled on the eastern bank of
the Volga at the end of the twelfth century. They
founded the city of Bolgarse at the junction of the
Voiga and the Kama rivers and probably soon after-
12
wards invaded Scytliia and occupied the Crimea and
the whole of Southern Russia.
They continued to inhabit the riparine region of
the Volga until Ivan Veleeky drove them from
their capital, Bolgarse. But they still continued
for many years to occupy Southern Russia until
intrigue, and the conversion of some of them to
Christianity, had disunited their chiefs. The
Muscovites were then enabled to subjugate the
country : but many of those families who still
held' the Mohamedan faith, retreated to the Crimea
and to Bulgaria, where they retained their inde¬
pendence for many years. The Crimea became
subject to Russia at the commencement of the
present century, and at last Bulgaria has shared
the same fate.
The ruins of Bolgarre still exist, plainly to
demonstrate its Oriental origin, in the remains of
its fortifications, its citadel and baths. Of seven
coins found by the author amongst the ruins, five
are impressed with the legend of Jelal-ad-deen
Khan,* between the reign of Sulâd Khan in 1409,
and that of Chagrah Khan in 1414, the last ruler
but one of whom we have any record, and two
appear to be Persian money.
* " Ce royaume d'Astracán est une partie de l'ancien Cap-
shak conquis par Gengiskan et ensuite par Tamerlan ; ces
tartares dominèrent jusqu'à Moscou. Le Czar Jean Basilides
petit fils d'Ivan Basélovitz et le plus grand conquérant d'entre
les Busses délivra son pays du joug tartare au siezième siècle
et ajouta le royaume d'Astracan à ses autres conquêtes en
1554."—Voltaire's History of Russia.
Và
The people of Bulgaria were of a peaceable
disposition until incited to discontent by Russian
diplomatic intrigue ; as the wealth and the general
contentment observed by the Russian soldier
during the late invasion will serve to testify.
The discontented and the malefactor found a
safe asylum north of the Danube, where Panslavic
charity sometimes admitted them, even, into a
better grade of society than that they had occupied
in their native country.
The Mussulman, in accordance with his creed,
is very : simple in his manner of living. He
inhabits unfurnished rooms and possesses only the
simplest requisites for cooking. He is abstemious
but very hospitable, and, although perhaps not
always punctilious with regard to the discharge of
a debt, he is extremely generous, and lavish
of expenditure on those in whose company he
delights.
Every community . is compelled by law to
provide, gratis, shelter and simple food for every
traveller, whatever his rank or denomination; but
is not required to find food for the animals belong¬
ing to the traveller, which should always be paid
for. His guards, if he have any, receive money
from the local authority for providing their own
and their horses' food.
There have been occasions when the lawless
inhabitants of localities, distant from the central
government, - reduced to destitution by onerous
taxation unjustly applied, have invaded the thrifty
14
Christians' hoard, committed acts of violence, and
remained some time unpunished in consequence of
the want of means of rapid communication, the
centralization of the Government, the venality and
the impecuniosity of the:local authority. But on
the other hand, the author can state that he has
travelled for many months in unfrequented parts
of Asiatic Turkey perfectly unarmed and only
attended (at his own request) by a single police¬
man (Zaptieh); that he has often, he must confess,
enforced unreasonable demands ; that he has ridden,
thus attended, both by night and by day; that
he has forced his presence, at night, on many an
unwilling householder, not being able otherwise to
procure sleeping quarters, and that he has never
been molested. He has himself been witness to
the extermination, by the authorities, of three
notable bands of robbers, one of which, soon after
the Crimean war, numbered three hundred and
possessed an entire village with the lands thereto
appertaining. They invaded and robbed the richer
Christian villages, but it has not been authenticated
that they committed any murders. These • were
for the most part Turkish irregular soldiers
disbanded at the close of the war and turned adrift
to find the means of subsistance in the district of
Amassia. The other two bands, however, were com¬
posed principally of Albanians, Montenegrins, and
invading Greeks, who demanded high ransoms
for their captives. The ransoms were paid by the
Government, the captives released, and immediately
15
afterwards such stringent measures were taken
that the bands were at once exterminated.
The form of government in the Ottoman Empire
is communal, but somewhat too much centralized
after the manner of France ; where the great error
has been perpetrated of striving to institute, or
believing in the possibility of instituting, an unexcep¬
tional code. Every law has its exceptional case, and
unless dependence is placed on the discretion of the
judge and latitude given to the good governor, the
subject will be often liable to legal injustice and
equitable oppression. Better the offender should
escape punishment than that the innocent should
suffer without cause.
The secular councils (Idareh) are formed in the
following manner. Each village, if the inhabitants
are solely Mussulman or Christian, elects two
mayors (Mukhtarlar), and, if it contain both
Christian and Mussulman inhabitants, then two
mayors are elected by each community. These
mayors cannot act as judges, hut perform the
office of referees in disputes which can be settled-
amicably. They assemble to elect the member of
council for the parish (Caza). The members of
each " Caza " elect one member of council for the
division (Sanjak), and the members of council of
each u Sanjak " elect members of council for the
Province (Yilayet).
The " Pasha " governing the " Yilayet " and
the " Caimakan " or "Mutesarcef" governing
Iß
the "Sanjak" are not members of those councils,
but the councils generally assemble in their pre¬
sence at the konak or town hall where they
preside.
The Judicial Council ( Tcmis) is formed of the
Cadi, the Mollah, and six other persons* chosen by
the people. They decide all cases of debt, of
divorce, and of crime.
Every pleader has the right to appeal from the
decision of an inferior council to that of a superior
council, and may follow up his case till his plaint
reaches the Court of Appeal in Stamboul, and is
even referred to the Court of " Cassation." That
highest authority may return the case, for a re¬
hearing, to the Court of Appeal.
Poverty and oppression also confer the privilege
of petitioning the Sultan in person on his way to
the mosque : but the prejudices emanating from
contact with European civilization have infringed
this privilege of the poor.
The council of the Caza cannot judge criminals
whose offences deserve a longer imprisonment than
one month. The judgments of the council of the
Sanjak are also limited to a punishment of three
months. Any criminal case of so grave a nature
as to subject the criminal to a more severe punish¬
ment if convicted, is referred to the Vilayet, and
the judgment given by the council of the Vilayet,
in the most criminal cases, for which the punish¬
ment prescribed by law is death or a long term of
17
imprisonment, is revised by the High Court of
Judicature at Stamboul. If the judgment of
the "Vilayet is accepted, it is then referred to the
Sultan for confirmation by his signature, if he
approve, and for his decision as to pardon or
modification, if he do not wish the criminal to
be so severely punished. The criminal, by his
friends or by written appeal from himself, can
refer his case to the High Court of Judicature, at
Stamboul. This court and the council of the
Vilayet are composed of an equal number of
Mussulmans and Christians, and all the communal
councils are elected by the people.
Although this system of communal government.
exists in Turkey, it is not always well organized.
The villages are often proprietary,.and sometimes
several villages belong to- one family, who can
consequently run counter to the free voice of the
inhabitants in these elections.
The local officials are often left by the Central
Government without means, and are thus tempted
and sometimes even obliged (as in the case of
fin fling horses for conveying the mails and official
travellers), to sequester, by corrupt influences, or
by force, the resources of the inhabitants.
The taxes levied at present in Turkey are the
following * :— -
1. The land tax ("Emlakie") amounting to
* Taking as the standard the value of tho land, and
taking the land in the province of Smyrna as an exam-
18
four per cent, on the value of the land, assessed at
long intervals by government commissioners.
2. The house tax of four per cent, on the assessed
value of the houses.
3. The tithe of ten per cent, on the assessed value
of the annual produce of the soil.
4. The sheep and goat tax, amounting to four
pic, the proportion of the taxes to that standard are as
follows :
The land tax - - - - - , 0400
Tho house tax - - - - - . 0406
The tithe - - - . 1222
The sheep tax - - - - . 0231
Customs goods consumed and exported ' . 0507
_ Goods imported - - - - - . 1479
• Total charge on the produce of the land . 4245
where manufactories hardly exist
In the Vilayet of Aidin, whilst so few manufactories exist, the
agricultural produce must support all taxation directly, except-
the customs' dues on imports, for which it is indirectly liable.
Now the tithe (in 1872, for example) being 440,000
Turkish liras (T.L.), the produce in that year was valued
at ' T.L. 4,400,000
The land and house tax amounted to T.L. 29,000
The tithe ,, . T.L. 440,000
The sheep tax ,, T.L. 83,000
The excise and export dues - - T.L. 182,500
The salt tax (say half to land and
half to town) - T.L. 9000
Loss on tithe and expenses of collect¬
ing, said tobe three per cent - T.L. 132,000
T.L. 875,500
Balance in favour of produce - 3,524,500
T.L. 4,400,000
19
piastres (ninepence), on every yearling ■ sheep, and
three piastres on every goat ; once paid.
5. The excise, consisting of eight per cent, levied
on the value of all articles consumed in the country,
including the produce of the soil.
6. The custom dues, one per cent, on the value of
exports ; eight per cent, on the value of all imports.
7. The tax for exemption from military service,
for which it appears that the Government receives
from the Christians and Jews about six piastres per
person per annum.*
The Mussulman must for such exemption make
one payment, varying, in accordance with the
number of recruits wanted at the moment, from
80 to 150 Turkish pounds ("liras.")
8. The judicial taxes, paid principally in stamps,
for the administration of the laws.
From the balance in favour of produce - T.L. 3,524,500
Deduct for labour fifty per cent, on
value of produce less tithe - T.L. 1,980,000
Seed, say at four bushels of barley
per acre - - ' - . - T.L. 475,200
. T.L. 2,455,200
Remainder left for landlord - T.L. 1,009,300
Less than one quarter of value of .—
crop T.L. 3,524,500
The amount of each tax is.given on tbo authority of the
Chevalier Charles de Scherzer, late Austrian Cónsul-General
at Smyrna. (See his work on " The Province of Smyrna."
A. Holder, Vienna, 1873.)
* In Bulgaria the author has been informed by a Christian
that ho paid annually 45 piastres (about 8 shillings).
2 *
20
9. The salt tax.
10. Various small taxes, viz.: measuring dues,
fishing dues, municipal taxes.
Marriage is contracted by means of an inter¬
mediary, who receives the acquiescence of both
bride and bridegroom from their own lips in the
presence of two witnesses on both sides. Either
party can, therefore, object to the marriage
proposed for them by their relations. The inter¬
mediary, if a relation of the intended bride, can see
her, and various occasions are generally afforded to
both the man and the woman for seeing each other
before the contract is made. The ceremony of
marriage has been so often and so well described,
that it would be but a bad repetition to; narrate it
here.
Divorce can be procured by either the husband
or wife ; but the man has in this case the advantage,
in that he alone has the right to divorce when he
can show cause before the cadi. If the wife even
break some valuable object the husband has a
legal plea. The wife can, however, complain to
her relations of the husband, and show the incom-
■patibility of the marriage, or she can render herself
so disagreeable as to cause the husband to demand
a divorce ; but she will hesitate to take this step,
because it would generally lessen her chance of a
second marriage.
If a slave desire to change her master, she may
threaten to complain of her treatment to the cadi;
Ai
and her master will prefer to sell her at once, as a
useful slave, whilst he can give her a good
character, than wait till she becomes useless from
obstinacy or decrepitude. If she has been a good
slave and does not complain, her master cannot
dispose of her in her old age against her will.
A gentleman's wife when she leaves the house is,"
in Constantinople, always accompanied by many
slaves, all better dressed than herself.
This fashion entails on the husband a large
expense, which men of small income in Constanti¬
nople find a difficulty in meeting. This, by some
of the Turks themselves, is said to be one cause of
laxity in official matters.
When all these peculiarities are takeii into
consideration, the state of the Ottoman Empire
will be better understood ; and persons wishing
to colonize or to develope its resources will know
how to elude the interference of venal officials, to
win the friendship and services of the native
inhabitants, and to palliate the hardships by which
they are at present oppressed.
In carrying out the public works on which the
author has been engaged in Asia Minor, he found
no difficulty in obtaining labour. Men of all
the native races worked continuously in orderly
gangs; induced to come and remain at work by
the reception of regular payments and sufficient
food.
The following remarks on travelling in Turkey
22
may be found useful to persons wishing to explore
Asia Minor.
If the traveller intend to make a long journey of
some months' duration, he will most economize in
.purchasing his horses : but if he only intend to
remain a month or six weeks on the road, he will
save himself much trouble in hiring an experienced
sooroodjie and his horses for the journey. He
should not pay more than twenty silver piastres
for each horse daily, including the sooroodjie and
the food for himself and his horses.
Before starting on his journey he should ascertain
that the pace of the horse he chooses for himself
suits him ; that he is a good ambler and can carry
him"through the day. He should also see that
Iiis sooroodjie has a fast ambler and can keep up a
steady pace ; that his baggage horses follow easily,
and that none of the requisites for packing and
fastening the baggage on the horses' backs
are wanting.
If the sooroodjie does not understand loading
his haggage equally on both sides the horse arid
attaching them firmly, the traveller should hesitate
before making his agreement for the journey.
If he affects potted • meats and good wine, the
traveller must provide himself with them before
starting. He must recollect that he is about to
sojourn in a country where he will rarely find meat
ready for him, and will deem it most convenient to
content himself with a fowl killed on his arrival,
23 -
when he. can get it, or, if he cannot, with soui'
milk (" yaourt"), hard cheese, and bread.
The inhabitants are, as in every other country,
impressed with respect . for travellers who, on
arriving in their villages, observe the formalities
to which they are accustomed.
On.the road, the traveller -will find the most
convenient place for himself in his caravan to be
the rear, as he will then be able to observe and
rectify in time any derangment of his baggage, and
will ensure the arrival together of the whole of his
caravan.
His cavass, if he have one, may follow, to . hold
his horse if he dismount and to carry his umbrella.
He should give directions to the caravan to halt
at the entrance of every village, and, on joining
them, he should take his place in front and ride
through the village immediately ahead of his
guards, who should ' keep his caravan together,
so that the whole may arrive without delay at the
spot where, he intends to alight, which should
always be at the house' of the highest authority.
He should immediately enter the " selamlik," and,
if the host is not there, which is rarely the case,
await ' his arrival. If the traveller arrive in the
middle of the day and intend after reposing awhile
to continue his journey till evening, he should sit
and wait patiently for whatever his host may have
to offer, always taking his place on the divan as
near as convenient to his host. If he mean to
24
pass the night there, he should make his cavass
demand to he shown his quarters, and order food,
for which he must expressly make it understood
he means to pay.
He should never refuse what his host offers, and
never ask for anything save a glass of water, if he
require it.
In the villages he can hardly refuse to eat with
his host and those he may invite to eat with him,
even if they are the traveller's own servants, and
are invited to eat out of the same dish. He will
generally find that they are mannerly and keep
to their own side of the platter.
When he is lodged in the travellers' quarters,
which are often as good as any other to be pro¬
cured, if he wish for company in his room, he will
have plenty j as the whole village will come to
welcome him. It will be judicious to keep them
off his blanket, or to select the cleanest looking of
his visitors for that honourable position. When
he -wishes to be alone, he must order them to leave ;
but he will generally have difficulty in getting rid
of his host, and when installed in the travellers'
quarters the travelling mendicants will remain by
right unless he pay for their lodgings elsewhere.
They do not like-to be turned out, into the cold
from his good fire in the morning whilst he makes
his toilet ; but he can shut the door on them if he
desire it. A good hour will be lost in making the
morning cup of coffee and in preparing for the
25
road. • He should order over night whatever he
requires to eat in the morning.
Before leaving in the morning it will be well if
he order his cavass to inform him when all the
baggage is loaded and. nothing left to be done after
he leaves his room.
He should mount as soon as possible, after cast¬
ing his eyes around to see that all is in order. If
things are not in order of march, he should not
wait in the yard, but return to the room till all is
ready.
The man who holds his horse receives from him
the baksheesh or gratuitous payment for his board,
the amount of which he should well have settled
beforehand, in concert with his cavass, and have
ready, that he may start the moment he mounts
his horse.
On leaving the village he had better halt on the
first level piece of grass, and,- dismounting, have
his horse led up and down till the whole caravan
arrive. - When they have all stopped five minutes,
and the- order to march is given, he should then
take his place in the rear. The sooroodjie should
be in advance of the cavalcade, and strict orders
should be given that he keep an even pace and lead
his baggage-horse at all times without exception.
Many baggage-horses are very amenable when
driven in advance of the sooroodjie, and some will
not lead well, and give him great trouble Avhen led.
He is then inclined to save himself work by driving
26
them before liira, and the traveller, after witnessing
for some time his unsuccessful efforts to lead the
horses at the required pace, is apt to allow him
at last to follow his own inclination. But should a
horse stray or take.the wrong turning, or walk to cool
himself and his load into a river in the heat of the
day, the traveller will repent of his good nature.
Then the horse must be caught before entering a
village, or some accident will happen to the bag¬
gage. In fact, a sooroodjie who does not bring
with him horses easily led at any reasonable pace
should not be employed.
It is the custom of the guard to alight and have
a friendly chat and a cup of coffee at as many
guard-houses as their master will allow ; and much
time- is wasted by this practice. It is very com¬
forting, however, to get out of the hot sun for
half-an-hour and enjoy a cup of black coffee and
" a nargileh."
The " caivédjieis seldom or never a rich man,
and a piastre extra will be most graciously re¬
ceived.
On entering a town the traveller orders his
guard to direct him to the governor's house. He
enters the selamlik, and having made his saluta¬
tion in the words " Akshamlar Khayr olsun Vakit-
.lar Khayr olsun," or " Sab alar Khayr olsun," he
seats himself as near his host as he thinks will
betoken his rank in life or the position he intends
to assume.-
â?
The most honourable seat is generally proffered,
but it does sometimes happen that a governor, who
is not at the moment inclined to be friendly to
travellers who cannot speak his language, offers a
seat at a distance from himself. The traveller had
better not observe this want of côurtesy, but, with¬
out further ceremony, take the seat that he deems
most appropriate to his rank.
On sitting doAvn the governor will speak first,
and will probably ask him how he fares : " Keyfingiz
e-e-mi?" to which he can answer, "e-e-im shukyur,
siz da a-e-mi?" Then he will receive a cigarette
and a cup of coffee, and be requested to state the
object of his visit. He may then say "tcharaiin
tergemanimui" (may I call my interpreter ?), if he
speak little Turkish, and his interpreter will then
continue the conversation. But before the inter¬
preter enter on his office, he should be cautioned to
interpret literally, and not to hold conversations
with the person whom he is addressing ; especially
with regard to the intentions or wishes of his
master. If asked concerning them, his master
should be instantly referred to.
The traveller should state when it is his inten¬
tion to leave town, and request that ah escort
(stating, the number of police he desires to
accompany him) may be ready at that hour,
furnished with authority to continue with him,
in any direction, he may desire to travel, as far as
the boundary of the governor's jurisdiction. An
28
extra expense is always incurred in changing the
escort; as every zaptieh expects to be paid in gold.
The quarter lira is' a veiy useful coin for this
purpose.
One zaptieh is amply sufficient for the protection
of the traveller, unless he lias an inordinate quantity
of baggage. Any additional escort merely gives
him more importance in well-affected villages.
Average cost of labour in Turkey in Asia, between
the years 1858 and 1875.
Woman labourer . . . 3 to 6 piastres.
Labourer who finds bis own food . per day 10 to 12 „
Mason and carpenter . , „ „ 15 ,, 20 ,,
Foreman (good Levantine) ■•>,,, 30 „
Cook (travelling) food fonnd for bim, per week 100 „
Groom (travelling) „ „ 100 „
Cavass (no charge), clotbes, &c. and excursions,
per week 182 „
Guard, baksbeesb (on tbe road),
sometimes two, including food for
borse and man wbicb need not
be, but generally is, paid for
A factotum to act as courier, valet,
and interpreter . . . per.day 40
per week 673
or
per day 96
Prices of food and fodder.
. ' Piasts. Paras
Cup of coffee at a guards' bouse (pay 1 p.) charge ' 20
Bread, tbe ok of 2 f lbs. . . . .10
Barley for tbe horses, tbe kilay . . . 12 0
Butter, tbe ok . . . . . . 14 0
Capsicum, dozen . . .. . .20
29
Piasts.
Para
Candles, a packet of 6
. 4
0
Cheese .
. 4
0
Chicken . .
.1 30 to 2
30
Chickens 5, Partridges 3
. 20
0
Coffee, the ok ' .
.12
0
Cock, 1 .
. 4
0
Eggs, 10 for . . .
. 1
0
Eigs, the ok ...
'. 1
0
Grapes, ok .
' . 1
0
Horse at khan, 1 day
. 10
0
Lamb's head
. 1
20
Meat, ok ... ■
. 2
0
Milk, ok
... 1
20
Melons
20 paras to 3
0
Oil, ok . .
. 10
0
Pullet, each .
. 1
30
Pine wood, one bundle . ...
. 1
0
Rice, ok
4 to 5
0
Sheep's head, each . .
.1
20
Shoeing horses, per shoe . ' .
. 1
0
Soap, ok
. G
' 0
Straw, ok, 2 sacks .
, 4
0
Sugar, ok
. 7
0
Tobacco, ok, native 24 pias. (Roumelian)
. 50
0
Tomatoes, ok
- .. 0
20
Vegetables generally, ok .
. . 1
0
Washing each article
. 1
0
Wood, 1 horse load
3 to 5
0
Yaourt, one large dish
. 1
0
Cart per day, 2 horses, araba and driver
. 30
0
Camel per day (without baksheesh to leader, tho
amount of which is at the option of tho hirer) . 30 0
Horse per day . . . . , 20 0
If two or three horses are hired this includes the
owner on a horse paid for to look after them,
and food for tho man and his horses.
The food consumed by a camel per day costs . 1 0
The food consumed by a horse per day costs 4 to 5 0
30
FIRST RESOURCE.
Measures for tue Amelioration of the
Government, and the more Equitable
adjustment of Dues and Taxes. '
1. Nearly all that the Andrassy Note and the
Constantinople Conference prescribed, already
exists in law. The one instrument now required
in the present disorganized state of the Empire,
is a Posse, incorporated for the purpose of enforc¬
ing those laws. No Council of Notables of less
importance than a House of Representatives can
effect this without the assistance and co-opera¬
tion of a body similar in many respects to that
commonly called the Secret Police of Russia, of
which each authorized member has power to wit¬
ness or inspect every act caused by, or document
emanating from, any authority, and is bound
to report thereon to his chief ; whilst he has not
himself the most limited power of interference.
The aid of such a body would enable the Central
Government to take immediate cognizance of any
defects in the local administration.
The institution of a Chamber of Representatives
effects in a more constitutional manner .the same
object ; as every member brings with him his con-
31
stituents' plaint to the Central Government, and
thus provides for the consideration of all local
grievances.
But in whatever way the Government may here¬
after legislate in this matter, or however the form
of government may now be modified, it is evidently
impossible by any means suddenly to place on a
footing of equality several distinct races of different
faiths co-existent in the same lands and communes,
the one accustomed to govern and the others
imbued with servitude.
The establishment of a constitutional govern¬
ment with a Chamber of Representatives will
gradually effect the change required, and bring
competent individuals of the subordinate races to
a capacity for administration in conjunction with
those of the present dominant race who are now
educated for holding office.
2. The local administration of the affairs of the
community by councils (Medjlis) has always
partaken of a constitutional form. Representa¬
tives of all the Churches have invariably held seats
in these councils, at which the chief authority, who
held office from the Central Government at Stam¬
boul, presided by courtesy. • • •
The decisions of these councils concerning
measures of local administration are generally just,
arid, when funds are'at the disposal of the' chief
authority, are carried out with expedition and
equity. But the grand fault of this administra-
32
tion consists in • the transmission of all the money
collected for taxes of all sorts to the treasury at
Stamboul ; whence,—to be employed locally,—it
must be demanded, and again transmitted to the
locality.
A requisition for doctors, engineers, or school¬
masters is' generally attended to at Stamboul. But
the "funds put in the possession of the persons sent
are barely sufficient to defray the expenses of their
journey to the locality where they are required.
The sums necessary for the establishment of the
hospitals in which they are to cure their patients,
for the roads they are to construct, or for the
schools they are to teach in, are rarely forth¬
coming.
In fact, the organization of the State machinery
is sufficiently perfect; hut the first motor, by which
it should all be set in motion, is absent in conse¬
quence of the disorganization of the Fisc at Stam¬
boul, and the. peculation of all officials, with few
exceptions, from the highest to the lowest.
The framers of the Andrassy Note,—apparently
in complete ignorance of the internal affairs of
Turkey, —conspicuously failed, to point out the real
remedy for the evil administration of the Empire
which, in general terms, consists in the centraliza¬
tion of the Government, in faulty imitation of that
of France, unhappily taken as a model for all inno¬
vations.
3. Lands alienated in mortmain to the mosks, the
33
rents of which, sustain the imaums and mollahs and
a large number of inheritable beggars, being un¬
saleable and distributed in small parcels over the
surface of the arable land, interfere very much
"with the general improvement of the soil.
Ever since the destruction of the Derry Beys'
local government, absenteeism has been general;
and no rich resident is found to enhance by loans
or donations the resources of the community, or
to direct their expenditure for the general benefit.
The proprietor of an estate, preferring to dwell
in a town, leaves its cultivation to his steward,
and, so long as that servant brings him a certain
fixed sum yearly, he neither concerns himself with
the state of the land, nor with that of the cultiva¬
tors of the soil ; and sometimes not even with the
gains of his servant, who becomes the real- farmer of
the property without supervision. The land thus
left to the administration of incompetent persons,
becomes impoverished, and the peasant, whether
Mussulman or Christian, is often persecuted.
In such cases, were the Government to place the
estate under Crown supervision at the expense of
the proprietor until the mischief was repaired,
greater attention would be given by him to the
cultivation of the soil and to the well-being of the
agricultural population. Estates in mortmain when
unimproved should revert to and be sold by the
Crown.
4. The boundaries of estates are not at present
34
sufficiently defined, and Crown lands have in many
instances been appropriated by neighbouring
proprietors holding no right or title thereto, not
even the doubtful vested interest conferred by
squatting.
. This assumption of title to lands undefined by
any acknowledged boundary, impedes colonization
and hinders the foreigner (who, by the late legisla¬
tion has a right to hold land) from making his
title good and holding his estate in quiet posses¬
sion. Even if, after legal process as to the right of
possession, judgment is given in favour of the last
purchaser, the Courts of Appeal are open to the
appellant as often as he pleases to pay the cost of
the action ;* so that the foreign purchaser of the
land is rarely iusured against the vexation and
expense of a disputed title. There are also many
uncertain rights of grazing, wood-cutting, distri¬
bution of water and others, which are constantly
in dispute, and cause appeals to force of arms in¬
stead of to the decision of the local authorities,
who seldom keep a register to refer to with regard
to such rights, and are not generally natives of the
localities in which they hold jurisdiction.
These evils can be remedied by the institution of
* From the decision of the Caza the aggrieved party may
appeal to the Sandjak ; from the Sandjak to the Yilayet:
from the Yilayet to the Court of Appeal at Stamboul ; from
that Court to the Court of Cassation, The Court of Cassa¬
tion may refer the cas9 hack to the Court of Appeal with the
vague order to amend.the decision.
35
a cadastral commission empowered to settle local
disputes with regard to boundaries and land¬
holders' rights, and by the proper imposition of
the land tax which is now levied • on uncertain
data. _ Every proprietor should be compelled to
define the boundarjr of his estate, and be taxed in
the ratio of its extent and value. He will then
only claim the part which will, speedily produce a
revenue ; the remainder will revert to the Crown,
and can be prepared for cultivation by the Govern¬
ment, and then mortgaged, let, or sold to would-
be occupants, Christian or Mussulman, without
distinction, and thus be made to produce an imme¬
diate and increasing revenue. Or it, or any part
thereof, may be allotted for public works, of which
the country now lies in so much need.
5. In addition to the land' tax, all cultivated
land in Turkey is subject to a tithe levied on its
produce, which is collected for the Government in
kind. In order to collect the tithe the crops,
when gathered, are left on the ground until such
time as the tax-collector can come to the spot and
make his selection from the actual yield of the
season. In consequence of this delay before the
crop can be garnered, the cultivator sustains a
large annual loss by the shedding of the grain
from the ear in dry weather, and by damage to its
quality in rainy seasons.
A great loss is also incurred by the State in the
collection of the tithe in kind ; for the Govern-
3 *
36
ment must dispose of the portion seized, on terms
disadvantageous to the revenue, to a contractor
who pays for it a value in money diminished in
proportion to his risk in transporting, without
damage, over bad roads, and selling it in a ready
market.
6. In consequence of the impoverished state of
the inhabitants generally, and in the absence of
economical means of transport along the badly de¬
fined tracts and roads, the cultivator and original
owner of the crops is unable to dispose of them in
open market. He has, therefore, recourse to the
tender mercies of the travelling agents of mer¬
chants, who buy up his crops for prices much in¬
ferior to their value ; and often, in fact, generally,
advance money at exorbitant interest on the mort¬
gage of the following year's crops, and thus keep in
their hands the annual produce of his lands.
If the peasant were allowed to remove his crop
before the selection of the tithe, the collectors
would not often find goods upon which they could
distrain, and, in many cases, would have much diffi¬
culty in collecting the tithe in current money.
The tithe was several years ago raised by decree
from ten to twelve per cent, of the produce, but
the " Iradeh" also prescribed that the amount
should be reduced to ten per cent, in the year
1874-1875. At that time, however, the amount
received by the Treasury for tithes had been
and continued so much reduced by the famine in
37
Asia Minor, and by other unforeseen contingencies,.
that the Government, becoming embarrassed for
want of funds, did not make the promised reduction.
This want of faith was one of the causes of dis¬
sension in Bosnia which incited the late insurrec¬
tion. The peasants invited to settle for the mo¬
ment in Austria were allowed by the authorities to
depart with their flocks and herds, and now their
presence on Austrian soil forms a pretext for an
occupation of the country.
In seasons of bad harvest this two per cent,
added to the tithe seriously affects the state of the
peasant, who is so poor that he has no funds to fall
back upon. He has been reduced to poverty, not
so much by the amount of the tithe as by the
neglect of both the Government and his landlord,
who have allowed the roads by which he could
convey his goods to the nearest market to fall into
such an impracticable state that the cost of carriage
of cereals cannot, in many instances, be borne by
the price received for them.
In exemplication of the difficulties with which
the cultivators of the land have to contend, we
may refer to the statistics lately carefully compiled
by the Chevalier Ch. de Scherzer, late Austrian
■ Consul in Smyrna.
The land in the Vilayet of Aidin (province of
Smyrna) is valued at £3,600,000 Turkish, and
as there are 1,836,000 acres of cultivable land the
average value per acre is £T.2.
38
The tithe is £440,UUO Turkish, and the
value • of the produce, therefore, at least
£4,400,000 Turkish. The whole land, therefore,
cultivated and uncultivated is assessed at less than
the value of one year's crops ; and a similar state
of taxation probably obtains in other provinces of
the Ottoman Empire.
This fact sufficiently demonstrates that, although
the land is exceedingly fertile, and, when ordinary
care is bestowed on its cultivation, yields very
large crops, yet the tenant is unable to pay a rental
which bears a tangible proportion to the produce ;
because the value is absorbed by labour, tithe,
carriage over bad roads, negligent management, and
official robbery.
. The landlord's agent generally receives the rent
in kind. A crop of barley, which is the least
remunerative crop of any grown hi Asia, averages
in value £5* per acre, after deducting the tithe.
The landlord finds the seed—about four bushels
per acre—and the land. The landlord takes for rent
the half of the crop and the tenant the other half. .
The seed—four bushels—costs the landlord eight
shillings per acre and his profit is therefore £2. 2s
per acre of land sown; but for every acre of land
under crops he has from three to five acres lying
fallow. Therefore, his rent actually is at most
* In some parts of Turkey, especially in the Plain of
Conia, crops of barley generally produce 48 bushels to the
acre.
öy
lOs 6c? per acre received in kind. He incurs the
expense of warehousing the barley and he runs the
risk of its sale in a favourable market if he wish to
sell it, , but in consequence of the cost of carriage
he probably consumes some in his stable and keeps
the remainder for next year's crop. His culti-
•vatable land, leaving out of the calculation all rock
and useless land as valueless, is assessed at £2
per acre. On this, he pays a land tax of four per
cent, or Is 7d, reducing his clear rental to 8s 11 d
per acre. But his steward probably keeps a flock
of sheep and a few buffaloes. The sheep are
fattened on the gleanings and sold and the buffaloes
probably earn their daily bread. The sale of the
increase of the flock and the profit from the more
costly crops add considerably to his income.
But the sheep tax deducts again 11c? per acre
which is equal to an increase of two and three-
quarter sheep per acre per annum.
On the other hand, to sow, till, and garner an
acre of barley costs the tenant, in labour, on an
average, £2.' 16s per acre, presuming that he value
his own and his women's time at the same price as
the labour he hires. His' barley crop yields him
£2. 10s per acre, and so it appears that for that
crop alone the tenant is really a labourer earning
lower wages for himself than he could gain single-
handed when working for others ; but then he has
the advantage of employing his family and paying
their and his own time in board and lodging. .
40
Then, of course, he has a corner of poppies and
another of mulberries somewhere, and a little
wheat; and perhaps he is paid in sheep for tending
the flock, and thus becomes possessor of a flock to
help to eat up the gleanings.
If the whole of the landlord's ground were
cultivated Ms rent would average from £1 16s to
£2. 10s per acre. The landlord therefore suffers
more than the peasant, in consequence of the want
of population and the negligence and ignorance of
the cultivator. But in present circumstances, when
it is considered that the taxes paid are more than
one-fifth of the assessed value of the produce, and
that the cost of the labour equals more than half
that value, there cannot be more than three-tenths
the value of the produce to represent income from
real estate.
The land being assessed at only £2 per acre, if
the rent is valued at 8s 11c? per acre, as in the
foregoing statement when barley is the staple
produce, this gives an assessment at nearly five
years' purchase ; but when proper roads are made
and the cultivated surface extended, the value of
land will increase very rapidily and with it the
amount of the land tax.
-The cultivated land is evidently now assessed at
£8. per acre, not more than five years' purchase
on the rental, and that is a very small assessment
in comparison with twenty years, the average
assessment of land in Europe.
41
The cadastral commission should be empowered
to assess the lands for tithe at the time of fixing
the boundaries, and, afterwards, assessments of
each property should again be made at intervals of
a sufficient number of years to give the im¬
prover the benefit of his works of amelioration.
The most unreasonable tax on production appears
to be the excise, placed in the category of customs'
dues. It amounts to eight per cent, on all produce
consumed in the country. Nothing could be more
injudicious than this tax, because it not only
reduces the value of the land but it also requires
for its just collection an inquisitorial research into
the affairs of every owner of produce. The final
destination of all the produce of the land must be
discovered, and, as it would be almost impossible
to trace the goods in their passage from hand to
hand, the tax must often be either unjustly levied
or never collected.
If a bazaar license or guild dues were levied on
all who barter produce, the same monetary result
could be obtained with very much less difficulty
and expense.
Many provinces have been for some years and
are still said to be in arrears with their taxes.
That they owe a considerable part of the amount
thereof to the Treasury is not to be wondered at
under these circumstances.
7. The Kurds and other nomads inhabiting
42
both aides of the Turkish and Persian frontier are
now in perpetual feud, and so desolate the land,
that colonization in the part of the Ottoman
Empire environing that frontier is impossible. An
English and Russian Commission has surveyed and
defined this boundary, and it should now be the
endeavour of the Ottoman' Government to cause
these feuds to cease by attracting to Ottoman
territory all the nomads who will consent to
become Turkish subjects; conferring on them
privileges and well-defined tracts of pasture land.
The frontier should be marked and protected by
a line of military colonies, of which each married
soldier should possess in fief a specified portion of
land, augmented from time to time in proportion
to the increase of his family. These colonists
would protect and support themselves when once
their lands were put in cultivation, and they would
protect, also, the inhabitants from the ravages of
any unfriendly nomads. They would cultivate
and populate the country, and by this means
augment the revenue of the Empire. A good road
and telegraph from station to station along the
frontier should be constructed and maintained by
the colonists themselves, and this would facilitate
the establishment of other colonies which would in
time become cities.
8. A fiscal commission should be appointed and
attached to the Treasury, whose business it should
u.
be to travel through the country and examine and
report on the accounts of the " Defterdars," the
provincial controllers of the finances.
The Commission should also be empowered to
summon and examine witnesses as to the payments
and receipts, to hear appeals and to receive
petitions.
44
SECOND RESOURCE.
Measures for Augmenting tiie Revenue by.the
Improvement of the Land and of the
State of its Inhabitants.
The state of agriculture in Turkey should
receive the immediate attention of Government,
who should take measures for the prompt allevia¬
tion of the existing general distress.
1. The inhabitants would be much benefited and
excessive usury in great measure prevented by the
institution of local banks, established for the
purpose of lending money on prospective crops, for
the purchase of seed ; and on land, in aid of
proprietors who desired to carry out agricultural
and manufacturing improvements. These banks
should, in the first instance, be established by the
State, and afterwards, when occasion offered, ceded
to private enterprise under a restrictive code, and
subject to the supervision of the provincial
controller of the finances (Defterdar).
In most country disticts at the present time such
banks would not of themselves be found lucrative
private commercial speculations, unless the receipts
were augmented by an annual subsidy from the
State in the shape of terminable annuities.
45
The increase in the amount of the tithe from the
extended surface of cultivated land, when, the
means were thus placed, at the disposal of the
cultivator, would amply compensate the State for
this temporary aid to private" enterprise of this
description. When the annuities terminated, if the
bank in any district were no longer self-supporting,
sufficient proof would be afforded that it was not
there required and the subsidy might then cease
and determine. •
2. The population, and, consequently, the traffic
and industry 'in most parts of Turkey, and more
especially in Asia Minor, has of late years been
decreasing at a very rapid rate. Of the villages,
which ten years ago were the most thriving, some
are now entirely deserted and others are so scantily
populated,—the few inhabitants so enervated by
starvation and its concomitant diseases,—that they
are unable, they complain, to repair their dilapi¬
dated abodes or to procure sufficient sustenance for
their families, when the tithe is paid, from the
small extent of land which they are able to
cultivate : the greater number of their fields now
lying waste and fallow.
The great cause of all their poverty,—in addition
to the burthen of the produce tithe on families
whose state is retrograding instead of progressing,
—is the want of means to counteract the irregu¬
larities of the season by irrigation. Torrents
deluge the country at intervals during the hotter
46
months of'the year; but, although a few grasses
are somewhat improved by the refreshing waters,
the greater part of the vegetation, indigenous to a
dry locality and unaccustomed to rain, perishes in
the floods, and, by its decay—empoisoning air and
water—causes the intermittent fever which so often
reigns in Asia.
If the irrigation channels, which existed in most
parts of the land in former times, were re-estab¬
lished, and the water stored in reservoirs so as
to afford a constant supply, the floods would be
restricted and their waters impounded, the ground
would be regularly moistened, crops would thrive,
and land be many times as productive as it is at
present. Yegetation, no longer subject to irregular
intermission of drought and flood, would follow its-
natural healthy course and propagate a new order
of plants of a more useful nature than those they
replaced. Ozone would be produced by the crops,
under well-directed irrigation, and all symptoms of
endemic fever would, thereupon, disappear. At the
same time a large amount of water-power would be
furnished to counteract the want of manual labour
and advance native industry.
The uncultivated state of the land and the
contour of the mountains both favour the construc¬
tion, at comparatively small cost, of reservoirs for
storing the torrential waters. In many places
large spaces between the hills, some several square
miles in extent, are so inclosed by the natural form
47
of the ground as to render their conversion into
reservoirs an affair of small cost when compared
with the large quantity of water which could
be therein impounded.
In the part of. Asia Minor where the cost of
such works has been estimated by the author, it has
been found not to exceed 10s for every 1000 cubic
yards impounded in a system of reservoirs, which
would not contain less than 300,000,000 cubic
yards.
Weirs constructed with properly proportioned
sluices across the ravines in the course of the
mountain torrents would thus retain the rain¬
water and provide ample power for working mills,
as well as a sufficient supply for irrigating the
neighbouring arable lands.
In order to defray the cost of construction of
these reservoirs, a water tax, yielding a net profit of
one halfpenny per thousand gallons might be levied,
which would be readily paid and would suffice to
furnish,—if paid on the supply necessary to irrigate
the existing extent of cultivated land,'—a very large
interest on the actual outlay, and this percentage
would be increased in proportion as the population
and the land under cultivation were augmented.
When a greater supply was required, the weirs,
which in the first instance would be built generally
to a height only sufficient to furnish, the supply at
present desired, being placed for the most part
between lofty cliffs, could afterwards be raised at
48
a minimum expense to retain, a store augmented in
proportion to the increased extent of land which
could be at any time hereafter brought under
cultivation.
3. Another improvement required in the rural
districts of the Turkish Empire is the repairing of
the roadside water-troughs and fountains necessary
for the refreshment of travellers, as well as for
watering the herds and flocks, which constitute the
principal source of wealth of both the resident and
nomad population. The greater number of these
necessary structures have been left to fall into
dilapidation in consequence of the misappropriation
of the funds bequeathed or subscribed for their
repair, and the supply of water cut off or limited,
in some cases, by the destruction or the closing, by
incrustation, of the conduits from the springs, and,
in others, by the drying up of these sources. The
expense attending the laying of new earthenware
pipes to conduct the water from the springs to the
tanks at the road's side would not be considerable,
and as soon as the reservoirs for impounding the
rain-water had been established, the springs now
dry would probably burst out afresh.
4. The roads themselves, also, are nowhere such
as a progressive people would require, although, the
remains of paved highways attest that in former
days good means of communication must have
existed.
■ The expense attending the construction of good
4y . .
roads would probably be less than, and would
certainly not exceed, the average cost of such
works in other countries ; good stone is to be
found everywhere, and the remains of the ancient
roads might be turned to account in their recon¬
struction. The funds . for this work might be
borrowed by the municipalities from, the local
banks, and the interest collected, in the form of a
road tax, from the inhabitants and proprietors of
the district; provided always, that every person
who executed, himself or by deputy, a certain
portion of the work of construction, or furnished
his proportionate part of the materials, should be
thereby exempt from the tax. .
The roads, once established, should be kept in
repair by the proprietors through whose lands they
passed, under penalty, for . neglecting to maintain
them, of paying the charges made for that purpose
by the local authorities. The large proprietors of
land would then make arrangements with their
tenants for the maintenance of the roads; each
tenant being responsible for the good repair of the
parts which passed through his holding. This
mode of distributing the expense of the mainte¬
nance of roads has been found to answer very well
both in Sweden and Russian Finland, where the
charge of a certain length of road is apportioned to
each inhabitant, and where the highways are always
kept in an excellent state of repair.
The road tax should be made sufficient in
50
amount to cover the redemption of the capital
outlay within a term not exceeding twenty-five
years; after which the land would be free of impost
on this account. Those persons only who did not
furnish labour for the construction of the roads
would pay the tax : but many of them would be
compensated in that they would have already
received payment for their labour whilst employed
on the works of construction and they would have
also the great advantage conferred by the use of
a good road for the conveyance of then* produce
to the nearest market.
It would be found; in most cases, more judicious
to reconstruct, the ancient highways than to lay
out new lines of route: to repave them in the
marshy places, and to level them in the dry and
rocky parts; taking care, always, to maintain the
drainage in such manner as to preclude the torren¬
tial rains from deranging the pavement in the low
ground or from furrowing the suiface of the roads
on the sides of the mountains.
5. The forest laws in most parts of Turkey in
Asia having been neglected, and the forests de¬
stroyed, trees, with the exception of a solitary
plane or walnut, are rarely found elsewhere than
on the sides of the higher mountains far from the
inhabited parts of the country. Puel, therefore,
which at present consists of wood or charcoal, re¬
quired in every house, is transported a long way to
its destination over mountain tracts on the backs
51
of horses and asses, that can now carry but a small
burthen, not exceeding one hundred weight, oyer
the present neglected paths, but might bear more
than twice the load when the ways were made
wider and more even. Fuel is, therefore, obtained
but in small quantities at enhanced prices.
A forest corps has now been established for some
years, and is taking sound measures for the conser¬
vation of the remaining forests. They should be,
as soon as possible, extended, and the bare moun¬
tain sides covered anew. Eucatyptus should be
grown in the unhealthy marshes, where late expe¬
riments have proved that it would thrive. Trees
should be planted in zones around the reservoirs,
where they would grow rapidly in the moist atmo¬
sphere, and aid also in the collection of water for
the reservoirs by sheltering the surface of the land
from the sun's parching rays. Little attention
would be required for the protection of these planta¬
tions from the grazing flocks; as, whilst the wood
was young, the sheep would find sufficient grass
for their sustenance growing on the ground
between the trees, where the soil would be moist
and the vegetation luxuriant.
The increase to the State revenues which would
be produced by the completion of the before-
mentioned agricultural works, if carried out with
economy and tact on the whole extent of Asiatic
Turkey, may be roughly calculated by comparison
with an estimate of that increase already made for
4 *
similar works on the water-shed of the River Ghediz
(Ilermus), which. contains about one million five
hundred thousand acres of arable valley land.
These works are taken to be as follows :
2G Reservoirs capable of containing 54,280,000,000
gallons, or 324,575,000 cubic yards of water.
24 Water-mills in compensation for those
rendered useless by the irrigation works.
37 miles of main irrigation canals.
50 fountains repaired.
370 miles of road placed in serviceable order for
carts.
2 G habitations for the purposes of the under¬
taking.
All these works could be executed for the sum
of £3GO,000.
The increase in the revenue would arise from
five sources—
1. The tax for irrigation.
2. The increase in the tithe and the sheep tax.
3. The augmentation of the Customs dues.
4. The revenue from improved lands belonging
to the Crown.
5. The increase in the land tax..
53
First Source.
The Tax for Irrigation.
The water contained in the 2G Reservoirs on thé
water-shéd of the Ghediz would amount in any
case to 324,575,000 cubic yards.
In ordinary seasons these reservoirs would be
filled twice by the rain water, and, without in¬
curring the risk of error hi excess of the truth, we
may estimate that a quantity of water equal to
once and one-third the contents of the reservoirs,
that is to say, 432,766,667 cubic yards, could be
annually distributed. This quantity could be
furnished to the cultivator at the price of 85, yield¬
ing a profit of 7 s for a thousand cubic yards, or
total profit of £151,469. Over all the irrigated sur¬
face a layer of water one quarter of an inch in average
depth should be distributed daily during 160 days
in the year. Adding half as much again for loss,
the depth of the water spread annually over the
surface of the irrigated ground (including loss),
would be about one yard. The 432,766,667 cubic
yards would therefore suffice to irrigate 89,415
acres. The surface of the water-shed of the Ghediz
contains about 5,000,000 acres, of which probably
1,500,000 acres are available for cultivation when
protected and watered, and of which about 146,500
acres are at present cultivated. The lands which
it is proposed to irrigate would contain about
54
82,500. acres. Thus, when the irrigation is
established, about 229,000 acres will be cultivated,
and will not suffice to occupy more than GO,000
persons, or about the fifth part of the present
population of the district.
It is not doubtful, therefore, that after adding
82,500 acres to the part already under cultivation,
the whole would be carefully cultivated and the
■water tax raised without difficulty.
In order to levy the tax in an equitable manner,
it will be necessary to make a cadastral survey of
the lands at present watered by the torrents which
will hereafter be collected in the reservoirs. The
proprietors of all these lands would have a usage
right to the water during some months in the year,
and, in certain cases, an interference with their
rights, by the retention of the torrential waters in
reservoirs, might cause loss to the proprietors
during the period before the grain is sown ; but,
on the contrary, after that season, their retention
would be advantageous.
Every proprietor, therefore, of lands now
periodically submerged, will have a right to demand
that his lands should be so submerged on rainy days
during the wet season of every year ; but on the
cessation of that season, he will be bound to pay
the tax Avhen he desires to irrigate his land.
Wherever the Crown lands are conveniently placed
and already let they should be irrigated in pre¬
ference and priority over those belonging to
55
individual proprietors, and the tax for irrigation
should be added to the rent.' The remainder of
the water stored for distribution should be fairly-
divided amongst the proprietors requiring irriga¬
tion, who agree to pay the rate imposed ; and thus
all the water in the reservoirs, which will never be
in excess of the demand, will be utilized, and the
i'ate easily collected.
Before commencing the irrigation works in any
locality the following information should be
obtained—
1st. "Whether the proprietors 'affected by the
works desire irrigation.
2nd. Whether sufficient Crown land, the improve¬
ment of which would suffice to pay interest on the
cost of the works, liesdn the immediate neighbour¬
hood.
JSTo works should be commenced until one of
these questions can be answered in the affirmative.
The Crown lands are for the most part quite un¬
cultivated. If they were let and irrigated, many
would yield a very large rental.
Second Source.
The Augmentation of the Tithe and the Sheep Tax.
In adding to the extent of the surface under
cultivation and, consequently, to the produce of
56
the district the amount collected in tithe will, at
the same time, he augmented.
The Gliediz water-shed pays a tithe to the Govern¬
ment not exceeding £64,000,* which is supposed to
represent twelve per cent, of the value of the crops
less the expense of collecting (estimated at'two per
cent.) and tha farmer's profits, or the loss on the
sale of the produce by its conversion into money.
This can hardly he estimated at less than thirty
per cent, of the amount of the tithe. Thus, the sum
received by Government will represent six and four-
tenths per cent, on the value of the crops, and the
whole twelve per cent, will amount to £120,000.f
The extent under cultivation being about 146,500
acres, it follows that the value of the tithe per acre
amounts to a little more than sixteen shillings, the
average of all crops, including many vineyards.
We may reasonably infer, that, if lands when
unaided by irrigation produced a crop giving a
tithe of sixteen shillings per acre, irrigated lands
would produce much heavier crops.
Now thirteen shillings would be the average
tithe of a barley crop yielding thirty-five bushels
* The tithe here given is that of 18G8 ; but there is no
reason why the amount should be much changed in that part
of Asia Minor, and it will serve as well as any other for the
purposes of this calculation.
f The expense and loss arising from'the delay which
usually occurs in selecting the portion of the crop by the
tithe-collector whilst the crop remains cut on the ground
causes the value lost by the cultivator to amount to £150,000.
57
per acre ; but barley, if sown on irrigated land in
that country would at least yield (as in the Plain
of Conia) forty-eight bushels per acre,* and return
a tithe of eighteen shillings.
The principal part of the irrigated land would
naturally be used for the cultivation of much more
expensive crops, such as wheat and maize, or of
those which require forcing, such as cotton, madder,
melons, and vines, of which the average tithe could
not be less than £2. per acre. This is a very
moderate computation, but it would produce
an increase in the tithe, for 82,500 acres, of
£165,000.
The flocks also—which graze on the land from
which the crops have been removed, and are nou¬
rished by the gleanings, which are very plentiful
where the crop is left on the ground so long after
it is cut—will be increased in proportion to the
extended cultivated service; or, otherwise, in the
ratio of the increase of the produce.
Taking the extension of the cultivated surface
as data on which to found a calculation as to the
increase in the sheep tax, which will perhaps be
the simplest, and also the most moderate manner of
solving the problem—the sheep tax being at present
about £33,000—the surface now cultivated 146,500
* This may seem an extraordinary quantity. But well-
watered crops in Asiatic Turkey aro equally extraordinary.
A good crop of barley in England will average thirty-four
bushels per acre, but the barley of England is two-sided only,
whilst the barley of Turkey in Asia is six-sided.
58
acres, and the additional surface cultivated when
the improvements are effected 82,500 acres,
The increment of the sheep tax will be
£33,000 x 82,500 _
146^00 ~ £l8/8°
The increase in the tithe being . 105,000
The total increase of revenue
under this head will amount to . £183,583
Third Source.
The Increase in the Customs' Dues.
The revenue accruing from the Customs must
necessarily be augmented nearly in the proportion
of the increased produce. It is now nearly £143,000
for this district, and (as the tithe is a coefficient of
the value of the crops) the increase in the Customs'
dues will be as £150,000 to £165,000, or as
£143,000 (the present sum) to £157,300.
Fourth Source.
The Bent of State Lands brought under cultivation
by the suggested improvements.
Most of the unreclaimed land belongs to the
Crown, and it will.naturally be to that land, where
conveniently placed, that the irrigation will be in
the first instance applied.
59
Supposing* oñly half of the land irrigated to be .
Crown land. The half of 82,500 acres (41,250
acres), which now produces no revenue, will then
give an agricultural produce (taking the tithe to
represent 12 per cent, on the value of the crops)
worth £687,500. Taking the rent as low as one-
tenth the value of the produce, then the increase
in revenue under this head will be £68,750.
Fifth Source.
The Increase in the Land Tax.
The land tax is now four per cent, on the value of
the soil; 82,500 acres have been reclaimed. Half
of this belongs to the Crown, and therefore the tax
should not appear as a separate item, but be
included in the rent.
The whole, however, may be taken to pay a tax
of four per cent, on its value.
The increase of the tithe, £165,000, representing
twelve per cent, on the value-of the crops: that
value will be £1,375,000.
Assessing the income at one-tenth of the crop, or
£137,500, and the value of the land at ten years'
purchase, or £1,375,000, the land tax will be
£55,000.
Thus the total increase in the revenue of this
district accruing from the proposed improvements
will amount to—
GO
1. The irrigation tax . . . £151,469
2. The increase of the tithe and the
sheep tax ..... 183,583
3. The increase in the Customs' dues . 157,300
4. The rent of Crown lands reclaimed . G8,750
5. The increase in the land tax . . 55,000
Total increase of revenue in this district £61G,102
These figures demonstrate that an outlay of
£3G0,000 in agricultural works in the water-shed
of the River Ghediz would augment the revenue of
that district more than £600,000. This area com¬
prises about one-fiftieth part of the whole surface
of Turkey in Asia north of the thirty-sixth parallel
of latitude, including the part now transferred
to Russia by the Treaty of Berlin. Supposing
that the whole surface was as favourably cir¬
cumstanced, an expenditure of £18,000,000 would
give an increase to the revenue of £30,000,000,
sufficient to make a railway from Constantinople to
India*
"We may, therefore, under any circumstances,
conclude that a properly directed outlay on such
works would produce a revenue quite equal to the
capital so employed.
* See Appendix ITo. 4.
61
THIRD RESOURCE.
The Establishment or Railway Communication..
In so extended an Empire, where the inhabited
parts are sometimes situated at great distances the
one from the other, it would be impossible to make
every source of wealth in the country available to
its greatest advantage—especially when the agri¬
cultural produce has been so much and so suddenly
increased by the above-mentioned contemplated
works—without having first furnished such sure
and rapid means of communication as would result
from the construction of a well-studied and econo¬
mically established system of railways.
The land having been acquired for a double line
of the five-feet gauge, the constructions should, for
the present, be limited in most parts to those
necessary for a single line of railway.
The system of railways required for Turkey in
Europe lias been already conceived and, in great
measure, carried out.
But for Asiatic Turkey a statistical examina¬
tion, taking into -consideration the nature of the
produce, the situation of the most productive places,
and the natural inequalities of the surface, has led
the author to conclude that the best railway
system for the country is approximately set forth
in the following table.
The cost of construction of two portions of this
system have been calculated with practical exact-
02
ness; the one from Smyrna to Alashehr, and the
other from Samson to Sivas, the first-named line
being in the plain and the other passing through
a mountainous country.
The cost of the several lines given in the table is
estimated in accordance with the known outlay for
the two lines above-mentioned, taking into consi¬
deration all local circumstances which might tend
to modify the amount. The commission, discount,
and interest on shares and debentures, and other
concomitant charges in excess of the construc¬
tive capital of companies formed for the establish¬
ment of these railways, are not here included.
SYSTEM OP. RAILWAYS FOR TURKEY IN ASIA.
Approxi- .
mate APProxi-
Description. Length T ^
Miles.
Ismid to Gieveh, Angnru and Bonnar
Rivers, and Akserai
326
£2,282,000
Branch from Angnru River to Angora
50
350,000
Gieveh to Filijas, and the Heraclea Coal¬
.
field
124
744,000
Gieveh to Lefkeh, Cutayia, and Affium
Carahissar ....
166
1,494,000
Branch from Lefkeh to Brussa .
52
400,000
Alashehr to Ghuhek and Afiium Cara¬
hissar . .
138
1,304,000
Branch from Ghuhek to Oushak. .1
16
128,000
Mannisa to Mudania ....
180
1,260,000
Branch to Darhalah Dagh Coalfield .
18
90,000
Affium Carahissar to Ladik and Akserai.
200
1,300,000
Branch from Ladik to Conia
23
115,000
Carried forward
1293
£9,467,000
63
Approxi- A ¡.
mate. rr ,
- Description. Length.
Miles. 0
Brought forward
1293
£9,467,000
Affium Carahissar to Anguru Rivers
109
763,000
Conia to Eregli and Nighdeh
119
714,000
Conia to Eghirdir and Adalia
185
1,480,000
Aidin to Isbarta and Eghirdir
184
1,380,000
Akserai to Cœsarea and Sivas
216
1,728,000
*Akserai to Djemnik, Sis, Ghiul Bashi
Samsat, and Diabekyr
442
3,978,000
Branch from Sis to Adana and Mersin
91
651,500
Branch from Ghiul Bashi to Kieban
Mahden
94
' 799,000
Branch from Djemnik to Cœsarea
52
4Í6,000
Sivas to Eghin and Erzeroom
2 77
2,076,500
Sivas to Turkal, Eavza, and Samsoon .
196
1,670,000
Branch from Turkal to Tokat .
22
121,000
Angora to Kavza .....
180
1,260,000
Branch from Angora to Bounar River
49
392,000
Diabekyr to Kharput, Kieban Mahden,
and Eghin .....
148
888,000
Diabekyr to Mardin and Mosul
208
1,546,000
Kharput to Moosh and Bayazid
297
2,500,000
Branch from Moosh to Yanghiul and
Bitlis . . .
59
324,500
Mosul to the frontier at Kys Kalessi
178
1,424,000
Mosul to Tekrit, Baghdat, and Kooyet .
610
. 4,480,000
Aleppo to Ayas and Adana
162
1,215,000
Aleppo to Urfa and Samsat .
150
975,000
Tripoli to Humms and Tekrit
440
3,070,000
Branch from Humms to Aleppo .
120
780,000
Branch from Humms to Damascus
90
620,000
Branch from Damascus to Tyre
70
560,000
Totals
6071
£45,278,500
* The main line from Akscrai to Mosul may bo shortened
ninety-eight miles by a direct lino through the Albistan Pass,
and from Samsat to Mardin through unsettled countries.
G4
Several of tlie lines of railway named in tlie
preceding table branch from towns in a plain at
the south-eastern corner of which stands the city
of Conia, the ancient Iconium ; formerly the
capital of Lycaonia and the seat of government
of the dynasty preceding that of Othman. In
18G8 this town contained about 30,000 adult
male persons, and the district of Conia contained
500 villages.
The extensive and fertile plain or basin in
which the city is» situated varies from three to
sixty miles in breadth and is not less than 150
miles in length, stretching in an easterly direction
from the Djami table land west of AffiumCaraliissar,
to Kotchissar, Akserai and Eregli. It is every¬
where capable of producing heavy crops of corn
when regularly watered and carefully cultivated.
Various valleys branching from the basin, and.
terminating in elongated coombes, intersect the
surrounding mountains, and trending in all direc¬
tions give facilities for the construction of roads
for transporting the produce of this rich basin to
the surrounding more' elevated and less productive
countiy.
Many of the coombes in which these branch
valleys terminate, are so modelled as to afford
facility for their transformation into reservoirs in
•which the torrential waters might be stored, and
thereby made available for irrigating large tracts ■
on the plain and in its surrounding valleys.
65'
.Along the centre line lie a string -of shallow
lakes communicating with one another by a
continuous narrow river, which is in most parts
navigable for the small boats used by the Oural
Cossack fishermen who dwell on the margin of
the lakes. This fishery supplies a large part of
the , red caviar sold in all the towns of Asia
Minor.
The mountain sides are interspersed with
shady villages, of which the most thriving are
populated by Greeks, who cultivate in gardens the
mulberrj' and the vine, and become comparatively
wealthy.
The water in the lakes is brackish ; but the
streams supplying this extensive evaporating area,
all of fresh water, might, if stored in reservoirs,
be utilized for colonization as well as for the
irrigation of large' tracts which are now in¬
sufficiently watered. The increased evaporation
produced by this application of the supply
for the lakes would cause their waters to
subside. The surface of the plain, now ex¬
ceeding in area 3,000,000 acres and producing
only 130,000 tons of grain, would then be
extended into the lakes, and the whole surface
might be eventually so cultivated as to pro¬
duce corn and wine for. a population exceeding
10,000,000, exclusive of a very considerable ex¬
port. Other sources of wealth are found in and
around this basin, From the Tooz Tcheol, a lake
00
■ íibout forty miles to the N.N.W, of Conia, much
salt is extracted ; and tertiary coal of a very good
quality, as well as iron ore, are found in the
Khodja ridge which forms the north-eastern
boundary of the lake. ■
This vast plain should be the central emporium
of agricultural produce for Asia Minor, and should
communicate by means of railways with all the
populous centres of that region, as well as with
the sea. Two railways—the one from Con¬
stantinople to Iskmid and the other from Smyrna
to' Alashehr—should be extended, and form a
junction at Allium Carahissar and thence, united,
follow the course of the plain through Conia as
far as Akserai. The line should gradually be
extended through Diabekyr to Baghdad and the
Persian Gulf, as well as to the frontier at Cyz Calay.
Thus it will hereafter form the trunk line of a
railway, via Persia, Heraat, and Candahar to join
the Indian system at Moultan ; a railway which
ere long (already too late) will undoubtedly be
deemed an urgent necessity.
The large towns in this plain, Allium Carahissar,
Akshehr, Conia, Ivotchissar, Eregli, and Akserai
contain a population of about 12.0,000 adult males,
and the villages in the plain and on the slopes of
the surrounding mountains more than twice, that
number. Thus the population may be at present
estimated to exceed 360,000 adult male persons,
sufficiently large to insure a remunerative traffic
67
on the two railways, which have already been
projected and surveyed, for placing Allium Cara-
hissar in communication with Smyrna and Con¬
stantinople. Of the . northern section from
Constantinople the length from Scutari to Iskmid,
about sixty-two miles, was completed some years ago
at the Government expense, and it is still worked
by the State. The remainder from Iskmid through
Eskishehr to Allium Carahissar, a distance of 207
miles, is not yet commenced. Of the southern
section, the railway from Smyrna to Alashehr, a
distance of 105 miles, was already completed in
1874, and the remainder from Alashehr to Allium
Carahissar, a distance of 154 miles, remains to be
constructed. The works for a single line are esti¬
mated to cost £1,400,000, and the net returns from
traffic to exceed £120,000 per annum at present,
with prospect of a considerable increase hereafter.
The strategical advantage to be derived from
the completion of the southern section is the
facility afforded for the transport of soldiers and
their ammunition from the nearest port to a well-
purveyed depot in the heart of the country, whence
they can be despatched at short notice, fully
equipped, to any part of Asia Minor.
As to the revenues to be derived from railways
in Turkey, we can only form a general opinion
founded on the receipts of the few that are already
constructed.
The Smyrna and Aidin line now produces a net
5 *
68
receipt of about £450, and that from Smyrna
to Cassaba and Alashehr about £640 per mile per
annum. ' The Scutari and Iskmid line has been
constructed by the Government at a very large ex¬
pense, and is not perhaps managed so economically
as the other lines mentioned. The gross receipts
are said to be £620 per mile per annum. The
Samsoon and Sivas Railway, projected in 1857, was
then estimated to produce £900 net per mile per
annum. On these data, it may be presumed, that
when the network of railways contemplated in the
table (page 62) is completed, the whole system
may produce a net revenue of £500 per mile per
annum, which is not sufficient to yield any sub¬
stantial profit if the funds for its construction are
borrowed and interest has to be paid on them.
The most productive of the railways proposed
will be— # . ■
1. Those communicating with Conia and, inore
especially, those connecting the basin of Conia with
the sea, viz., the Smyrna and the Iskmid railways.
These lines will probably yield, soon after con¬
struction, a clear net revenue of £700 per .mile,
and their cost will average £9000 per mile.
. 2. The railway from Samsoon to Sivas, which
has been estimated to yield a revenue of £900 per
mile, and cost £9,000 per mile.
3. The railway, from Iskmid to Angora, which
will probably yield about £500, and if continued
to Samsoon or to Akserai and Sivas, perhaps
69
£550' per mile per annum. The cost should
not exceed £7000 per mile.
These railways, although in themselves not very
productive of revenue in the present state of the
land, will serve to utilize the produce of the soil,
and, eventually, lead to the establishment of indus¬
trial works. But when the proposed agricultural
improvements are completed, and the means for
speedy and economical communication provided,
the carriage of the increased produce will insure
an ample revenue to the railway system of Asiatic
Turkey: the State revenues will be augmented
and the expenses of the Army diminished. The
cultivators of the soil will be enabled to dispose of
the whole of their produce, and will be in¬
duced to increase the extent of land under
cultivation. The rich minerals, of which this
country is prolific, will be brought to the surface,
and the population increased by a speedy coloni¬
zation.
For the construction of such works, when the
peaceful nature of the present population becomes
generally known in Europe, it cannot be doubtful
that a loan will be negotiable on favourable terms,
if the money is laid out under the direction of an
Imperial Commission composed of-members chosen
in equal numbers by the Government and the
lenders.
A great part of this loan can be redeemed in a
very short time by the sale of Crown lands, when
■70
prepared, for cultivation by means of tlie proposed
agricultural works.
The following example will show that any loan
so utilized will be amply guaranteed by the revenue
accruing from the works of which it will defray
the execution.
Referring again to the water-shed of the River
Ghediz :
The irrigation works and the restora¬
tion of the roads and fountains will
cost . . . . £360,000
Therailways necessary to complete the
communication over that water¬
shed, inclusive of the sum already
spent on the Smyrna and Cassaba
Railway, will cost . . . *2,168,000
£2,528,000
It has been already stated (p. 59) "that the
revenue will be increased £600,000 in consequence
of the completion of the agricultural works effected
by an expenditure of £360,000. And the value of
the Crown lands reclaimed is estimated to be
£1,375,000 ; more than half the sum necessary for
* Railway from Smyrna to Cassaba and
Alashebr i . . . . . . £1,200,000
Extension to Ghubek . . . ... 704,000
Railway to Darballab coalfield, to Kirkagatch
and to Akhissar 264,000
£2,168,000
ri
the execution of all the works proposed for that
water-shed.
In'case the Government object to dispossess the
Crown of its improved lands, the increase of revenue
derived from the agricultural works may be ap¬
plied to the redemption of the loan, and will be
found sufficient to pay the interest thereon and to
redeem the whole within a very short period.
Moreover, ' should the Government prefer to con¬
cede these public works to capitalists, and
guarantee a fixed minimum profit, the augmenta¬
tion in the State revenue produced by such works
and the Crown lands, improved, might be hypothe¬
cated for that guarantee ; and if to those induce¬
ments were added the fee-simple, or a long lease, of
a part, of the lands reclaimed, the Government
could hardly fail to find capitalists to enter into
such profitable contracts.*
* The author proposes the ' following form of concession
for all public works in Turkey :—
Railway concessions always to be combined with conces¬
sions for the construction of public roads and the occupation
and improvement of all Crown lands.
The whole of the works combined, whether railway, road¬
way, mining, agricultural, or otherwise, to be defrayed by the
concessionees, who, as factors and agents of the Government,
are to collect the taxes and share with the Government the
entire profits accruing, both directly from the public works
and indirectly from the increased amount of the taxes.
The capital found by the concessionees for every work
required is to be guaranteed seven per cent, net revenue by a
charge on the entire profits. ■ Thus the gross revenue cor«
eists of :—
72
Thus without risking any of the actual revenues
of the State the Government would largely benefit
the land, and restore its ancient reputation for
fertility and prosperity.
Capitalists before undertaking such works would
certainly assure themselves of their profitable
nature, and would, of course,—on the initiation of
this system of enterprise, —select those which they
considered the most certainly lucrative. But on the
1. Profits derived from the establishment of the under¬
takings subject to the concession.
2. Taxes and dues augmented by those works, if those
works are well chosen and desirable.
The expenses are—
• 1. The cost of working the said undertakings.
2. The collection of dues, taxes, &c.
And the division of the gross revenue between the Govern¬
ment and its factors, the concessionees, is to be as follows :—
1. For the concessionees the expenses.
2. Seven per cent, on the capital at any time expended in
the undertaking.
3. To the Imperial Treasury the present amount of the
dues and taxes before the commencement of the under¬
taking.
4. For the Imperial Treasury three-quarters of the re¬
mainder, which represents the real increment of the taxes.
5. For the concessionees, as bonus, one quarter of the said
remainder.
Where the revenues of the provinces have already been
hypothecated to the bondholders, the second item must be
placed after the third, so as to leave the present revenue as
secure as it is at present. But the whole of the augmentation
produced by the undertakings of the concessionees should be
left as security to them, and they should share with the
Government in the profits thence accruing.
13
success of the first venture, numerous others would
follow, and works would hardly be found sufficient
for the investment of all the capital offered for the
amelioration of the Ottoman Empire.
If the lands granted are not ameliorated by the
works, neither the contractor nor the State can gain
thereby ; but if they are improved in the manner
supposed, the Government will gain, firstly and
immediately by the increase in the taxes; and
secondly in the future, by the augmented value
of the land and the improvements at the termina¬
tion of the concession.
It will evidently be wise.to employ the same
contractors (societies or individuals) in collecting
the taxes : for they will not only be the most
powerful and the most interested proprietors, but
their balance-sheet being published annually, they
will not themselves defraud the revenue, and will
therefore have the greater interest in justly
assessing and collecting the taxes from others.
The conclusion naturally drawn from a perusal
of the preceding statements with regard to the
great amelioration of the country, effected by the
proposed public works, elicits the following
corollaries :—
1. Before commencing any railway undertaking
in the Ottoman Empire, the districts which the
line is to traverse should be prepared by executing
the auxiliary works of irrigation, colonization, and
reconstruction of highways, and fountains.
74
2. That these auxiliary works would cost less
and produce a greater profit than any railway ever
projected.
2. That public works depend one on the other
for their success : for it is evident that the country
cannot profit by the. large increase of produce
accruing from agricultural works save by the aid
of a good railway system.
The country benefits by the production, the
economical carriage and facilities for the sale of the
produce ; and the railway is benefited not only by
the revenue derived from the transport of the
increased production, but also by the carriage of
the extra quantity of merchandize imported to
satisfy the wants created by the growing wealth of
the inhabitants.
Finally, it must be remembered that the in¬
habitants of all parts of the Ottoman Empire are
too poor and too little incorporated to execute,
themselves, these auxiliary works ; and that it has
been difficult heretofore to dispose capitalists to
promote such undertakings. It is, therefore, the
duty of the Government to provide for such
deficiency."
75
FOURTH RESOURCE. '
Mineral Wealth.
Asiatic Turkey is so ricli in valuable minerals
that the Geologist can hardly fail to meet with some
rich metalliferous strata in any and every water¬
shed wherein he may pursue his researches.
The most conspicuous minerals are the
following :—
Coal.—In a spacious field said to be of paleo¬
zoic origin, extending from Heraclia eastward as
far as the River Filyas, and, with intermissions,
probably, as far as Sinope. ( Vide App. No. 1.)
The mines of Heraclia have been worked for
many years, but without any sort of provision for
the continuance of the workings. Some of them were
worked for the supply of the steam vessels during
the Crimean war ; but the mine from which coal
could be extracted with most economy was the
Usulmez Mine, and that would now probably re¬
quire a great deal of preparatory expenditure
before it could be put in a state for working on
scientific principles. This mine is about nine
miles distant from Heraclia.
No regular trade can be carried on from these
mines until a harbour is constructed at Heraclia, or
a railway made from Usulmez to join the Angora
line at or near the River Sacaria. The roadstead
70
is exposed to the north and west winds, which are
generally the most violent in the Black Sea.
Local circumstances in no way favour the con¬
struction of a port, which would, consequently,
cost so large a sum as to-swallow up all the profits
from the mines.
A railway could be constructed for a very much
less sum, and would be within the scope of the
traffic in coal which would pass over it from the
mines.
The concession for working the mines of Heraclia
has already been in several hands ; but although
enterprising persons like Serkis Bey, the late
Sultan's architect, have held it, the mines have
never been worked on any scale since the termina:
tion of the Crimean war.
On the Darhallah Mountains, under the shadow
of which the town of Kirkagatch is situated, is a
tertiary coalfield containing much coal so compact
and gaseous that it can scarcely be called lignite.
The coal is found in one nearly level bed, in some
places twenty feet thick, and is exposed in so
many places that without further research the
part thus discovered may be estimated to contain
more than 30,000,000 tons, most of which is
sufficiently compact to bear the shocks of loading
and unloading and to be carried to a distance in
railway waggons. It contains scarcely a trace of
sulphur, and is therefore very valuable for general
use.
77
Coal of the same description is also said to he
found in thick seams at Ivayadjik, near Giordesh,
about twenty-four miles to the east of Akhissar ^ but
that place is difficult of access from any port.
In the spurs of. the Boz Dagh, which divide the
torrents flowing into the River Meander, on its
northern bank, many masses of a somewhat similar
tertiary coal are found, but this coal contains
much sulphur and is not continuous ; the field
having been undermined and broken up by the
mountain torrents. It has been worked for the
liquorice and other manufactories at and around
Nazlœ, on the Meander.
At Tourbali, also, seams of the same coal are
being worked and partially used in Smyrna. The
seams, are thin and dip at a sharp angle below the
surface, entailing the necessity of working sumps
and shafts, and leading to the belief that they are
dislocated portions of a large field which might
formerly have covered spacious areas. It is there¬
fore improbable that either of these last-mentioned
fields will ever be worked with advantage on a
large scale.
Near Kotchissar, on the Khoja Mountains, about
seventy miles N.E. of Conia, good tertiary coal is
also said to be found in thick seams in proximity
with hematite.
Traces of a similar tertiary coal arc discovered at
Tachtalœ, at the head of Lake Apollonia, near
Brussa, and in many other parts of Asia Minor.
78
As the seams of all the larger fields lie almost
level and at nearly the same elevation above the
sea, we are led to suppose that at one period in
the tertiary epoch a very large field of this lignite
extended over the greater part of Asia Minor ;
between the mountain chains which are heterojacent
and subjacent and therefore of older formation.
It is said also that a very rich seam of paleozoic
coal is found on the banks of the Tigris, in the
neighbourhood of Keban Mahden, a sample of
which was transported to Baghdad by order of
Midhat Pasha, when he was Governor of that pro¬
vince. It was there tried and analyzed and found
equal in heating power to Newcastle coal.
Chrome, in the shape of Chromate of iron, -is
found in many places in Asia Minor, and, amongst
others, in the following :
1. The mines near Brussa, belonging to M.
Pedicaris.
The Hamandjick Mine, the ore of which is
reported to contain fifty per cent, of sesqui-oxide
of chromium without washing. A cart road from
this mine to the port of Ghemlek, on the Sea of
Marmora, renders the transport of the ore feasible.
The Katrautchkour Mine, containing ore of the
same richness as the Hamandjick strata, and in very
large quantities.
This mine, also, has the advantage of what is
called a good road in Turkey.
70
The Bazarlik-bouroun Mine, containing a vein
from eight inches to two feet in thickness. The
ore contains in the average from forty-one to
fifty-three per cent, of sesqui-oxide of chromium.
2. The mines in the neighbourhood of Cutaya
have not been examined by the author. He has
heard that the mineral has been exported to
England from that neighbourhood.
3. The mines amongst the Catacecaumene, near
Coola, belonging to Marcus Carlarmus Hadji Moise
Oglu. The matrix is impure cabonate of lime.
The ore is very variable in quality, some being
exceedingly rich in chrome.
4. On the Black Sea coast, near Ineboli, Chromate
mines, now being worked for a company by M.Camus,
a French mining engineer, on a considerable scale.
5. A large quanity of Chromate of iron, found
in the hills to the eastward of the Dardanelles, and
exported thence to England and France.
6. In several 'of the torrent beds intersecting
Boz Dagh specimens of Chromate of iron have been
found by the author, but no -mine of that denomina¬
tion is worked in the district.
Copper is found in the form of pyrites at Iveban
Mahden and Arganah Mahden, where the matrix is
euphotide and serpentine. The mines are rich ;
the ore containing fourteen per cent, of copper:
but, in consequence of the absence of fuel and the
expense of transport, not more than 11,000 tons
80
of ore are extracted annually from the two mines.
If a railway were made to convey the ore to the
coast, or to bring coal to the mine, the State revenue
from these mines could be very much increased.
( Vide App. No. 3.)
There are traces of carbonate of copper amongst
the Catacecaumene to the north of Coola, and also
in the bed of the torrent which flows into the
valley near the town of Alashehr.
There is also an ancient copper mine, not now
worked, at Curéinochaz, between Costamboli and
Ineboli, about thirty miles from the Black Sea.
Emery is found in very many parts of Asia
Minor. In some places of a brilliant metallic lustre,
and in others black and very hard and heavy.
The best may be procured from the valley of the
Kutcliuk Mender Kiver, and from the Alashehr and
Zeitindery torrents in the valley of the Cogamus, a
tributary of the Hermus (Ghediz).
It is found in many places in a region extend¬
ing from Mount Olympus of Brussa on the N.W., to
the hills above Denezlie, to the S.W. from Ghediz,.
at the N.E. to the mountains south of Buldur,
at the S.E. angle of the region.
Emery of the best quality is now obtained with
difficulty in consequence of the absence of roads ;
but when the railway from Constantinople to
Affium Carahissar is completed, the price will be
very much decreased by the competition arising
81
from the opening of numerous mines' in the
neighbourhood of Cutaya, where the mineral is
plentiful but transport to the sea, at present,
economically impossible. -
Gold is found in small quantities in the sand
collected in the beds of several torrents discharging
into the Hermus ; and of these the ancient Pactolus
at Sardis is reputed for its auriferous waters.
Several small veins of blende in the silver-lead ore
of the mine of Soubach,. in the Vilayet of Sivas,
contain as much as one per cent, of telluride of
gold..
When the population of Asia Minor increases,
there is little doubt that gold, which in ancient
days was found in several parts of that region, will
be again found and worked by the adepts who may
arrive there to colonize. ■
Iron is found all over the same area as that in
which emery is found. Fourteen miles to the east
of Edremiti, on the Egean Sea, is a lofty ridge
principally composed of sulphuret of iron.. In the
valley of the Eiver Bakyr, flowing from Bakyr to
the sea, opposite the island of Mytilene, carbonate of
iron of a superior quality has been discovered in two
places. In the Darhallah Mountains, forming the
southern boundary of that valley, carbonate of iron,
in the form of trunks of fossil fir trees, is found.
Amongst the Cataceçaumene, on the hills around
82
Coola. In all the torrent beds insecting the northern
slope of the Boz Dagh which forms the southern
boundary of the valley of the Hermus (Ghediz),
where, in more than one spot, blocks of very rich
magnetic iron of excellent quality are to be seen
lying in the torrent beds. In the Khodja
Mountains, which form the N.E. boundary of the
Tooztcheol, a salt lake about sixty miles to the
N.E. of Conia. At Kheban Mahden, in proximity
with the coal there found.
Marble.—The most renowned is found on the
Lake Mermereh, in small quarries, first opened and
worked some thousand years ago; and in the
twenty quarries of Synnada, which lie to the east¬
ward of the ancient town of that name, on the site
of which the present village of Istchi-Carahissar is
built. The remains of carved friezes, found near
the spot, seem to indicate that the quarries .must
have been in work at the commencement of the
Christian era, when the Roman character was
gradually superseding the Greek. All the inscrip¬
tions on. the buildings ■ around Synnada, and those
found amongst the ruins of the town itself, contain
Roman characters in substitution of Greek in the
inscriptions, and the same substitution exists on the
numerous tablets of Synnada marble found in all
parts of the surrounding country. Doves and
winged angels and lions' paws—emblems of Chris¬
tianity—are found amongst the relics of the ancient
83
marble buildings which once adorned that - city.
The walls of the mosque of S. Sophia, at Constanti¬
nople, from the ground to the dado are lined with
the puce-spotted white marble of Synnada, and
blocks of the same, as well as of the purest white,
are to be found in Rome.* How the transport of
these large masses was effected it is difficult now
to divine; but the author thinks it just possiblè they
might have been carried, in flood time, to one of
the tributaries of the River Sacaria, and floated to
the Black Sea on rafts of timber; as iron is still
transported from the Oural Mountains, with
much risk, down the flood waters of the Tchuso-
vaya.
• The distance from the quarries to the source of
the nearest tributary is about twenty-four miles,
up hill, and over a ridge of trachyte separating the
water-shed of that river from the Kirkinn Yalley.
Some of the Synnada marble is of a beautiful flesh
colour; and masses of great thickness, and twelve
feet high, might notv be cut from the side of the
quarry.
The surface of the hill in which the Synnada
quarries are formed is perfectly devoid of vegeta¬
tion, and, viewed from afar, shows, in the distant
background of the landscape, perfect white without
a shade or shadow. Blocks of white marble hewn
* The body of the statue of St. Paul, lately erected, is
said to be of the puce-spotted Synnada marble.
r, *
84
from these quarries and transported three miles to
form .the foundations of the fortress or citadel of
Synnada, some of them five yards long and one
yard in height and thickness, are now being
exposed and cut into pieces convenient in size for
carriage in the bullock carts of the country, to
Affium Carahissar.
The mode in which the ancient quarrymen
worked is exemplified in these quarries. A
channel, sufficiently wide for a man to work in,
was excavated round every block to detach it from
the mass. Grooves were then cut at the base, in
which wooden wedges were tightly jammed, and
then the ends of the wedges were bathed in water
until they swelled and thus broke off the blocks
from the rock.
The author discovered an ancient alabaster
quarry on the summit of a hill of crystalline lime¬
stone twelve miles N.E. of Alashehr. The refuse
from the quarry had effloresced and turned yellow
by exposure, for many centuries, to the weather ;
and from below it appeared to consist of clay
newly thrown out from a recent excavation. The
hill is four hundred feet high, and the quarry only
about ten feet deep. Probably a perfect mass of
crystalline alabaster would be found at some depth
from the summit.
The proximity of this hill to the Alashehr
Railway would facilitate the transport of this
§5
alabaster, and might make its quarrying a profit¬
able industry.
Meerschaum is found in spheroidal masses in a
deposit of disintegrated porphyritic amphibolite,
near the village of Tootludja, to the S.E. of
Inöghi, in the district of Cutaya. It is sold by the
miners to the merchants of Eskishehr, who send it
to Austria. No privilege is required for this
industry; each miner makes his own pit and
reaches the meerschaum and the water-level
together, about twelve feet below the surface. If he
can extract the meerschaum before the water gains
on him, he earns more than the value of his labour;
but the miners do not willingly combine together
to pay for the expense of draining the mine, and
not a single pump is to be found at the workings.
An authorized guard of two Zaptiehs, stationed
there, values and taxes every piece of meerschaum
found. The guard and the miners seem to be on
the best of terms, and the royalty is readily paid.
The working of this mine would become much
more profitable and yield a much larger revenue if
it were let to any one responsible party who would
go to the expense of draining the strata.
Silver lead ore, containing as much as twelve per
cent, of silver, is found in the ancient mine of Ghiu-
muish Khan, lying about fifty miles south of the port
of Trebizonde ; latterly, also, mines have been opened
at Soubakh and at Cateralan. The Cateralan mines
86
are situated in the southern slope of a high range
of mountains lying a little to the northward of the
town of Sharki Carahissar, in the province of Sivas,
about fifty miles to the south of the port of
Kerasond.* The range trends east and west, and
the veins have been pierced at an elevation of
about " 10,000 feet" above the level of the sea.
The Soubakh mines he in the southern slope of a
parallel ridge situated fifteen miles to the S.W. of
Sharki Carahissar.
The lodes all trend east and west and dip north¬
wards at angles varying from 65° to 80° with the
horizon.
Both the Soubakh and Cateralan Mines form the
subject of one concession from the State, which
is now held by the executors of the late Mustafa
Fazil Pasha. They were first worked with French
capital ; and, on the Pasha's demise, the funds
were found in Constantinople, and the works
were and are still conducted by M. Camus, by
whom a considerable sum has been expended
in erecting habitations for the miners and opening
the lodes. He gives a very sanguine.report of the
prospects of these mines.
The first veins found at Soubakh were composed
principally of blende in a matrix of soft trachite,
containing much iron pyrites, and were assayed by
Mr. Moreaud for the Imperial Mint. They con-
* Extracted from Mr. Swan's and Mr. Camus's reports to
tlie concessionee.
. 87
tained telluride of gold in the proportions shown
by the following assays of three specimens :—
Ko. 1. Ko. 2. Ko. 3.
100" of ore gave 1001 of ore gave 100" of ore gave
10-32 lead 10.52 lead 19*30 lead
10'96 silver . 5*05 silver 14-21 silver
0-6774 gold 0-43j gold 2*49| gold
Value £1750 perton. Value £963 per ton. Value £4315 per ton.
An average sample of 252 lbs. taken from the
whole quantity then extracted was valued at £955
per ton.
An assay of a sample sent to the School of
Mines in Paris gave in 100 parts—silver, 7*7 ; gold,
0-675. . ,
■ The other veins yet discovered, of which there
are three at Soubakh and four at Cateralan, are
reported to average in value £20 per ton; and as a
good road has not yet been made between the'
mines and the port of Iverasond, the ore must be
washed on the spot and the metallic parts only
exported.
Mr. Camus's report informs us that twelve miles
of the road have already been made from Kerasond,
and that the preparation of the remaining forty-
eight miles will only cost about £4000 to render it
a sufficiently good cart road. The capital required
for completing the preliminary structures, for the
cart road to the port and for working these mines,
is said not to exceed £10,000.
Some of the Ghiumuish Khaneh Mines are very
rich in silver; but they have been unskilfully
88
Worked for so long a time that the miners cannot
reach without danger any of the important lodes.
The lodes all run east and west and dip north¬
wards at an angle with the horizon of about 80°.
It will probably be found that some of the metallic
veins traverse the distance between Ghiumish Khan
and Cateralan and come to the surface at several
points between those two sets of mines
A very rich vein of galena is also found near
Batoum, in a matrix of feldspath.
The author has received no details as to the site
of this mine, but the specimens of ore in his pos¬
session indicate that the vein from which they were
taken must be of considerable thickness.
Silver lead has also been discovered at Ghulu
Devrent, a village on the north side of the summit
in a pass of the Boz Dagh, sixteen miles south-east
of Alashehr ; and traces of what appears to be the
same vein are found within four miles of that city.
An ancient mine, formerly worked by the State,
lies on the north side of the Boz Dagh, about
six miles to the south-west of the village of
Saliklœ. The lode appears to lie in the direction
of the trend of the Devrent veins. Silver lead,
containing as much as one and a-half per cent, of
silver, a considerable quantity of vanadium and
much antimony, is found in an old State mine near
Nympheo, a village situated at the west end of the
Boz Dagh, seven miles to the southward of the
Smyrna and Cassaba Railway. The matrix of all
89
these veins is the same, namely, amorphous impure
carbonate of lime in sandstone; and they all lie in
the same position with regard to the strata cropping
out between the horizontal sedimentary and the
inclined metamorphic rocks.
Indeed, it may be inferred that one continuous
vein or series of veins run from one end of the
Boz Dagh to the other, a distance of nearly seventy
miles. '
Sulphur is found 'in a bed of sulphur rock ex¬
tending over several square miles around the hot
sulphur baths on the Corshoon torrent, about five
miles south of the village of Saliklœ, a station on
the Alashehr extension of the Smyrna and Cassaba
Railway. It underlies a mass of grey stone contain¬
ing a large quantity of pyrites; and the surfaces of
the rock, where exposed in the ravines bordering
the stream, are thickly covered with pure flour of
sulphur.
Sulphurous hot springs, which deposit large
quantities of nearly pure sulphur, are found in the
following places :—
1. At Brussa, where several springs discharge
large streams of hot water, exceeding 160°
Fahrenheit in temperature, into hemispherical
marble basins, made when Brussa was the Ottoman
capital.
2. Four miles east of Islamkeuy, on the road
from Oashak to Aifium Carahissar, where the
ÜO
springs have thrown up cones around them,
some of which are more than twenty feet
high.
. 3. At Diana's bath; an ancient structure in the
village of Hamamlar, ten miles to the north-east-
ward of Coola.
4. At the ancient Roman bath of Philadelphia;
now discharging in a small and intermittent stream,
diminished probably by the closing of the conduits
from incrustation.
5. At the source of the Cooroo torrent, near
Kesselair, fourteen miles westward of Alashehr and
six miles from the railway station of Derekeuy.
6. On the Corshoon torrent, in the midst of the
before-mentioned sulphur strata, twenty-nine miles
from Alashehr and five miles south of the Saliklœ
railway station, on the extension from Cassaba to
Alashehr.
The three last-mentioned springs rise to the
surface on the northern slope of the Boz Dagh, and
are nearly fourteen miles apart the one from the
other; thus supplying the inhabitants with hot
sulphur baths at three points of easy access 'from
any part of the valley of the Cogamus. Thé inha¬
bitants use the waters freely; but, unfortunately,
not under medical supervision. Were any enter¬
prising doctor to establish a sanitary hotel at any
one of these places, the inhabitants of Smyrna and
the neighbouring towns would congregate there to
take the baths during the summer season.
9Í
Chalybeate and other Mineral Springs.—A chaly¬
beate spring, strongly impregnated with carbonic
acid gas, rises from the bed of the torrent near the
east gate of Alashehr. It is not unpleasant to the
taste, and is there considered efficacious in all
diseases.
Another similar spring rises from the bed of
the torrent at-Derekeuy.
These springs are both accompanied by the hot
sulphur springs before described, which issue from
the rock at a higher level than the chalybeates.
At Alashehr, also, a cold spring strongly impreg¬
nated with sulphate of magnesia flows through the
conduit parallel to the hot sulphur spring in the
same ruined building.
Effervescing waters are found at Tehitlie, six
miles to the eastward of Aeneghiul, and are
consumed in large quantities in Constantinople.
Mineral waters are also found near the castle
at Smyrna, near Your la, on the Great and Little
Meander Rivers, and in many other places too
numerous to mention.
92
FIFTH RESOURCE.
Improvements in the Navigation of the Rivers :
Opening Out and Utilizing tiie Forests
belonging to the state.
Very few rivers in Asia Minor are now navigable;
but the following might be opened and rendered
navigable for some distance into the interior of the
country with a moderate outlay :—
1. The Sacaría; on the bar, at the mouth of which
the depth varies from six feet to four feet six inches,
flows through the Agatch Denis for a distance of
more than forty miles between banks covered with
forest timber. In its passage it is said to have
undermined and carried downward towards the
bar, timber weighing no less than ten thousand
tons, which now lies in the water-way, causing the
mouth to silt up, and greatly adding to the accu¬
mulation of sand-banks hi many parts of the river,
whereby the navigation is obstructed for a distance
of thirty miles from the mouth. It has been
affirmed that fifty labourers, with a sufficient
number of barges, could get rid of all this timber,
and, with it, many of the sand-banks, within a
term of two months, and the timber thus extracted
would pay the cost of the labour if sold for fire-
Avood.
The only other expense required, for the moment,
93
to render this river navigable is the labour of
cutting down perhaps one thousand trees, which
are undermined, and will ultimately fall into the
river and keep up the impediments to the naviga¬
tion. The jetties across the bar and other improve¬
ments required- at the mouth of the river would
cost, for the purpose of utilizing the forest,
£10,000.
The river would thus be rendered navigable for
steamers drawing from four to six feet, as far as
Ada Bazar.
Eight hundred sailing barques come to the river's
mouth annually to load timber. Forty thousand
tons of firewood, and the same weight of timber
are now shipped annually from the Sacaría. The
goods exported amount in value to about twenty-
five million piastres per annum, and the imports
to that locality to more than twelve million
piastres.
Seventy thousand tons of firewood could be
annually imported to Constantinople, with a profit
of twelve piastres per ton, and as much timber of
beach, oak, pine, and walnut, could be sold there
without fear of competition from any other
port.
The land lying contiguous to the River Sacaría is
very rich alluvion. Much of it is now generally
under water, and this might be drained and
rendered very productive were a small sum ex¬
pended in repairing the riyer banks,
94
A concession has already been obtained for the
institution of the navigation by Dr. Alexiades,
which, when carried out, will be of great utility,
and very much increase the State revenues from
that region.
2. The navigation of the Mughalitchtchai, the
ancient Rhyndacus, and of the Lake Apollonia
would render serviceable the fertile plains of'
Abetene surrounding that and Lake Melitopo-
litis, for the' purpose of fattening the sheep and
cattle destined for the supply of meat to the
metropolis, and would thereby reduce the price in
Constantinople to a minimum. This navigation,
if carried out with economy, by a gradual expendi¬
ture of capital, would undoubtedly yield a very
large return to the parties engaged therein; and
the revenue to the State would be also augmented
by the large increase in the land tax,' the tithe, and
the sheep tax, which must eventually accrue from
its institution.
Happily this enterprise has also been made the
subject of a concession, which it is to be hoped will
be carried out without delay.
3. The navigation of the Seitchuntchai("Sarus")
from the sea to Adana has been attempted, and will
no doubt eventually be carried out on a useful scale.
When that is effected the traffic of Adana, which
is now a Pashalic, will be considerably increased,
and the Plain of Adana (the'ancient Ale'ion fields)
will be drained and the malaria banished; they
95
will be well cultivated, and will regain their lost
reputation for fertility.
When the high road from Adana to Conia, com¬
menced in 1868, is completed, a further impulsion
will be given to the progress of that city, which
will then become a thriving centre of commerce.
4. The Kizil Yermak (Halys), the Yeshel
Yermak (Iris), the Meander, the Tigris, and the
Euphrates, all require stupendous works to render
them usefully navigable ; and when the proposed
system of railroads is completed, a partial naviga¬
tion only of these rivers will be all that can be
required to supply the wants of commerce.
The two first-named rivers intersect in their
course high mountain chains through which their
serpentine passage has not been explored within
the memory of man, in consequence of the want of
even a goat track between the water and the lofty
cliffs (sometimes a thousand feet high) by which it
is overshadowed. A long and wide rapid near the
mouth of the Yeshel Yermak, and sundry other
difficulties in its brief course, preclude the utiliza¬
tion of this water way; but the Kizil Yermak
having a coure of five hundred and fifty miles
from the mouth of Sivas would support a con¬
siderable outlay in the works required to render it
navigable.
The northern slopes of the chains of mountains,
forming the southern limit of the Black Sea, are
clothed with forests of pine, beach, oak, walnut,
96
and cherry trees, the outgrowth of ancient Greek
and Roman groves and gardens. The timber in
many places is of very superior quality, but never¬
theless, it remains in situ useless, to decay; because
neither roads nor rivers render practicable any
mode for its utilization.
The want of ports on the southern coast of the
Black Sea and of the means of communication
with the forests, suggest the promotion of a line of
communication by railway along the chain of hills
which form this water-shed. Timber, at all events,
would be forthcoming for the formation of the
road, which need not be, at first, constructed in
permanence on costly principles.
The railway from the Sacaria to Usulmez,*
ninety-seven miles long, would serve for one of
these forest-working lines as well as for the coal
traffic from the mines. The second railway would
extend from the Port of Filiasf (" Tium") to
Castamboli, also ninety-seven miles long ; and a
third from Castamboli to Cavza, again ninety-seven
miles long.
The two railways constructed for hauling timber
only in the first instance, should not cost more to
stock and open than about £800,000., and they
would pass through about forty thousand acres of
forest in a zone of a quarter of a mile wide on
each side of the railway. "
* Vide Appendix I,
t Vide Appendix I.
97
The other forests of importance are the Agatch
Denis, worked from the River Sacaría ; the Ghemlek
Forest, now worked by the Government for oak
for the Kavy; and the Aladagh Forest, east of the
Dardanelles, from which stone-pine timber for
sleepers is exported.
Any one of these forests let to a company might
be utilized by means of railways, and would then
yield a large revenue to the State.
Three thousand men with their families could,
at the lowest computation, be employed in this
industry. Steam-engines and saw-mills would
be imported. Some of the forest land would be
prepared for cultivation, and new land would be
planted annually with trees to supply our succes¬
sors with timber. . The State would gain revenue
from the timber utilized, from the augmentation
of the tithe on the extended surface of land
brought under cultivation, and from the increase
in the value of the house and land taxes.
APPENDIX No. I.
Sketch of a Proposal foe a Contention with the Imperial
Ottoman Government for Redeeming the State Ex¬
terior Debt bt. appropriating thereto a part of the
Undeveloped Resources of the Empire.
TnE following proposal is for the redemption of all the
foreign loans with the exception of those of 1854, 1855, and
1871, which are guaranteed hy the Egyptian Tribute and hy
Prance and England—
The nominal amount of these debts is about. £67,300,000
And the capital resulting from the issue .. 50,286,750
Capital already redeemed . . 9,550,000
Capital remaining to redeem . . £40,656,750
It is proposed to treat the above sum, £40,656,750, thé
amount of the capital accruing from the issue price less the
amount redeemed, in preference to the nominal amount, as the
total now to be provided for; because it is intended that the
property given in exchange for the loan shall be handed over
in payment at its present value, and then put in workable
condition at the expense of the Ottoman Government. The
enhanced value created thereby will greatly exceed in amount
the sum lost in commission ; hut will cost the Government
considerably less than that sum.
Por this redemption it is proposed to allot to the bond¬
holders Crown lands at the average price of £10 per acre.
These lands to be prepared for cultivation, as hereinafter
described, at the expense of. the Government.
They may be colonized, or if they contain mines and
quarries or forests, the minerals and timber can he worked
by the proprietors or by the colonists, or they may receive
compensation if opened and worked at the expense of other
parties.
99
During the colonization the Government will not i demand
any import dues ; but the colonists will pay tithes at the
expiration of the third year after their settlement.
■ The mines and forests to be worked in conformity with the
mine and forest laws at the time existing.
The lands which it is proposed to allot are principally
situated in the Western part of Asia Minor, in the neighbour¬
hood of the Straits, in order that the colonists may increase
the population, and with it the defensive power of those
regions.
The colonists in case of invasion will be bound to serve as
volunteers for the protection of the capital and the neighbour¬
ing coasts.
The undermentioned lands could be adapted to this purpose :
1. The water-shed of the River Ghediz
(Hermus) between Oushak and Smyrna, of
which one-fourth part may belong to the
Crown, 320,000 acres, one-fourth, say 80,000 acres
2. The water-shed of the Koom and
Ghiurdek Rivers, containing 213,333 acres,
of which one-fourth . . . . 53,333
3. The water-shed of the River Bakyr, of
which ..... 64,000
4. From Tchandiklce to the River Edre-
met, 482,560 acres, of which . . 319,701
5. The water-shed of the River Menderez
(Scamander), 101,760 acres, of which the
whole . . . . . 101,760
6. The water-shed of the Khodja River 113,920
7. The water-shed of the Rivers Maalitch,
Susurlu, Adramat, and Simav, of which
the half ... . . . 592,640
8. The water-shed of the Straits of
Isnik ..... 51,200
9. The water-shed of the River Inferior
Sacaría . . . . 75,126
10. The water- shed of the River Superior
Sacaría . ... . 90,909 „
Carried forward . . ' 1,542,589 acres
7 *
100
Brou gilt forward
1,542,589 acres
11. The water-shed of the River Meander
extending from Dineir and Sandyklœ, a
distance of 150 geographical miles, to the
dBgean Sea
. 3,200,000 „
4,742,589 acres
) 10
at ¿C10
£47,425,890
Debt to redeem
Balance
£40,050,750
0,709,140
Cost of the improvement works . ■ . £3,319,812
For the improvement of these lands the Government will
borrow sums from time to time not exceeding in the aggregate
£5,000,000 (at an issue price to bo fixed hereafter) from the
bondholders or others, who shall employ the proceeds in paying
the expenses of this undertaking as well as in carrying out
the following works :—
1. A general cadastral survey, showing boundaries of all
estates in the named localities.
2. The assessment of the land tax.
3. Making and repairing roads and establishing the means of
keeping them in order by, and at the expense of, the inhabitants.
4. Repairing the ancient fountains, wells, &e.
5. Fstablishing reservoirs to retain the torrents and irrigate
the lands, including certain works for confining rivers to
their beds.
6. Opening mines and making roads to facilitate the con¬
veyance of the ore.
The cost Of these works has been calculated for the water¬
shed of the Ghediz, an extent of about 320,000 acres, and the
estimated sum is £330,000 or, at the rate of about £1. 0s 7\d
per acre. As the other valleys named would require reservoirs
for irrigation only in a small part of - the upper districts, a
mean cost of 14s per acre' is estimated to suffice for the
required works, tover the entire area of 4,742,589 acres.
Balance for discount, Ac.
.3,449,328
£6,769,140
101
For carrying ont the objects of this Convention, it is
proposed to institute a Commission of ten members (furnished
with full powers from the Turkish Government), of which
the members shall be chosen by the two parties to the Con¬
vention, half by the Government and half by the bondholders,
in the following manner :—
- The two parties shall each choose. ten candidates ; and
from these twenty competent candidates each party shall
select an elector.
The elector of the Government shall namo four member^
chosen from the bondholders' candidates, and the elector of
the bondholders four from the Government candidates.
The Commission of ten members shall choose from among
themselves four officers—two to control the works ; one
accountant, to be responsible for all payments and receipts ;
and one auditor, who shall examine twice a-year and lay
before the hoard the financial state of the undertaking. These
functionaries shall be responsible and siibject to the Commis¬
sion, and shall make their report at each meeting.
They shall have full power to authorize all contracts and
payments by the signatures of the first-named three ; but all
their acts shall be revised and confirmed or revoked by the
Commission at its monthly meeting : and this without pre¬
judice to the controllers and accountant, unless the Commission
find them incompetent to protect the interests of the under¬
taking, in which caso the Commission will elect others from
amongst its members to replace them.
So soon as the boundaries of a part of the Crown lands aro
defined by the cadastral survey, they shall bo mortgaged by
the Government to the Commission, on account of the bond¬
holders. The Commission will then commence and execute
without delay the said improvement works ; and, when they
are completed, the Commission shall set about colonizing the
lands to the extent of one adult male, between the age of
20 and 50, for every ninety acres.
All outlay for the above-mentioned works shall be made
by the Commission on account of tho State to the
amount of 14s per acre, exclusive of all moneys expended by
the Commission for other purposes, such as colonization.
102
Tho Commission shall nominate inspectors and stewards
for the colonized lands, and guardians and distributors of the
irrigation water.
The lands thus prepared shall be let or sold at the option
of tho bondholders, on the condition that the parties receiv¬
ing the usufruct shall pay eight shillings for every thousand
cubic yards of water ; with the proviso, that every person
may take for his land as little water as he pleases, and as
much as can be allowed, having duo regard to tho wants of
others.
He shall also bo bound to keep in good repair the roads
which pass through bis land.
The irrigation works shall only be undertaken for supply¬
ing the said Crown lands unless the neighbouring proprietors
petition tho Commission to execute them, also to supply other
lands, and engage to pay the stated rate ; in -which case the
Commissioners aro empowered to raise a fund, if necessary,
•to pay for the extra work.
The Fiscil Advantages of this Convention ap.e as
follows :—
1. The redemption of the Exterior Debt, and
the liberation of the sources of revenue
engaged in guarantee . . £6,581,180
• 2. The augmentation of the tithe on
4,712,589 acres to at least double the
present amount : at £1. 0s3d. . 4,882,969
3. The increase of the sheep tax in the
proportion of . . . 500,817
4. The augmentation of Customs' dues . . 3,443,119
5. The water-rate (half-watered) . . 10,433,696
£25,841,781
Less interest at five per cent, on three
years' tithe, at £1 per acre . . 711,388
£25,130,393
To this profit should be added the increased revenue which
may be produced from the collection of a well-defined land
tax, and the royalty from minerals extracted from mines
newly opened or improved under this Convention.'
103
APPENDIX No. 2.
COAL MINING SPECULATIONS.
Heraciia Coal Mines.
Of these the Uselmez Mine, -which was formerly worked by
the English during the Crimean War, is said to be the only
working which can be made available in a short time at
a reasonable expense.
There is no port at Heraciia, and the roadstead is exposed
to the north and west. The consequent difficulty of loading
the coal is generally so considerable as to have debarred the
full working of these mines by the Government, and to have
already caused the failure of one private enterprise.
To convey the coal to Constantinople by laqd, at a cost
that would leave a profit on its sale, would necessitate the
construction of a branch minerals railway from the Iskmid
and Angora Railway, near the River Sacaría to-the mines,
a distance of 100 miles. This line would cost not less than
£600,000, on which the interest at five per cent, would be
£30,000. The mines would cost at least £12,000 to put
in working order, and the interest on that sum at eight per
cent, would be £960.
s. d. '
The cost of getting the coal to the surface,
in the present state of the mines, and for
several years to come, would not be less than 4 4 per ton.
The carriage by rail from Usulmez to Scutari,
186 miles, at fcZ per mile . . . 11 7 „
Storing and rent, &c. . . 7 „
Total cost at Scutari, per ton . . 16 6
At the time this estimate was made (1874), the Government
would have entered into a contract to buy 160,000 tons per
annum at 25s per ton, and the Constantinople trade might
have taken about 250,000 tons per annum at 30s per ton.
104
The local distribution would probably consumo 200,000 tons,
on which the railway carriage, taking the distance at half
the length of the railway from Usulmez to Scutari and the
freight at s. d.
\d per ton per mile, would he. . .55 per ton.
And the expense of getting, as before. .44 ,,
Making a cost of . . .99 per ton.
This coal might bo sold in the villages and at Iskmid
for not less than 15s per ton.
The local traffic of the railway from Usulmez to the River
Sacaría, could not ho deemed at present to produce more than
three per cent, on the capital sum expended in the construction
of the railway.
Thus, supposing the minerals railway to be made and
worked by the proprietors of the mine, the statement of
profit and loss may be estimated to be as follows :—
Receipts. Cost.
Interest at five per cent, per annum on £ £
cost of railway . ' . . 30,000
Interest on preliminary expenses, open¬
ing mines, &c. . . . 960
150,000 tons per annum, sold to
Government, at 25s per ton. . 187,500 123,750
250,000 tons per annum sold to the
trade, at 30s per ton. . . 375,000 ' 206,250
200,000 tons per annum sold to the
district, receipt 15s, cost 9s Qd . 150,000 97,500
Local traffic of the mineral branch line,
receipts three per cent., cost four <
per cent. . . . .• 18,000 24,000
Carriage of coal on minerals' branch
line, receipts ft?, expenses Id per ton
per mile .... 187,500 125,000
Management, oontingent and unfore¬
seen expenses , , . 60,746
668,206
Balance in favour of undertaking . 249,794
£918,000 918,000
105
Deduct from this balance the royalty on the coal, say of
Is per ton on 600,000 tons = . . .. £30,000
And 10 per cent, tithe on the actual profits of sale
of coal . . ... 28,000
There remains for dividend . . . . 191,794
£249,794
The balance of the railway receipts will be :
Interest on capital (£600,000) at five
per cent. . .
Local traffic ....
Carriage of 600,000 tons of coal
Balance in favour of railway .
Receipts.
Cost.
£
£
30,000
18,000
24,000
187,500
125,000
£205,500
179,000
. 26,500
£205,500
Dakhallah Coalfield.
A very large tertiary coalfield exists on the summit of the
chain of mountains called Darhallab Dagb, lying between
Idyl Keuy, Kirkagatch and Somma, in Asia Minor, at a dis¬
tance of about thirty-six miles by road from the Smyrna and
Cassaba railway station at Mannisa.
The coal produces a large quantity of gas, and, when burnt,
an unusually small quantity of white ash alono remains un-
consumed. It burns at a very low beat, and, containing no
perceptible trace of sulphur, is, therefore, well adapted for
making gas. Samples in small quantities taken from the
surface of the seam and tried in the gaswork's retorts and in
the locomotive furnaces, on the Smyrna and Cassaba Railway,
which are constructed to burn Newcastle coal, prove that it
is, under those unfavourable circumstances, at least equal to
two-thirds tho quantity of Newcastle coal. ' It may, therefore,
be presumed that in furnaces constructed for burning it, this
easily inflammable coal will be quite equal in valuo, for many
purposes, to any English coal imported into the Levant.
The coal lies in a nearly horizontal bed on tho summit of
lOG
the chain, on and covered by flat-bedded tertiary freshwater
limestones. The exterior parts of the mass, having been dis¬
located by slips, have fallen into the valleys and coombes on
the southern side of the chain, leaving a bench or terrace in
the mountain side. At the base of the rounded spurs thus
left remaining in situ, the seam on which the estimate as to
quantity is founded is exposed in many places, and presents a
face of coal twenty feet in thickness, all of which, in some
instances, is compact clean coal, and in other parts of the
seam is sbaley. The coal is thus made visible in so many
places at distances varying from 200 yards to three miles apart,
that its quantity can be estimated without having recourse
'to trial pits or mining operations of any description. The
traces alone demonstrate almost to a certainty that more than
30,000,000 tons may bo extracted through level drifts and
galleries commenced in the coal seam and driven entirely
through it, and no other material. In one long low ridge
on the summit of the chain, where an enterprising Greek has
pierced the seam for a distance (in 1873) of 150 yards, it is
plainly seen to be twenty feet thick, and eight feet of this mass
measuring vertically, across the seam, shown to be quite as
solid as and more brilliant than cannel-coal. The coal is here
surmounted by a mass of fiat-bedded fossiliferous limestone,
about thirty feet in thickness, most appropriate for building
material as well as for burning into lime, forming a very
advantageous roof under which to perform mining opera¬
tions. The table formed of the limestone on which the
coal reposes varies in width from one to four miles. It is in
some places pierced vertically by a ridge of shistose quartzite,
a rock peculiarly adapted for resisting fire in kilns and
furnaces. It would seem that the limestones and coal had
been deposited horizontally on the sides of these ridges of
quartzite, the beds of which are inclined at a very steep
angle, whilst in general the beds of 'coal and limestone are
very nearly horizontal.
The bench or terrace left by the displacement of the
strata for some distance along the south side of the chain is
more than sufficiently wide for a railway with all the necessary
turnouts and sidings. Where no bench is left the mass moved
107
in excavating for a railway would consist of coal and lime¬
stone. The bench thus formed is easily accessible from the
south, and a railway might be so placed as to ascend from the
vale along the side of the chain which makes the circuit of a
large valley and arrive at the bench with a gradient never
exceeding in steepness one foot in sixty.
From the southern limit of the chain to the railway station
at Mannisa the course of the railway would continue the
whole way along a fertile plain, producing at the present
time large crops of cotton, madder root, and corn. The only
work of any consequence along the whole railway would be
the crossing of the River Hermus (or Ghediz) at its junction
with the Koomtchai.
This line, including all the sidings and sheds required to bo
built preparatory to working the mine, would not cost (if con¬
structed as an ordinary minerals railway) more than £175,000.
It would connect the coalfield with the markets of Akhissar,
Mannisa, Menemen, and Smyrna, and with a population of
300,000, who would, when the coal came to be appreciated for
household purposes, appropriate at least 150,000 tons for
private consumption alone.
Limekilns, for the purpose of converting the refuse stone
into lime, should be built on the terrace in proximity with the
coal. The coal, wherever the depth below the surface (which,
as before said, consists of fiat-bedded limestone) did not
exceed thirty feet in thickness, should be got by " patching" or
open working ; the best building stone should be stacked for
sale ; and such of the remainder as was suited for the purposo
converted into lime in the kilns by means of the refuse coal
from the workings. Surplus rubbish could be tipped to Bpoil
on the side of the mountain and left to find its way to the
valley, six hundred feet below, which will hold all the refuse
that might otherwise encumber the mining operations. The
coal, stone, and lime to be sold or otherwise disposed of can
be conveyed by the minerals railway and deposited in stores
on several points on that line as far as Mannisa, and thence
by the Smyrna and Cassaba Railway to Smyrna. Along the
whole line it will be readily sold in large quantities for house
108
consumption, and will be disposed of at Smyrna to supply
the gas companies, tlio Mediterranean towns, and the local
steamers.
The heavy traffic on the minerals railway will be entirely
in one direction, namely, that of the fall of all gradients on
the line without exception.
The working expenses will, therefore, be reduced to a mini-
mum, and should not exceed one-third of a penny per ton per
mile; whilst the cost of carriage of goods at present by camels
or horses is never, under any circumstances, much less than
one shilling per ton per mile.
The tonnage of goods and the passengers carried annually
at the present time to and from the Smyrna and Cassaba rail¬
way station at Mannisa, over the district through which the
proposed line will pass, and the net profit on their conveyance,
are approximately as follows :—
To and from Mannisa and Akhissar, 5000 tons, 18
miles, at 3\d per ton per mile, net profit
To and from places beyond 30 miles, 4000 tons,
at 3\d per ton per mile, net profit
18,000 passengers, average "24 miles, at 1¿ per
mile, net profit . . . ...
Yearly net profits from passengers and goods
The facility and economy afforded for transport by the
minerals railway will not only increase the traffic of the dis¬
trict, but will also, no doubt, divert to Smyrna the traffic of
the regions about Balukesser, Kirkagatch, Pergamo and
Somma, which together export annually 50,000 tons of goods
through ports on the Sea of Marmora and at the mouth of the
Bakyr River ; but from these ports the goods are carried in
small open boats, and the voyage is consequently precarious.
There is no doubt, therefore, that at least 25,000 tons will be
carried by railway on the completion of the line ; the passen¬
gers also will be doubled in number.
Substituting, therefore, 20,000 tons, thirty miles for 4,000 in
£1312 10
1250 0
1800 0
£43G2 10
109
the statement, and doubling the number of passengers, the
estimate of net receipts on the opening of the minerals rail¬
way may be estimated to reach £13,662.
With respect to the net profit which may be anticipated
from the sale of coal, a great want of fuel in this part of Asia
Minor has materially restricted its manufacturing enterprise,
and limited to an inadequate quantity the home consumption.
A large local sale of coal may consequently be safely antici¬
pated, and the demand for coal at Smyrna to supply the ship¬
ping and gas companies on the Mediterranean will be very
considerable. The price there seldom falls below 37s per
ton.
Merchants in Constantinople have also affirmed that the
coal might be shipped thither from Smyrna at a cost of from
5s to 6s per ton, and sold there without competition for 35s.
The cost of the coal per ton, on its arrival at the junction of
the minerals railway with the Smyrna and Cassaba line near
Mannisa, will be —
s. d. s. d.
1. Getting and loading at the pit ..24
2. Royalty, say ..... 1 0
3. Carriage, 38 miles at \d per ton per
mile ...... 1 8 50
'4. Profit at the price of only 20s per ton
in Mannisa ..... 15 0
20 0
The additional 'cost to Smyrna for the 40
miles carriage on the Smyrna and
Cassaba Railway, will be at Id per ton
per mile .34'
Storage, &c . . . * . .10
Making the cost of the coal at Smyrna
per ton 9 4
And leaving a profit, at the price of 20s
(a price far below any yet paid for
coal at that port) of (per ton) . . 10 8
20 0
110
Tho local salo of coal for a present population of
130,000 cannot bo less per annum tlian
100,000 tons, whicb at 15« per ton will give . £75,000
Smyrna, for shipping and house consumption, will
bo 800 tons per week—41,600 tons per an¬
num, which, at only 10« per ton, will give a
net profit of, per annum .... 20,800
The coal exported from Smyrna for the gasworks,
waterworks, manufactories, for house con¬
sumption, and for shipping, for tho towns of
Constantinople, Athens, Alexandria, Beyruth,
and, perhaps, Brindisi, 200,000 tons per an¬
num, at a net profit of 5« per ton . . . 50,000
Tho profit to be derived from the sale of lime is estimated
to be as follows :—
The demand for that article in this part of Asia Minor is
large, and the supply is at present very limited ; as it is mainly
obtained at present from shells burnt on the shores of the
islands of the Archipelago.
The lime from the kilns which it is proposed to erect on the
terrace at Idyl Keuy, near the coal, can be prepared and loaded
in trucks at 2s per ton, and would find a ready market at 20«
per ton ; a rate somewhat lower than its present price.
At the kilns, if sold at 20« per ton,, the s. d. s. d.
profit would be . . . . 18 0 the cost 2 0
At Mannisa ditto ditto 16 11 ■„ 3 1
At Smyrna ditto ditto ' 10 9 „ 9 3
The average sale would not be less than the quantity here¬
under mentioned : —
At the kilns, 520 tons per annum, at. 18 0 . £475
£145,800
At Mannisa, 1560
At Smyrna, 7800
. 16 11
. 10 9
1319
4193
9880 tons . . • . . . £5987
probably be as follows ; tbe demand now amounting to about
25,000 cubic yards per annum.
Tbe cost of getting tbe limestone is included in tbe estimate
for getting tbe coal and lime.
Tbe loading would cost 3d per cubic yard. It could be
sold, therefore, with a profit of 5s per cubic yard.
At tbe pit for 5s 3d, tbe cost being 3d.
At Mannisa for 6s 4d, tbe cost being Is 4d.
At Smyrna for lis 4d, tbe cost being 6s 4d.
Tbe demand for stone would probably be greater along tbe
mineral line than at Smyrna, so that tbe price would be low,
and a profit of 5s per cubic yard would be made without
opposition.
To meet all possible contingencies, let one-half tbe amount
which it is expected will be sold be taken for tbe estimate.
Then 12,500 cubic yards at a profit of 5s per cubic
yard gives . . . • . . £3,125 0
From these different sources, therefore, tbe net profit or
revenue to be derived from tbe railway and tbe colliery, kilns,
stone, &c., may be safely taken to be as follows:—
Passengers and goods present traffic on tbe
minerals railway . . .- . • £4,362 10
Taking no account of tbe profit which would
accrue from tbe carriage of coal, lime, and
stone from tbe mine.
Sale of coal
Sale of lime
Sale of stone
145,800 0
5,987 0
3,125 0
Total net profit
Deduct eight per cent, of net profits
for management . ;
And ten per cent, on capital outlay
for depreciation of stock
. £159,274 10
£12,742
17,500
30,242 0
There remains for net profit
. £129,032 10
112
Tho sale of tlio lease of surplus lands in the elevated and
salubrious region in tho neighbourhood of the colliery for the
erection thereon of country houses will also be a considerable
sourco of profit, as it is to be anticipated that the 'wealthy
merchants of Smyrna will remove thither during the hot season.
A quantity of carbonato of iron in the shape of fossil
trunks of trees, which may also bo put to account in the
estimate of profits, is found in proximity with the coalas well
as in tho valley of the River Bakyr, where two iron foundries
are about to bo established. These foundries will require
coal as will also Kirkagatch, Somma, Bakyr, Pergamo, and
other towns of importance, which already take their coal in
small quantities from the mine to work cotton-gins and other
machinery as well as for house consumption.
This coal is now carried on horseback and costs the pur¬
chasers as much as 40s per ton, which price is now readily
paid. The quantity consumed by the places above-named is
not known ; but when an incline from the mine is constructed
to the River Bakyr, the cost of the coal in that valley would
be reduced two-thirds.
APPENDIX No. .3.
COPPER MINING ENTERPRISE.
The Aeqanáh Copper Mine.
This mine consists in a massive lode of copper and iron
pyrites, containing fourteen per cent, of copper. The mass
of ore at 100 feet below the surface of the table-land, from
which it is principally worked, extends 660 feet from east to
west and 380 feet from north to south.
Its depth is unknown, but it has been pierced vertically to
a depth of seventy-seven feet.
The matrix is euphotide and serpentine.
It is worked from roughly made shafts sunk from the
summit of the hill on the table-land under which the lode lies;
and these shafts are let to any enterprising miner who may
make a contract with the Crown to pay a certain royalty on
the ore extracted. Thus there are many persons interested in
113
the miné, working" together without'combination and ■without
order, each person's labour being confined to-his own holding.
The present annual produce* is 8560 tons of ore, giving
500 tons of refined copper. It is calculated that, under a
properly combined system, from 250,000 to 360,000 tons of
ore might be annually extracted.
The mine is supposed still to contain from the surfaoe.
to the level of the upper adit, now being driven. (about
sixty feet below the table), 312,230 cubic yards of ore. A.
gallery driven from the bank of the River Tigris will pierce
the hill 330 feet below the surface, and reach the ore when
about 3300 feet long.
■ The commercial value of the ore at Swansea is said to bo
£11. 10s per ton.
The estimate for getting 100,000 tons of oro per annum is
as follows :—
Preliminary outlay :
Cost of redeeming the different workings
„ of making an upper adit
142,075 piastres.
80,357 „
piastres 1,032,940
„ ,, a lower adit . . 460,000
„ „ shaft . ... 20,000
„ „ waggons and ways . . . 52,288
Divers expenses . 278,229
Total preliminary expenses
"Working expenses :
Labour and tools •
Carriage to surface—
By upper adit 25,000 tons
By lower, adit 20,000 „
By new shaft 15,000 ,,
By air shaft 40,000 „
Cost of breaking ore
Cost of timber, and wages of smiths and
drivers . . . .
Total capital required for commencing
works and working for one year
piastres 3,257,872
or about £30,000.
* In 1871. Kindly contributed by M. "VVeiss.
1,460,521 piastres.
72,512 „
78,713 „ .
39,450 „
51,727 „
182,200 „
339,800 „ ■
114
Taking twelve and a Ixalf per cent, of the preliminary
expenses as chargable annually to expenditure, we have
2,354,044 piastres, or £21,400, as the cost of getting 100,000
tons of oro. The value of the ore at Swansea is said to ho
£1,150,000, and the difference between that value and the
cost of getting, £1,128,000, is made up of the items of carriage,
royalty, and profit.
If a railway were constructed and opened from Arganah
to the mouth of the Djehantchai (or Pyramus), the cost of
transporting 100,000 tons to Swansea should not exceed
£200,000, the royalty £80,193, and the profit £775,741. -
Now, the cost of carriage of 100,000 tons to England under
present circumstances, may bo estimated at £2,000,000 or
£20 per ton. It is, therefore, not possible to transport the
ore, and it has to be reduced on the spot under most
disadvantageous circumstances, in consequence of the want of
fuel and proper appliances.
A single line of minerals railway from Arganah to the mouth
of the Pyramus, 420 miles, would cost £2,100,000 ; and the
profit on the mine, if 100,000 tons were extracted annually,
would give an interest of nearly 37 per cent, on the capital of
that railway, whilst the carriage alone of 100,000 tons would
give a gross annual receipt of . . • . £166,666
The present local traffic of the line may be
estimated to give a gross annual receipt of . 105,000
Total gross receipt .... . 271,666
Deducting fifty per cent, for working expenses, the
principal carriage being down hill . . . 135,833
There would remain for dividend . . £135,833
equivalent to more than six per cent, on the actual cost of the
railway; and this would increase and be developed rapidly
by the advantages of railway communication.
APPENDIX No. 4.
• NOTES ON THE KAILWAY TO INDIA.
■ The Executive of every civilized nation will always hold in
view the importance of establishing the most speedy means of
communication with all its colonies and dependencies. •
The British Government has invariably kept this precept
in view, and has always secured the best available means of
communication with its distant possessions ; not only by
granting subsidies in aid of those steam navigation com¬
panies who have undertaken from time to time the carriage
of the mails between England and its colonies : but also by
fitting out expeditions for exploring and surveying any new
lines of route which may have at any time been considered
available.
Before the opening of the Suez Canal, a subsidy of £12,000
per annum was paid to the Viceroy of Egypt for the convey¬
ance of the India Mail from Alexandria to Suez, and the
Oriental Steamship Company was subsidized for the India
Mails alone to the amount of £142,200 per annum.
In compensation for this large allowance, amounting in all
to £154,200 per annum, the Post Office secured the carriage
of five mails, only, both ways every month, and it consequently
paid about £2570 for each mail out and home.
The Viceroy, in accordance with his agreement, was to
receive 9s per mile for every additional mail which might be
dispatched through his territory.
If a subsidy of even half the amount, £1000, for the
journey out and home were paid to a company who had
established a railway to India, a daily mail alone between
England and India would bring in a receipt of £313,000 a
year, and would probably produce a profit to the Postal
Department from the charges for postage on the large increase
in the correspondence which would accrue from the facility
conferred by this rapid means of communication,.
116
That it would bo quite possible to construct and maintain
such a railway no one in these days should entertain a doubt.
Experience has already ßhown that the fact of collecting
together and employing a largo number of men unused
to regular wages, on useful and important works, has such a
tendency to advance the cause of civilization, that the process
alone of constructing a road or railway prepares the popula¬
tion for its maintenance ; and it is found that quite as few
malicious obstructions to the running of trains on railways
are produced in rude as in the most civilized countries.
In lands where the population is scanty and scattered, a
small guard would be sufficient to secure the line against any
damage from obstructions which might be placed on it by
foolish and curious strollers, such as shepherds or loiterers by
the way, until such time as the great advantages accruing
from the working of the line should have convinced the
inhabitants of the benefits conferred by its construction.
In the construction of such a grand line of communication
it would be of paramount importance to preclude the necessity
of breaking bulk at any time during the transport of goods,
and especially of passengers' luggage, between Great Britain
and India ; and this might easily be effected by the following
measures :—
Firstly—From the piers of Dover, Calais, and Ostende slips
could be so constructed as to form, at all times of the tide,
a prolongation of the several railways in those towns to the
water's edge, and the steam-vessels which carry the mails from
port to port could bo so built that their decks might, when
required, form a continuation of the railway on any of the
ships whereby the carriages containing the mails might
be transferred to and from the decks of the steam-ships by the
simple process of traction.
Secondly—A bridge across the Danube should be constructed
to connect the Ottoman with the Austrian systems of railways.
From Constantinople three lines of route are open :
The first, from the Scutari and Ismid Bailway, passing
near Angora and through Sivas and Diabekyr to Mosul and
thence to the frontier at Cuz Calay and across Persia to Heraat,
Candahar, and Moultan.
117
' The second, ; from the : same railway, passing through
Ghieveh, Tenishehr, and Eskishehr to Affium Carahissar and
thence .through Conia, Akserai, and Samsat to Mosul ; and
further, as in the first route.
The third, across the Sea of Marmora, through Mudania,
Brussa,. and Cutaya, to join the second line at Affium
Carahissar, and thence, as in the second route.
The first of these routes traverses an intricate and thinly
populated country, the construction of the railway would be
costly, and the line would serve very few of the rich central
towns of Asia Minor. It'also forms part of the concession of
a line to Sivas, already long ago granted by . the Ottoman
Government; but which has probably now lapsed.
. The second, from the port of Iskmid through Ghieveh
to Eskishehr ; and Affium Carahissar, though by far the more
populous line of country, would be longer and at the same
time intricate and costly. It may, consequently, be found
more desirable to adopt the third route, which would serve
the two large towns of Brussa and Cutaya, and pass through
a very fertile country lying between those towns. By this
route it would be necessary to make the passage in a railway-
decked ship carrying the train across the Sea of Marmora to
Mudania, a distance of about forty-eight miles, where a good
port and pier might be constructed at a comparatively trifling
expense. For four such vessels, capable of making the voyage
in two hours and a-half, as well as for the construction of a
jetty and breakwater at Mudania, the cost would be £250,000,
and the local traffic about £18,000 per annum.
, A preliminary investigation has already decided that
Mudania possesses a sufficiently sheltered roadstead, and, in
other respects, affords the largest amount of accommodation
for traffic of any town on the south coast of the Sea of
Marmora.
From either of these ports the railway will have to ascend
at least 3000 feet before reaching Cutaya, and undoubtedly
some heavy earth-works will have to be executed. The line,
however, through Cutaya as far as Affium Carahissar, with
its rolling stock, will certainly not cost more than £9500 per
mile.
118
Over part of this lino—tho distance between Mudania
and Brussa—a railway has already been constructed by the
Ottoman Government, and one-fourth of the rise is thus
already surmounted.
, It is to be presumed that the Smyrna and Cassaba Railway
Company, which has been established and at work for twelve
years, will havo completed its lines to Affium Carahissar
contemporaneously with the India Railway, and, if that be the
case, a largo traffic from Smyrna to Constantinople and
the North would immediately have to be provided for.
This traffic has been estimated at £25 per mile per week,
and it is probable that the local traffic between Affium
Carahissar, Cutaya, and Brussa, the ancient capital of the
Othmanlies and the popular summer residence of the Con-
stantinopolites, might be equal to as much more.
Thus, the railway between Constantinople and Affium
Carahissar (190 miles), when working in conjunction with the
Smyrna and Cassaba Railway, would yield an immediate gross
revenue at the rate of £1300 per mile per annum.
From Affium Carahissar to Akserai, a distance of about
200 miles, the line would pass for the most part over a flat
plain, and no difficulties in construction would be encountered.
The cost of this part of the railway, inclusive of rolling
stock and all requisites for the establishment of a through,
line to India, may be estimated, if the railway to Smyrna is
completed, at about £7000 per mile.
The goods traffic on this part of the line will consist in the
export and local transit of minerals, timber, grain of all sorts,
wool and valonia ; and of the import of manufactured good3
and machinery, principally from Smyrna, to the large towns
of Carahissar, Akshehr, Conia, Akserai, and Caisareah.
The land, which is very fertile in some places, supports a
large population; and that will be everywhere, as usual,-
largely augmented by the increased facilities for communica¬
tion afforded by the railway. The minimum receipts from'
the traffic of this part of the railway may be estimated at
£1040 per mile per annum.
s The course of the line from Akserai through Samsat
to Diabekyr, a length of about 390 miles, has not been
119
visited by the author; hut the Government surveyors and
others have pointed out the best direction for the line, and
merchants dealing with those districts have furnished him
with the quantities of goods exported from the district
through which it passes, and the total produce indicated by
the amount of the tithes. If the cost of the railway për mile
be set down at £10,000, it is, in his opinion, certain to
suffice for its construction. The population of the country
around Samsat is large, and the soil very productive. The
traffic both ' in passengers and goods may be estimated to
produce a minimum receipt of £1500 per mile per annum
within a year after the opening of the railway.
The produce of this district is as diversified as its climate,
and consists of minerals, timber, grain, madder-root, valonia,
wool, carpets, silk, cotton, fruit, wine, and oil.
To aliment the line, and more especially to aid in its
construction, it will be particularly necessary to construct a
branch line from the sea at Ayas—where a good port can be
constructed at comparatively small cost—through Marash, to
join the main line at Ghiul Bashi. This branch will be about
175 miles long, and will probably not cost more than £7500 per
mile, as it communicates directly with the sea, and passes, for
the greater part of its length, over nearly even ground. The
materials carried over it, as soon as opened, for the construc¬
tion of the main line, will at once give it a paying traffic ; but
the local traffic will be sufficient, with that from the Govern¬
ment mines in the neighbourhood of Diabekyr, to pay a
good dividend on the cost of construction. The gross
receipts may be estimated on a moderate computation at not
less than £1100 per mile per annum.
• Brom Diabekyr to Mosul, a distance of about 208 miles,
the construction of the railway will be comparatively easy.
The country is said to be fertile near the hills, and by means
of irrigation, which can bo very economically effected, the
whole of the district may be rendered most prolific.
• The cost of construction, including rolling stock, will bo
enhanced by its distance from any port ; but, allowing amply
for the extra cost of carriage, it cannot exceed £9000 per mile.
120
The produce of the districts around Diabekyr is similar
to that of the last-mentioned, supplemented by the ore
extracted from the mines in the neighbourhood. The quan¬
tities, however, of the several articles of traffic vary consider¬
ably with the climate, which changes here as the line descends
from the high ground into the warmer regions of Messopota-
mia. A receipt of £1400 per mile per annum, may perhaps
bo expected in the lapse of a year after the opening of the
railway in this district.
From Mosul a branch line through Bagdad to Cooyet, on
tho Persian Gulf, will no doubt be required, and will be
especially necessary for bringing the through traffic from
India to tho railway before tho completion of the line through
Persia to Moultan. This branch line, about 640 miles in
length, will pass through the most populous part of the
thinly inhabited and little cultivated districts of Mesopotamia ;
but the railway will afford the means of providing for
irrigation from the Tigris, and the land will thereby soon
become more thickly peopled and productive.
The local traffic here, a year after the opening of the line,
cannot, with certainty, be estimated to exceed £520 per mile
per annum. The cost of construction will probably be limited
with rolling stock to £7500 per mile.
From Mosul to Moultan through Heraat and Candahar, a
distance not exceeding 2200 miles, the works in several places
will undoubtedly be heavy, and the carriage of rails and
other materials expensive ; but, as the line of railway, after
attaining the summit level at'Koom, will generally follow the
direction of tho plains between the chains of hills which
intersect the surface of the Shah's territory, the works, which
will not include expensive viaducts, can hardly in the aggre¬
gate be more costly than those in Asia Minor. Allowing
£2400 as the average for extra cost of carriage and for any
other unforseen expenses of construction, we arrive at a cost of
£11,000 per mile. The local traffic in a country so neglected
and impoverished can hardly be expected to yield a gross
receipt exceeding £800 per mile.
Thus the total cost and local traffic of the railway from
121
Constantinople to Moultan may be roughly estimated as
follows :—
Coat.
Miles.
traffic.
£ £
From Constantinople to Mu-
dania by sea . .48 250,000 18,000
From Mudania to Affium
Carahissar . . . 190 1,805,000 247,000
From Affium Carahissar to
Akserai . . 200 1,400,000 208,000
From Akserai to Diabekyr . 390 3,900,000 585,000
From Diabekyr to Mosul ' . 208 1,872,000 291,200
Branch to main line from
Ayas through Marash . 175 1,312,500 192,500
Branch from Mosul to Cooyet 640 4,800,000 332,800
Total to the Persian Gulf,
including branch to Ayas . 1851 15,339,500 1,874,500
From Mosul to Moultan, say, 2200 24,200,000 1,760,000
Grand Totals . 4051 £39,539,500 £3,634,500
The Post Office subsidy which, as before said,
we might reasonably expect would give an
addition to the gross receipts of . . 313,000
3500 first-class passengers, at £46 per journey
out or home . . . . 161,000
5000 second-class passengers, at £30 „ „ . 150,000
10,000 tons of goods, at £25 ,, „ . 250,000
Postal subsidies from other Governments and
transport of soldiers and officials ; at £50 per
mile . . . . . 202,550
4,711,050
Expenses. One mail and two mixed trains out
and home daily, at 6s per T.M., including
expenses of guards, etc. . . . 2,661,507
Net revenue from traffic . . £2,049,543
Giving about 5£ per cent, on a capital of £39,539,500.
122
A comparison of tlie time occupiod by the several routes
proposed and existing, in making the journey from London to
Calcutta at the same rates of speed as those at which the
Continental mails are at present carried, would, when the
railway through European Turkey is completed, he as follows :
1. Through Calais, Cologne, Passau, Vienna, Constantino¬
ple, Mosul, Candahar, and Moultan, 10 days.
2. By the samo route as far as Mosul and then hy Cooyet
and the Persian Gulf to Bombay by sea and by railway to
Calcutta, 15 days.
3. Through Calais by the most direct route, through
Brindisi and thence to Alexandretta, and by the proposed
Euphrates Valley line and the Persian Gulf through Bombay
or Currachee to Calcutta, days.
4. By the present overland route through Brindisi, Alex¬
andria, and Suez, 22| days.
The price of a first-class ticket to Calcutta is now £85,
and when the direct overland railway is made it could be
£84.
The advantage in time, therefore, of the proposed overland
route, as compared with the present route, is as one to two ;
and the difference in cost unimportant. It may, therefore, be
affirmed that the proposed railway will economize at least half
of the present cost of the journey in time and money.
Strategically it will be of unprecedented advantage : as the
nations through whose land it passes will become for ever
allied to Great Britain ; and in respect of progress it will
cause, firstly, the pacification and, ultimately, the civilization of
the ever-turbulent hordes who inhabit Central Asia.
The statements put forward in this Essay for the sake
of arriving at an approximate calculation of the cost and
profit of a railway to India, are made, not as established facts,
but only as circumstantial estimates which the author is
thoroughly aware are open to correction ; and he trusts that
they will be well criticised and thoroughly discussed and
corrected ; for it is only by this means that the objects of
this Essay, namely, the promotion of public works in Turkey
for the improvement of the country and the payment of its
debt, will be attained. •
123
That the construction of an overland railway to India
should to this day have been considered by those in power, to
be only a chimera of its promotora is a misfortune, that has
retarded the progress of civilization in Central Asia; a
misconception, that will cause the greater difficulty and expense
the longer the undertaking is thereby delayed. The railway
has become an absolute necessity, if we are not to be constantly
embroiled in hostile encounters with the tribes of Central
Asia and their allies. Ten years ago its construction would
have been more easily effected. But the difficulties of the
moment are not insurmountable. A firman from the Sultan
would still carry a party of well-disposed surveyors safely
through Afghanistan. It is to be hoped that the question may
now be thoroughly discussed, and become a realized fact to
Her Majesty's advisers.
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