Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/265

 77/1? Turkish Capitulations 255 tian states in Syria the foreigners received sometimes the concession of a whole street or even of a quarter of the city for their churches, residences, mills and baths, and in some cases of lands adjacent to the city. But in all these Oriental states the western merchants had the privilege of exterritorial jurisdiction. These concessions seem to have been due to a recognition of the wide difference between the eastern and the western civilization, laws, customs and manners, and to have been deemed conducive to the harmonious life of the natives and the foreigners. They were a natural outgrowth of the conditions in which these peoples of diverse origins found them- selves and were regarded as no more beneficial to the foreigners than to the natives. Pradier Fodere, who gave special study to this subject, thinks that the Mohammedans were very ready to grant large privileges to the foreign merchants because of their disinclination to leave their own country for the purposes of trade, and because of their lack of experience in navigation, and their need of attracting for- eigners to make use of their extended coast, their fine harbors and their abundant products.' As iVIohammed II., when he captured Constantinople in 1453, was familiar with these usages, which had been followed in Moslem and Christian seaports of the Levant for three or four centuries, and which on the whole had contributed to the harmony between the natives and the foreigners, it is not surprising that he decided to grant to the foreign residents in his domain substantially the same privileges which they had previously enjoyed. It afforded him the simplest and easiest method of administration. It was for his convenience quite as much as for theirs that he left large liberty to the conquered Greeks, and soon confirmed to the Greeks and Venetians and other nations the privileges they had enjoyed under the old Empire. He was inspired by real statesmanship. It may well be doubted whether he supposed that he was exercising special generosity to the foreign powers. When Francis I. of France found himself engaged in his great conflict with the Emperor Charles V., he threw aside the scruples which Christian sovereigns had generally entertained against form- ing an alliance with the Moslems, and sought the friendship of the Sultan Suleiman, who was also opposing the German Emperor. One of the results of this friendship was the granting by the Sultan of what is generally called the First Capitulation. Unhappily the text of this important document is lost. But as we have later Capit- ulations, which we have every reason to suppose do not differ es- > Revue de Droit International, 1869, p. 119.