Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/681

Rh GEOGRAPHY.] TURKEY 655 sided over by their respective consuls. Cases between foreigners of different nationalities are heard in the court of the defendant, and between foreigners and Turkish subjects in the local courts, at which a consular dragoman attends to see that the trial is conducted according to law. The trade returns for the last few years show that the country is slowly recovering from the disastrous consequences of the Russo- Turkish War. For the four years 1882-86 the exports from and imports to Turkey were valued as under : 1SS2-3 1883-4 Exports. 1 Imports. Exports.i Imports. 10,900,000 9,550,000 17,000,000 17,350,000 1884-5 11,326,000 18,263,QPO 1885-6 10,690,000 17,702,000 The share of the chief foreign states in these exchanges is shown in the subjoined table 2 for the years 1884-85 and 1885-86 : Imports from Exports to Great B France. ritain 1884-5. 1885-6. 1884-5. 18S5-6. 8,304,000 7,755,000 2,225,000 2,050,000 3,800,000 3,468,000 1,204,000 1,556,000 563,000 536,000 395,000 318,000 275,000 166,000 553,000 482,000 228,000 565,000 254,000 261,000 3,923,000 4,083,000 1,113,000 366,000 339,000 500,000 63,000 7,990 88,000 2,525 4,031,000 3,296,000 1,001,000 341,000 327,000 . 437,000 107,000 7,450, 96,000 9,486 Austria Russia. Italy. Greece. United J Persia. states Roumau Belgium ia. . . . The chief staples of the export trade are raisins (1,370,000 in 1884-85), wheat (900,000), cotton (700,000), opium (500,000), olive oil (450,000), valonia (450,000), barley (332,000), figs (200,000), sesame (196,000), maize (194,000), pulse (185,000) nuts (184,000), mohair (145,000), wool (140,000), dates (115,000); and of the import trade cotton and cotton stuffs (4,350,000, in 1883-84), cereals and flour (1,350,000), sugar (1,150,000), draperies, hosiery, &c. (735,000), woollen stuffs (650,000), coffee (535,000), metals (516,000), ironmongery (475,000), dyes (450,000), silk and silk stuffs (400,000), petroleum (375,000), hides and skins (255,000), live stock (236,000), chemicals (167,000), coal (135,000). In the next table are given the principal seaports of the empire with their imports, exports, and shipping for 1886 : Alexandria Exports. Imports. Vessels entered. Tonnage. 11,710,000 9,417,000 2,706,000 1,660,000 1,670,000 787,000 1,904,000 995,000 201,000 633,000 169,000 310,000 281,000 185,000 709,000 111,000 240,000 ? 1249 9072 1645 5440 626 473 6063 4009 778 3760 501 1371 712 261 1000 1040 1,020,000 5,195,000 1,363,000 574,000 351,000 455,000 478,000 618,000 145,000 491,000 272 ,000 115,000 1,109,000 54,000 459,000 317,000 j Constantinople Smyrna 4,331,000 1,362,000 1,022,000 806,000 715,000 602,000 457,000 385,000 298,000 231,000 222,000 212,000 172,000 121,000 120,000 119,000 Saloniki Iskanderoon and Tripoli Samsun, with Ordu and Unieh. . Trebizond and Kirasun Beyrut, with Akka and Haifa. . Kavala Crete (six ports) Dedeagatch Tripoli (Africa) Burgas Gallipoli and Rodosto Suez Benghazi Jaffa Jeddah Exclusive of coasting craft, the mercantile fleet of Turkey in 1885 consisted of 14 steamers of 11, 000 tons and 400 sailing vessels of 65,000 tons. All branches of the foreign trade, together with most of the local traffic and the banking business, are almost exclusively in the hands of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and foreigners. The Turks and other Mohammedans are engaged nearly altogether in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. But the land, especially in Anatolia, is gradu ally passing from its Moslem owners into the possession of Christian mortgagees. Scarcely any accurate agricultural returns are avail able, except for one or two districts. In the Erzeroum vilayet in 1886 3 the live-stock stood as under, sheep 1,485,000, goats 645,000, oxen 470,000, buffaloes 48,000, horses 61,000, asses 42,000, mules 5000; beehives numbered 80,000. The chief agricultural produce for the same year was wheat 16,690,000 bushels, barley 13,297,000 bushels, beans 46,250 cwts., melons 17,000 cwts., mulberries 10,000 cwts., other fruits 40, 000 cwts. In the same year of the 1 2, 000 square miles constituting the Trebizond vilayet 2100 were under cultiva tion, 1860 uncultivated, 2520 woodland, and 5520 highland pastur age, the annual yield being about 2,300,000 cwts. of cereals, 1,000,000 cwts. of nuts, fruits, vegetables, &c., and 500,000 cwts. of fodder; 1 Exclusive of tobacco, which for fiscal reasons is not included in the general trade returns, but the export of which amounted to 11,500,000 in value for 1884-5, and nearly 11,000,000 for 1885-6. - Consul-General Fawcett s Report for July 1887. p. 31. 3 Cons. Rep. for July 1887. whilst of live-stock there were 300,000 sheep and goats, 150,000 horses, 25,000 mules and asses, 60,000 oxen. 4 Previous to 1880 Turkey was commonly regarded as practically Finance, bankrupt. But since then a considerable improvement has been effected. Trustworthy data are still wanting ; but a careful estimate gave the gross revenue and expenditure of 1884 at T16,313,000 and T16,223,000 respectively, the expenditure including over T4,000,000 available for state creditors. The public debt stood at 106,437,000 in 1882. The sultan is reported to draw a sum of from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 annually from the public revenues for the support of the seraglio or imperial household of over five thousand persons. Until 1886 the military service, compulsory on all Moslems over Army. 18 years of age, was kept up by 45,000 annual recruits drawn by ballot ; but in November of that year universal conscription of the whole able-bodied male population was decreed. By this measure the army, hitherto reckoned at about 160,000 men, with a war strength of from 450,000 to 500,000, will be probably raised to a permanent footing of 1,000,000 effectives under the flag and in the reserves. These will continue to be grouped in the three categories of the nizam or regulars in active service, the redif or first reserve, and the mustahfiz or second reserve. There is to be a considerable increase of cavalry, all conscripts being allowed to join that branch of the service who have the means of providing themselves with mounts and equipment. For military purposes the empire is divided into seven divisions, with headquarters at Constantinople, Adrianople, Monastir, Erzingian, Baghdad, Damascus, and Sanaa, all except Sanaa (for Yemen) hitherto furnishing an army corps for the nizam and two for the redif. The navy at the beginning of 1887 comprised 15 large and Navy, several smaller ironclads (monitors, gunboats, &c.), a number of mostly old-fashioned steamers, and 14 torpedo boats, and was manned by 30,000 sailors and 10,000 marines (nominal strength), raised by conscription or voluntary enlistment and serving for 12 years in the active and reserve classes. Public instruction is much more widely diffused throughout the Educa- empire than is commonly supposed. This is due partly to the tion. Christian communities, notably the Marouites and others in Syria, the Anatolian and Roumelian Greeks, and the Armenians of the eastern provinces and of Constantinople. Education is practically limited amongst the Mohammedans to reading and writing and the study of the Koran. But amongst the Christians, especially the Armenians, the Greeks of Smyrna, and the Syrians of Beyrut, it embraces a considerable range of subjects, such as classical Hellenic, Armenian, and Syriac, as well as modern French, Italian, and English, modern history, geography, and medicine. Large sums are freely contributed for the establishment and support of good schools, and the cause of national education is seldom forgotten in the legacies of patriotic Anatolian Greeks. Even the Turks are be stirring themselves in this respect, and great progress has been made during the last twenty years in the Erzeroum vilayet. 5 In 1886 that province contained 1216 schools and 163 madrasas (colleges), with a total attendance of 25,680, including 1504 girls. Elsewhere few official statistics are available. Besides administrative and financial reforms, one of the most Commu- pressing needs is improved means of communication. In Trebizond nication. the route from the coast at Unieh through Niksar to Sivas has recently been completed to the limits of the vilayet. But the works on the more important road from Kirasun to Kara-hissar for the silver and lead mines at Lijessy are still suspended, owing to dis putes between the contiguous provincial administrations. Many of the great historic highways are also much out of repair. At the end of 1885 only 1250 miles of railway were completed in the em pire, of which 903 were in Europe and 347 in Asia. The chief lines are those connecting the capital with Adrianople (210 miles), Adrianople with Saremby (152), Salouiki with Uskub (150), Zenica with Brod (118), Uskub with Mitrovitza (75), and Kulleli with Degeagatch (70) in Europe, and, in Asia, Scutari with Ismid (40), Smyrna with Ala-Shehr (130), and Smyrna with Denizli (170). By imperial decree (August 1887) a contract was granted to an English syndicate for the extension of the Ismid line and the construction of a system of Asiatic railways to extend to Baghdad within the space of ten years. The telegraph system is much more developed, comprising (1885) 14,620 miles, with 26,100 miles of wire and 470 stations. The yearly average of letters and packages of all sorts sent through the 710 post-offices scarcely exceeds 2,600,000. Most of the foreign postal service is conducted through the British, Austrian, German, French, and Russian privileged post-offices. For the ethnography of the Turks, see TURKS. (A. H. K.) PART III. LITERATURE. In all literary matters the Ottoman Turks have shown themselves a singularly uniuventive people, the two great schools, the old and the new, into which we may divide their literature, being closely Cons. Sep., May 1887. 3 Cons. Rep., July 1887, p. 4.