Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/506

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TURKEY.

Exports from Turkey and

Imports of British Home j

Years

Tributary States to

Produce into Turkey and

Great Britain

Tributary States

1860

£

5,505,781

£

5,237,105

1861

4,839,607

4,026,441

1862

8,020,775

4,244,865

1863

6,058,531

6,898,992

1864

6,306,315

7,503,988

1865

5,845,753

7,174,960

1866

5,884,336

7,089,969

1867

4,762,483

7.057,863

1868

7,658,711

8,157,701

1869

—

9,059,856

7,846,323

To the exports from Turkey to the United Kingdom the Asiatic portion of the empire contributes very little, not having been on the average of the years 1860-69, more than 100,000/. per annum. On the other hand, the imports of British produce into Syria and Palestine amount to about one-seventh of the total for the Empire, having been 1,243,753/. in 1868, and 1,175,382/. in 1869.

The two staple articles of the exports of Turkey to the United Kingdom, in recent years, have been corn and cotton. The corn exports of 1869 were of the total value of 4,206,400, of which amount 630,168/. was for wheat; 508,320/. for barley : 3,053,777/. for maize, and 14,135/. for other kinds of corn and grain. The ex- ports of cotton, which only amounted to 218/. in 1860, rose to 1,560,968/. in 1864; but sank again to 1,237,385/. in 1865; to 549,095/. in 1866; to 234,631/. in 1867; and to 506,972/. in 1869. The most important article of British imports into Turkey is manu- factured cotton. The imports of cotton and cotton yarn amounted to 4.468,087/. in 1864; to 4,275,253/. in 1865; to 5,232,433/. in 1866 ; to 4,468,050/. in 1867 ; and to 3,584,779/. in 1869.

Turkey, which formerly possessed numerous manufactures, has come to be at present almost entirely an agricultural country. The only branches of manufacture still flourishing are the weaving of coarse woollen and cotton goods in various parts of the empire, together with the making of light silks, and gold and silk embroidery in Cyprus. The camlets of Angora, the sandals of Scio, the printed calicoes of Tokat, the crapes and gauzes of Salonica, the carpets of Smyrna, still form a considerable portion of the home trade ; but the commercial exchange of these and other articles, and intercourse generally, is kept in a very backward state for want of roads. A plan for the construction of a network of railways was adopted by the Imperial Government in 1859, but up to 1870 only two lines had been made in European Turkey.