Syria: An Economic Survey 



engage in this business. On the other hand there are Arab usurers 

 in the villages who make the fellaheen pay them enormous rates 

 of interest, up to 75-100 per cent. 



B. Currency. Before 1916 there was a bewildering diversity 

 in Syrian currency, as the gold lira introduced in 1844 did not 

 permit of a uniform division, being worth from 123 piastres in 

 Tripoli to 255 piastres in Gaza. The banks had to keep book 

 according to the local value of their piastres. Besides, the value 

 of the silver piastre was reckoned only on the basis of the govern- 

 ment piastre (Piastre Sagh). Another complication arose from 

 the fact that while in 1844 a fixed relation was established between 

 gold and silver, the subsequent depreciation of silver caused the 

 government to introduce free coinage of silver. The silver coins 

 (Mejidieh) did not constitute a legal tender and consequently they 

 could not retain their original relation to the gold lira. This re- 

 sulted in a considerable discount, amounting to 8 per cent in 1880. 

 The government subsequently recognized the mejidieh as legal 

 currency, but fixed its value at 19 piastres instead of 20 piastres. 

 This unpopularity of the mejidieh resulted in a lack of change. 

 Besides the mejidieh and the half and quarter mejidieh of 

 silver, there is the copper bishlik, used especially in Beirut and in 

 Palestine. The bishlik is worth 2^ government piastres and is 

 divided into ten metalliks of ten para each. Half bishliks and 

 quarter bishliks exist as well, also silver one and two piastre pieces, 

 and metalliks, two metalliks, four metalliks and half metallika 

 of nickel. 



In April, 1916, the government fixed the lira at 100 piastres 

 and the mejidieh at 20 piastres of 40 para each. Silver coins must 

 be accepted as payment up to the amount of 300 piastres; other 

 small currency up to 50 piastres. Up to the time of the war 

 Turkey had no paper money other than the notes of the Banque 

 Imperiale Ottomane, but now the government has issued its own 

 paper money (50.5 Itq., 1 Itq., V 2 Itq., % Itq., and 20.5, 2i/ 2 , 2 

 and 1 piastres). 



VII. Insurance. 



The insurance business is mostly in the hands of foreign com- 

 panies with agencies in Syria. There is one Turkish company, 

 the Societe Generate d' Assurance of Constantinople, which writes 

 life, fire and transportation insurance. In Palestine the sums 

 insured by life insurance companies amount to about 15,000,000 

 francs, with yearly premiums of 600,000 francs. The business is 

 remunerative, as the mortality is very low, there being few acci- 



70 



