572 



MOROCCO. 



Natural Resources. Morocco has been always 

 closed to European commerce, except the port 

 of Tangier, owing to the jealousy of its rulers 

 and the fanaticism of the inhabitants. Even 

 travelers and explorers have been excluded, 

 and not till recently have the great natural 

 resources of the country been even suspected. 

 The climate, cooled by the snow-capped Atlas 

 in the south and by the breezes of the Atlantic, 

 is mild and genial. The soil, especially in the 

 southern part of the country, is exceedingly 

 fertile. Large navigable rivers flow through 

 the land, the Azamoor and the river of Rabat 

 being the most important. 



Political and Economic Conditions. Although 

 descended from the Moors, who for four cent- 

 uries governed Spain and built the cities of 

 Cordova, Seville, and Granada, and although 

 possessing now one of the finest countries in 

 tlie world, the inhabitants of Morocco have 

 been reduced to misery and barbarism by op- 

 pression. The Sultan, as the successor of the 

 Caliphs of Cordova, does not acknowledge the 

 superiority of the Sultan of Turkey, but con- 

 siders himself the head of the faithful. His 

 spiritual character enables him to exercise 

 absolute despotic power over the Berbers and 

 Arabs, which the present Sultan and his pred- 

 ecessors have so abused that the laws are 

 simply instruments of pillage and oppression, 

 and every person seeks to hide his property 

 lest he should lose both it and his life or lib- 

 erty. The authorities of the state, from the 

 Sultan down, plunder those beneath them. 

 Muley Hassan is said to have amassed enormous 

 wealth. There is no Minister of Finance or 

 Treasurer, and the key of the treasury, which 

 is supposed to be in Mequinez, is kept by the 

 Sultan. It often happens that the meanest 

 slave is raised to the highest office of state, 

 and as often that the most upright official is 

 ordered to execution. The Sultan is conse- 

 crated by the Grand Sherif of Wazan, who 

 exercises a power only second to that of the 

 Sultan, and is held in such fear and veneration 

 that his mere presence in battle has often de- 

 cided the fortunes of the day. Education in 

 Morocco is usually confined to learning by rote 

 a few chapters of the Koran. Justice is ad- 

 ministered daily in the residence of the pasha 

 of each province. Stealing is punished by cut- 

 ting off the hands or feet. The officials receive 

 no [iay, but are at liberty to extort as much as 

 they like from those under them, while they 

 are obliged to deliver large sums to the Sultan. 

 Every officer, from the Minister of State 

 down to the sheikh of a village, pays for his 

 appointment, and must pay to confirm in 

 office. Their exactions and arbitrary assess- 

 ments are the cause of frequent revolts. No 

 one takes pains to make the ground more 

 productive, because its produce would be 

 seized by the Government. The merchants 

 an- compelled to carry on their trade secretly, 

 to conceal their stock, and to bury their sav- 

 ings. When a pasha is suspected' of having 



amassed great wealth, it is no uncommon 

 occurrence for the Sultan to invite him to 

 the capital and after his arrival cast him 

 into prison and load him with chains until he 

 parts with his gains. The inmates of the pris- 

 ons die in great numbers, from foul air, cruel 

 treatment, and starvation. The law requires 

 every man to give a tenth part of his goods to 

 the poor, but the tithes are collected by the 

 Sultan's officers, and the greater part of them 

 is retained in their hands or diverted into the 

 imperial treasury. Slavery exists without 

 restrictions, and slave markets are held in the 

 public streets. The slaves are brought from 

 the Soudan, having originally been kidnapped 

 or taken in war. They are well treated by 

 their masters as a rule, and some are set free. 

 There are no roads in Morocco. Wheat is 

 often sold in the interior for one fifth of the 

 price that it would bring at the seaboard. The 

 difficulties of transportation are such that only 

 one half of the land is cultivated, and even 

 under these circumstances the grain is often left 

 to rot in the fields. The Sultan sometimes 

 forbids the exportation of grain, even in years 

 of abundance. The regular sources of the 

 public revenue are the tithe on agricultural 

 produce, a tax of 2 per cent, on domestic ani- 

 mals, a tax on aJieltiel (a kind of fish caught in 

 the rivers), the monopoly of tobacco and hash- 

 eesh, a poll-tax on Jews, and 10 per cent. 

 duty on all goods imported or exported, and 

 on all produce brought to the towns. Fines 

 are levied on every pretext, and the scale of 

 the regular imposts is frequently raised or 

 lowered according to the impulse of the Sultan. 

 Fines are simply a method of extortion. A 

 quarrel between two members of a kabylamay 

 deprive both of half their possessions, and 

 when a robbery is committed it is a common 

 thing to fine every inhabitant of the village 

 double the amount of the stolen property. Be- 

 sides beating and imprisonment many forms of 

 torture are used. The Sultan alone can con- 

 demn a criminal to death ; yet the pashas 

 order punislmients that result in more cruel 

 forms of death than decapitation by the Sultan's 

 decree. The tobacco and hasheesh monopolies 

 were recently abolished by a Shereefian decree 

 forbidding the use of those narcotics, to which 

 the Moors were greatly addicted, and are still, 

 for notwithstanding the severe punishments 

 inflicted they continue to indulge their habit 

 of smoking, and now the officials have become 

 less vigilant in enforcing the decree. In 1888 

 the Sultan issued a decree against intoxicants 

 of all kinds. The Jews in Morocco are objects 

 of detestation and contempt, and are subject 

 on all hands to indignities and cruelties, such 

 as the fanatical Moors would inflict as eagerly 

 on Nazarenes or Christians if they were not 

 restrained by the Government. 



Treaty Negotiations. The Sultan has been able 

 to persevere in his policy of isolation and non- 

 intercourse only through the jealousy of the 

 European powers. Great Britain, being in 



