

BLACK SEA. 



557 



Black 

 Sea. 



went thither sometimes by the Indies, and the Russian 

 Sea, or were transported by caravans across Georgia 

 and Mingrelia ; _>metimes by going up the Persian 

 gulf, the Tigris, or the Euphrates ; they went, by 

 way of Armenia, to Trebizond, whither the Genoese 

 and the Venetians went to meet them, for the purpose 

 of supplying Europe with their commodities. 



Jealousy, the inevitable consequence of the great 

 advantages this commerce procured, was the occasion 

 of some bloody wars between the Venetians and the 

 Genoese, which terminated in the last becoming the 

 masters ; by contributing to the overthrow of the 

 dominion of the Latins at Constantinople, profiting 

 dextrously by the favour or the weakness of the 

 Greek emperor, they obtained from them such ad- 

 vantages, that they had no longer any rivals. To se- 

 cure to themselves this exclusive commerce, they for- 

 tified their settlement at Pera, established colonies on 

 the coasts, principally in Crimea, and put their fac- 

 tories in a state of defence : Caffa was the principal 

 city of their commerce with the East, and the port 

 at which was deposited all the merchandise which had 

 been transported to the Black Sea. The merchandise 

 of India, Persia, and Arabia, came to Astracan, went 

 again up the Volga, was carried afterwards by land 

 as far as the Don, distant about sixty versts, convey- 

 ed by that river to Azof, and thence embarked for 

 Caffa. The Genoese procured to themselves immense 

 riches, and put themselves in a situation, notwith- 

 standing the smallness of their territory, to hold rank 

 among the first of the maritime powers. They en- 

 joyed these advantages until the taking of Constanti- 

 nople by Mahomet the Second, of which almost the 

 immediate consequence was, their expulsion from the 

 Crimea. With the annihilation of the power of the 

 Genoese, ended the commerce of the Black Sea. 



It is to be observed, that, at this epoch, the re- 

 establishment of the ancient route by Alexandria, 

 which took place under Tala-Eddin, had already 

 turned that source of riches. 



The progress of navigation, by the discovery of 

 the route to India, and of America, gave a new spring 

 to the mercantile spirit of the Europeans, lessening, 

 in some degree, the regret which the loss of this an- 

 cient seat of their prosperity had occasioned, and 

 turning their thoughts to the means of restoring that 

 advantage. It was not until the beginning of this 

 century that Peter the First, desirous to create com- 

 merce, unknown in his vast empire, saw the immense 

 advantage it would derive from the possession of some 

 ports in the Black Sea: he succeeded in the acquisi- 

 tion of Azof ; but the misfortunes which he met with 

 afterwards, and the peace of Prouth, was the occa- 

 sion of his surrendering his conquests, and the advan- 

 tages that might have been derived from them. Ca- 

 tharine the Second following the steps of this great 

 legislator of Russia, had the glory of accomplishing 

 the design his genius had conceived. 



After two long wars, the Turks found themselves 

 compelled to surrender to Russia a part of Lesser 

 Tartary, and, at length, the Crimea; to allow them 

 to establish in that quarter a ifavy, and to permit their 

 flag the free passage of the Dardanelles. 



Austria, the ally of Russia, has partaken of this 

 last advantage, and these two nations alone carried on 



the commerce, always inconsiderable for want of 

 means and of concurrence, until the time when, after 

 the conquest of Egypt, the French government ob- 

 tained, by its treaty of peace with the Porte, the 

 free navigation of the Black Sea. It has been grant- 

 ed with the like facility to the other principal powers 

 of Europe in such an extent, that the commerce of 

 that sea may be considered to be absolutely free." 



It would appear, from the principal treaty be- 

 tween England and Turkey, that we had a com- 

 mercial footing in the Black Sea in the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth or James I. In the time of Charles II. 

 the conditions of alliance with England were re- 

 vised and amplified in 1661-2, by the Earl of Win- 

 chelsea, and afterwards in 1675 by Sir John Finch. 

 These treaties gave all the subjects and dependants 

 of England permission to pass and repass with their 

 merchandise into every part of the Ottoman do- 

 minions. All the particular privileges which be- 

 longed to the French, Venetian, or any other Chris- 

 tian nation, were conceded to the English. In 1799, 

 the freedom of the Black Sea was again given to 

 the English. On this occasion, Mr Smith observes, 

 in the memorial which he presented to the Ottoman 

 Porte, that, " by enabling the English navigator to 

 penetrate the deep gulfs of the Black Sea, and thus 

 rendering the remotest districts accessible to the 

 English merchant, instead of the present languid 

 routine of a single factory superintending two or 

 three annual cargoes, assorted according to the: limit- 

 ed consumption of the metropolis, with the refuse of 

 which the provincial traders are scantily furnished at 

 second and third hand, we shall see whole fleets la- 

 den' with the richest productions of the Old and New 

 World. British capital and credit would attract 

 flourishing establishments in the solitary harbours of 

 Anatolia, from whence the adjacent cities would re- 

 ceive less indirect supplies, and where the lanaholders 

 find more ready exchange for their produce. Sinope 

 and Trebizond would again emulate the prosperity 

 and population of Aleppo and Smyrna. The Aoazes, 

 Lazes, and other turbulent traders who inhabit the 

 mountainous fastnessss, by mixing more frequently 

 with their fellow subjects at these marts, could not 

 fail to learn their real interest to be inseparable from 

 the performance of their duty." 



The commerce of the Black Sea embraces, accord- 

 ing to Reuilly, that of the Crimea, that of the shores 

 of the sea of Azof, and those of the Abazes ; that 

 of Natolia, and of the Ottoman provinces of Asia, of 

 Romelia, of Bulgaria, of Wallachia, and of Molda- 

 via, and, above all, that of Poland and Russia. 



" The Crimea is advantageously situated for the 

 purposes of commerce. That peninsula, surrounded 

 by the Black Sea, and by the Sea of Azof, in which 

 the Don empties itself, is able to receive in its ports, 

 principally in those of Kertch and of Caffa, the 

 merchandises of the Indies, of Persia, and of Siberia, 

 in the same manner as in the times of the Genoese. 

 These merchandises, which consist in raw iron, cop- 

 per, spars, pitch, skins, can come from Siberia, by 

 following the course of the Kama and of the Volga 

 unto Dubof ka, or by crossing the isthmus 60 versts, 

 which separate the Volga from the Don ; and by 

 being shipped at Katchalinskaya, these merchandises 



Black 

 Sea. 



