( 180 ) Bk. i. 



CHAP. X. 



Of the Checks to Population in the Turkish Dominions 



and Persia. 



In the Asiatic parts of the Turkish dominions it 

 will not be difficult, from the accounts of travel- 

 lers, to trace the checks to population and the 

 causes of its present decay ; and as there is little 

 difference in the manners of the Turks, whether 

 they inhabit Europe or Asia, it will not be worth 

 while to make them the subject of distinct con- 

 sideration. 



The fundamental cause of the low state of po- 

 pulation in Turkey, compared with its extent of 

 territory, is undoubtedly the nature of the govern- 

 ment. Its tyranny, its feebleness, its bad laws 

 and worse administration of them, together with 

 the consequent insecurity of property, throw such 

 obstacles in the way of agriculture that the means 

 of subsistence are necessarily decreasing yearly, 

 and with them, of course, the number of people. 

 The miri, or general land-tax paid to the sultan, 

 is in itself moderate ;* but by abuses inherent in 

 the Turkish government, the pachas and their 

 agents have found out the means of rendering it 

 ruinous. Though they cannot absolutely alter the 

 impost which has been established by the sultan, 

 they have introduced a multitude of changes, which, 



* Voy. de Volney, torn. ii. c. xxxvii. p. 373. 8vo. 1787. 



