OF THE TURKISH MONARCHY. 



17 



of Aleppo, he is next- in the civil department to the Pasha, and 

 under his protection those engaged in trade are more immediately 

 placed. The Agas, also, who are renters of land, are able sometimes 

 to defend their vassals from injuries which must, in their conse- 

 quences, be prejudicial to themselves. 



2. Some cities in the empire derive from their situation great 

 facilities and advantages for carrying on an active trade. The 

 position of Bagdad and Basra relatively to Persia and India, makes 

 them the centre of considerable commerce. " Cairo is the metropolis 

 " of the trade of eastern Africa." * Large caravans are constantly 

 employed in importing various commodities from the East, to supply 

 the wants and tastes of individuals of a high rank in Turkey ; and 

 a considerable portion of the money brought f into the Ottoman 

 dominions from Europe in exchange for the cotton, drugs, wool and 

 silk, and other articles, is employed by them in the purchase of the 

 muslins, and costly and ornamental productions of India and Persia. 

 In each of the three divisions of Asia Minor, Karaman, Roum, and 

 Anadoli {, and in Syria, there are many populous cities ; the various 

 commodities which are imported from Europe are conveyed from 

 these places to other towns of inferior note. Exclusive of the com- 

 mercial relations maintained with Europe §, the different parts of 



* Browne. 



t Of the sum of 4,000,000 piastres, or 840,0001. which, it has been supposed, passes 

 annually from Europe into Asia by the Levant trade, a great part is paid to the Turks. 

 The exportation of silver from the Austrian monarchy alone, into Turkey and the 

 Levant, is estimated at nearly 300,0001. Humboldt, iii. 442. Polit. Essay. 



t D'Anville, 1' Empire Turc. p. 15. 



§ The general articles imported from Turkey into Great Britain, are, cotton-wool, 

 carpets, madder, yellow-berries, goat's-wool, sheep's-wool, mohair-yarn, sponges, silk, 

 cotton-yarn, safflower, gum arabic, assafcetida, opium, tragacanth, galls, whetstones, 

 raisins, figs, valanea, emery-stones, box-wood, liquorice-root, goat-skins, sheep-skins 

 undrest, unwrought copper. 



Those exported to Turkey are, muslins, calicoes, cloths, stuffs, and earthen-ware, 

 clocks and watches, indigo, guns and pistols, hard-ware and cutlery, iron plates, sugar, 

 tin in barrels, lead shot, red and white lead, wrought and cast iron, Brazil wood, tin- 

 plates, lead in pigs, pepper, pimento, tar, rice, coffee 



Oddy's Europ. Commerce, 187. 



D 



