CHAPTER XLII.
COMMERCIAL POLITY OF RUSSIA IN THE CRIMEA—CAFFA SACRIFICED IN FAVOUR OF KERTCH—THESE TWO PORTS COMPARED—THE QUARANTINE AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES—COMMERCE OF KERTCH—VINEYARDS OF THE CRIMEA; THE VALLEY OF SOUDAK—AGRICULTURE—CATTLE— HORTICULTURE—MANUFACTURES; MOROCCO LEATHER— DESTRUCTION OF THE GOATS—DECAY OF THE FORESTS—SALT WORKS—GENERAL TABLE OF THE COMMERCE OF THE CRIMEA—PROSPECTS OF THE TATAR POPULATION.
When the Russian authority was fully established in the Crimea, and the inevitable disasters attending the occupation of a country by Muscovite troops had subsided, the imperial government seemed for a while disposed to rekindle the embers of the peninsular prosperity. The Emperor Alexander was personally acquainted with the intrinsic value of the country, and manifested the best and most earnest intentions in its favour; but unfortunately he could not overcome the inveterate habits of the Russian functionaries, and their utter indifference to the true interests of the empire. Half measures, therefore, were all that was effected; custom-houses and quarantines were established, Caffa exchanged its name for that of the Milesian colony, German villages were founded,[77] large grants of land were made to Russians and strangers, vines were planted, and the cultivation of the olive was attempted; but all capital questions were overlooked or misconceived; no thought was given to the matter of markets or to commercial relations; and the government persisting in its prohibitive system, assimilated the Crimea to the other provinces, in spite of strong remonstrances, and repudiated all thoughts of mercantile freedom, the only means by which it could have given new life to the Crimea, and created an active and industrious population in the place of the Tatar tribes, of whom war and emigration had deprived the country.
But in lieu of such privileges Caffa was from the first endowed with a tribunal of commerce, a quarantine, and a custom-house of the first class; and if it could not recover its old greatness under the new domination, it might at least have expected to become one of the chief places of export and import in southern Russia, within the bounds prescribed by the exigencies of the customs. Situated at the extremity of the Tauric chain, not far from the Cimmerian Bosphorus, possessing the only trading port open to vessels in all seasons, in easy communication with rich and productive regions, this town possessed every possible claim to the peculiar attention of the Russian government. But the hopes which had been at first conceived, were entirely disappointed, and the unfortunate Theodosia was positively devoted to abandonment and destruction.
It is not easy to determine the real motives for which the old Genoese city was abandoned in favour of its rival on the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The ostensible reasons were sanatory measures, the necessity of having a general quarantine at the entrance of the Sea of Azof, encouragement of coasters and lighters, and the utility of a vast emporium opened to the productions of all Russia. We believe, however, that all these arguments were in reality of very secondary weight, and that the downfall of Theodosia is to be ascribed to nothing else than an absurd vanity. To resuscitate the ancient name of Odessus; to found a town called Ovidiopol in a country where Ovid never resided; to lead our geographers into error by giving the name of Tiraspol to a mean village on the Dniestr, in the front of Bender; to substitute the name of Theodosia for that of Caffa; all these innovations might have pleased certain archæologists, but how was it possible to resist the thought of rebuilding the celebrated capital of the kingdom of the Bosphorus? How irresistible the temptation to raise a new and great city at the foot of Mithridates' rock! The memory of the Milesians had, therefore, to fade before that of the illustrious sovereign of Pontus; Theodosia was despoiled of its privileges and its revenues, its tribunal of commerce was transferred to Kertch, and double arbour dues were imposed on vessels touching there before arriving at the latter port. Assuredly no stronger testimony could be borne to the superiority of Theodosia than that which was embodied in these arbitrary measures, nor could there be a more incontestible proof of the caprice to which the Genoese town was sacrificed. Caffa was infinitely better fitted than Kertch to satisfy those conditions which the official orders announced as the grounds for destroying its commercial position. The Kertch roads are often closed against vessels for three or four months continuously; the anchorage is unsafe, and often disastrous, both from the want of shelter and from the shallowness of the water. The port of Theodosia, on the contrary, is always open, and shipwrecks are unknown there. During the fine season an active service of lighters might have concentrated there all the freights brought by the Don and the Sea of Azof. In this way the commercial intercourse with Russia by the Black Sea would never have suffered the least interruption; and, what is an incalculable advantage in those latitudes, foreign vessels, being no longer constrained to make the long and difficult passage to Taganrok, or to run the risk of wintering in the ice, might, if they failed to obtain freight at Theodosia, have proceeded in search of one without loss of time to the southern shores of the Black Sea. All these grand considerations, which had raised the prosperity of Caffa so high, were superseded by the dictates of vanity.
Kertch then was declared, in 1827, a port of the first class, with a custom-house of entry and exit. A vast lazaret was immediately constructed, and five years afterwards appeared the famous sanatory orders which still regulate the navigation of the Sea of Azof. The duration of the quarantine was fixed at thirty days, but before that time can begin to run, the vessel must be moored within the lazaret, and every thing on board, including the effects of the crew, must be subjected to a fumigation of twenty-four hours. This operation being ended the sailors land, after having first divested themselves of all their dress and portable articles; the sails are plunged in water by the servants of the establishment, and the hull of the vessel is disinfected. After these preliminaries, which often occupy from ten to fifteen days, the sailors return to their vessels, and their days of quarantine begin to count. All these regulations are in curious contrast with those of the lazaret of Odessa, where the quarantine lasts only fifteen days.
This new system, which was in fact an interdict upon the Sea of Azof, told of course in favour of Kertch. But the factitious prosperity of that town appears to us to have already reached its utmost limit, and we doubt much that the best devised or most stringent orders can ever give to its port those elements of commercial prosperity which nature has refused to it. Hence we see, that to avoid the delay and cost of the Kertch quarantine, the merchants of Taganrok and the neighbouring towns, use lighters almost exclusively to carry their goods to the vessels moored in the Cimmerian Bosphorus. On their arrival in the channel, these lighters are put into the hands of the crew belonging to the vessel to be freighted, and their men remain on shore during the trans-shipment. This being accomplished, the lighters are fumigated for twenty-four hours, and then taken back by the lightermen to the Sea of Azof. All these operations, however, are tedious, costly, and uncertain; and the only reason why the merchants have adopted this plan of proceeding is, that they all are reluctant to incur the great expenses of storing their goods in Kertch, and that the paucity of lighters, together with the irregularity of the winds, and the many shoals in the Sea of Azof, render shipments extremely expensive, so that no additional charge could be easily borne. At the opening of the navigation in 1839, freight between Taganrok and Kertch cost as much as four rubles per tchetvert of wheat, and 1-1/2 in the course of the summer. M. Taitbout de Marigny, who has paid great attention to all these matters, estimates the freight charges in question as equivalent on the average to those usually paid to Black Sea vessels bound for the Archipelago.[78]
A remarkable result of this whole system of quarantine and customs is as follows. Suppose two vessels start simultaneously from the Mediterranean, the one for Taganrok, the other for Odessa, and that the latter failing to obtain a cargo, shall quit Odessa after its fifteen days' quarantine, and sail for the Sea of Azof: there is every probability that after remaining at Taganrok long enough to take in its cargo, it will on its return still find the first vessel in the Kertch roads, waiting to complete the formalities required before it can enter the Sea of Azof. Such measures as these, would inevitably keep aloof from the ports of the Sea of Azof, and even from that of Kertch, every vessel that was sure of its cargo beforehand. It is needless to insist afresh in this place on the superiority of Theodosia, considered as a general entrepôt of the goods arriving in the Sea of Azof, and of those which might have flowed directly into its port through the Isthmus of Arabat.
As for the commercial resources belonging intrinsically to the town of Kertch, it is enough to look at its situation at the extremity of a long, depopulated, and sterile peninsula, and its distance from every route, whether political or commercial, to be assured that they must be quite futile. Seven years after the creation of its port, the annual customs' revenue had not risen above 1200 rubles. In 1840, the whole quantity of corn that had issued from the town of Kertch since its origin, whether directly or through the medium of its entrepôts, scarcely amounted to 5000 tchetverts, and the receipts of the custom-house for the same year were but 695,130. If from this sum we deduct 551,108, the amount of the excise on salt destined exclusively for Russian consumption, and a further considerable sum produced by other imposts, there will remain an exceedingly small amount to represent the nett commercial revenue. The port of Kertch has, therefore, by no means fulfilled the grand expectations so foolishly conceived of it; it has ruined the great city of Theodosia, robbed the Crimea of its commercial importance, cut off all chances of prosperity from the ports of the Sea of Azof, and crippled navigation; and all this without any profit worth speaking of to itself, and without the least prospect of ever rising above the low condition in which it is doomed to vegetate, both by its geographical situation, and the nature and configuration of the adjacent regions.
The results have not been much more satisfactory as regards the growth of the Russian mercantile navy. According to official reports, which we believe exaggerated, there were, in 1840, in the Sea of Azof, 323 vessels measuring about 26,000,000 of kilogrammes, and manned by 1517 individuals. If we recollect that the Sea of Azof is but a marsh, the greatest depth of which does not exceed fourteen mètres, that the crafts which ply in it, pursuing always the same invariable track, hardly require the simplest rudiments of nautical skill for their management, and that the navigation of the sea is usually interrupted during four or five months of the year, it will be easily conceived that the maritime advantages which may accrue to Russia, from the closing of the Sea of Azof, must be very insignificant, not to say quite illusory.
We have now to examine the manufacturing and agricultural resources of the Crimea, and the measures which have been taken by the imperial government to further them. The cultivation of the vine may be considered as at present the most important, if not the most productive branch of industry in the country. When Russia took possession of it, the vineyards were concentrated in the southern valleys of Soudak, Kobsel, Koze, and Toklouk, and in those of the Katch, the Alma, &c., on the northern slope of the Tauric chain. These vineyards which seem to have existed from very remote antiquity, were all in the plain, where they were subjected to continual irrigations after the system of the Greeks and Tatars. The consequence of this mode of culture was that the crops were extremely abundant, and the wine of a very poor quality.[79] After the Russian occupation, however, the business of vine-growing increased considerably in the northern valleys, which were soon frequented by the merchants of the interior, who were attracted both by the extraordinary cheapness of the produce, and by the facilities of transport. Thus the wines of the Crimea found their way into the interior of the empire, but they were chiefly used for mixing and adulteration; the small quantity that was sold in its original state was always of very bad quality, so that the peninsular wines were in very bad repute, and for a long while lost all chance of sale. This well-merited depreciation was such that even in our own day a merchant of eminence in Moscow or St. Petersburg would have thought it a serious disgrace to him to admit into his cellars a few bottles of Crimean wine.
Such was the state of the vine cultivation in the Crimea, when Count Voronzof was named governor-general of New Russia. Under his active and enterprising administration, a bold attempt was made to change the whole system of cultivation, so as to produce wines capable of competing advantageously with those of foreign countries.[80] The valleys, with their method of irrigation, were therefore abandoned, and the preference was given to the long strip of schistous and éboulement grounds which stretches along the seaside between Balaklava and Alouchta, on the southern coast. Count Voronzof set the example with his characteristic ardour; his first operations took place in 1826 at Aidaniel,[81] and six years afterwards he was the owner of 72,000 vine plants. The example of the governor-general was quickly followed, and in 1834, there were already 2,000,000 stocks in the country, from cuttings brought chiefly from the Rhenish and the French provinces.
When the vines were in full bearing, the next thing to be considered was to find a market for their produce; but here arose a great and unforeseen difficulty, and the brilliant expectations of the planters were soon miserably disappointed. In spite of the difficulties of the route, some merchants yielded to the earnest solicitations of the governor-general and his imitators, and arrived on the coast to purchase; but the demands of the proprietors were exorbitant; their first outlay had been very great, and their produce small, yet they were bent on realising at once the amount of their investments. They thought, too, that by setting a high price on their wines, they would secure their reputation; accordingly they fixed it at twenty to twenty-five rubles the vedro (0.1229 hectolitres), and immediately they lost all chance of sale.
The business prospered better in the valley of the Soudak, where the same modifications had been introduced into the culture of the vine. The hill wines were sold at the rate of twelve to fifteen rubles the vedro, and those of the plain at five and six. But this did not last long; in 1840 the wine growers of Soudak could no longer dispose of their stock, though they had reduced their prices to two and three rubles for the best qualities, and to one and one and a half for the lowland wines. As to the wine-growers of the southern coasts, they were very glad at that time if they could find purchasers at the rate of five or six rubles the vedro.
Several causes contributed to these unfortunate results. The southern coast, as we have already said, consists of a long narrow strip of argillaceous schist and detritus, with a very steep inclination, and overtopped throughout its length by high cliffs of jura limestone. In consequence of these topographical conditions, the heat is very great in summer; the soil, which is quite destitute of watercourses, dries rapidly, and the many ravines by which it is intersected, completely deprives it of any little moisture that may remain in it. The scarcity of rain augments these disadvantages, so that the vine plants procured from abroad degenerate rapidly; as the grapes cannot ripen before autumn, the wine loses much in quality; and, moreover, the quantity is far from abundant, in proportion to the extent of the ground. These circumstances, combined with those occasioned by the desire to exalt the wines of the Crimea in public opinion, inflame both the pretensions of the proprietors and the indifference of the merchants, who could never have disposed of the coast wine at the high prices asked for it. These were afterwards considerably diminished, but not sufficiently to produce any effect. Whatever be said to the contrary, it is certain that the wines of the southern Crimea can never sustain any sort of comparison with those of France or the Rhine; hence they continued to be held in low repute, and the merchants of the interior still found it more to their advantage to make their purchases in the northern valleys, which were easy of access, and where the wine was incomparably cheaper. In spite of all their efforts, therefore, the wine-growers of the southern coast could not find a market for their produce, and were obliged to consume the chief part of it themselves.
It may, perhaps, excite surprise that no attempt has been made to evade the difficulties of land-carriage by seeking outlets by sea, and procuring customers in the great maritime towns of Russia. But unluckily there exists between Russia and Greece an ancient treaty, which the tzars, for political considerations no doubt, persist in religiously observing, and by virtue of which Greek wines are received almost free of duty in the imperial ports. Whoever is aware of the prodigious quantity and incredible cheapness of the wines of the Archipelago, and of the great facilities they afford for effecting mixtures and adulterations, will easily conceive, that with such a competition to encounter, the sale of Crimean wines became absolutely impossible. If the culture of the vine in the Crimea was induced by encouragements on the part of the government, then the landowners were grossly duped. But, as we shall explain by and by, the ministry seem never to have looked favourably on this branch of industry, and the vine-growers have only their own extreme want of forethought to blame for all the disasters that have befallen them.
At Soudak, however, the mischief appears to us attributable solely to the misconduct of the authorities. We have already stated that the vintage speculations of Soudak were at first much more prosperous than those of the southern coast. The situation of the valley, which is of very easy access for northern traffic, and the decided preference of the German colonists for white wines, for many years kept the fine plain of Soldaya in a thriving if not an opulent condition. But unfortunately, that western part of the coast not being within the region which the governor-general and the great landowners had taken under their special protection, Soudak was completely abandoned to her own resources; her roads were left without repairs, and the local administration took no measures whatever for the preservation of order and the security of individuals. When I visited the coast in 1840, the roads of this district were in the most deplorable condition;[82] they were strewed with fragments of carts and casks; a German waggoner was killed in my presence by the breaking down of his waggon; thieving and pillage were the order of the day in the valley, and the proprietors could only preserve their chattels by keeping a close personal watch upon them day and night.
The consequences of this culpable neglect may readily be imagined. Purchasers diminished in number year by year, the wines lost their value, and the unfortunate proprietors with large stocks on hand were reduced to great poverty. All sorts of expedients were adopted under the pressure of the calamity; the wines were turned into vinegar, but again the speculation failed for want of a market. We heartily desire that our reasonable remonstrances in favour of Soudak may reach the imperial government, so that effectual measures may be taken to revive the great natural wealth of that magnificent valley. We do not know the intentions of the present finance minister, but it is to be hoped that he will not partake the narrow views of his predecessor. Count Cancrini was a fanatic partisan of the consumption of foreign wines, and at the same time the declared enemy of the home growth, which he regarded as most injurious to the customs' revenue of the empire.
In the present state of things it is not easy to predict the future fortunes of the Crimean wine production. For our own part, we are thoroughly convinced that France has no sort of competition to fear on the part of those regions. Whether the cultivation of the vine be concentrated in the valleys or on the hill sides, we do not think that the vintage can ever rival ours. It has been very justly remarked that wherever the vine and the olive grow together, the wines cannot have that delicacy and that bouquet which belong only to our temperate climates. We believe, however, that if the wines of the Archipelago were subjected to higher duties, if the means of transport were rendered more facile, and increased cultivation were given to the more open hill sides that extend towards the east of the Tauric chain, the Crimea would soon be enabled to supply the demand of the whole empire for the commoner sorts of wine, and the result would, perhaps, be extremely advantageous in diminishing the mischievous use of ardent spirits. Such a change as this would evidently be not at all prejudicial to French commerce, which sends only wines of the first quality to the south of Russia.
According to a report printed in the Russian journals of 1834, and cited by M. Dubois, the 7,100,000 vine plants, contained in that year on the old and new plantations, were distributed as follows:—
| South-west coast of the Crimea | 1,600,000 |
| Soudak and south-east coast | 2,000,000 |
| Valley of the Katch | 2,000,000 |
| Valley of the Alma | 500,000 |
| Valley of the Belek | 500,000 |
| German colonies | 500,000 |
The wine yielded by the vintage of 1832, was 32,307 hectolitres, of which 1694 were the produce of the south-west coast, 6050 that of Soudak, and 7865 that of the valley of the Katch.
The plantations have augmented considerably since that time; we cannot venture, however, to accept as authentic, the following statistics of the annual production of the Crimea, given us by landowners in 1840:—
| Valley of Soudak | 80,000 vedros | 9,760 hectolitres |
| Southern coast | 120,000 vedros | 14,640 hectolitres |
| Northern valleys | 750,000 vedros | 91,500 hectolitres |
We have not much to say of the other branches of agriculture; they are all in the most deplorable state. The magnificent forests, yielding such quantities of timber, that formerly clothed the mountains, are rapidly disappearing. Camel breeding, formerly very productive to the Tatars of the plain, has given place to lank flocks of merinos. The most fertile valleys are in the same state of desolation in which they were left by the great calamities at the close of the last century, and the peninsula now produces scarcely corn enough for its own consumption. Horticulture alone has made any real progress. Some foreigners practise it with profit in the northern valleys, which for many years past have enjoyed the privilege of supplying all the fruit used at the tables of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Manufactories are almost in the same state of decay as agriculture. Morocco and other leathers formerly constituted an important part of the exports from the Crimea; at present the value of these exports is no more than 129,646 rubles. It is about five years since this branch of industry was ruined. All that time there existed on the mountains of the peninsula a great quantity of goats, which being left at liberty, caused, it must be confessed, much damage to the forests, by nipping off the young shoots. According to the usual Russian practice of attacking secondary causes rather than going at once to the root of any evil, the local administration could devise nothing better in the case than to proclaim a war of extermination, by giving every one the right of hunting and killing goats, in all places and at all seasons. The goats were almost all destroyed, and with them fell of necessity the greater part of the manufactories for morocco leather. It would certainly have been easy for authorities, possessed of any practical ability, to preserve the forests without exterminating the goats; but as they would not, or could not, deal with the real destroyers, the noble landowners, they wreaked their spite on the quadrupeds. It is really inconceivable with what rapidity the finest forests of the Crimea are disappearing; year by year whole hills are totally stripped, and the government, stern as it has shown itself against the goats, takes no means to check this fatal devastation. Several great landowners are engaged in lawsuits gravely affecting their rights, and meanwhile, until their causes shall have been decided, they use their opportunity to cut timber as fast as possible. Foremost in those proceedings is Admiral Mordvinof, who has already destroyed the exceedingly rich forests that clothed the hills above the valley of Baidar. The effects of this clearing away of the forests are already felt severely; the rivers are diminishing in volume, a great number of springs have run dry, and fire wood, now costs as much as forty rubles the fathom at Ialta.
Another branch of industry, likewise very profitable in former times, was the working of the rich salt-pits in the environs of Kozlov (Eupatoria). Only a few years ago eighty vessels used to come to the port from Anatolia, to take in cargo. The price of the salt was then very low, but the trade was nevertheless a source of employment and profit for all the surrounding population. The minister of finance was jealous of the profits realised by individuals in this trade, and therefore laid a considerable export duty on the salt. In the following year not a single vessel came from Anatolia, and it was soon ascertained that, prompted by necessity, the people of the southern shores of the Black Sea had found rich salt-pits in their own territory.
The following table of the commerce of the Crimea in 1838 and 1839, is taken from official documents. The figures contained in it are in our opinion exaggerated, for they do not by any means agree with those resulting from the detailed table we shall give further on.
| IMPORTS. | EXPORTS. | |||
| 1838. | 1839. | 1838. | 1839. | |
| rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | rubles | |
| Kertch | 175,321 | 250,887 | 226,999 | 123,082 |
| Theodosia | 673,535 | 695,130 | 1,281,244 | 955,108 |
| Eupatoria | 185,480 | 131,222 | 2,299,365 | 2,394,867 |
| Balaclava | 6,695 | |||
| Total | 1,040,941 | 1,077,239 | 3,807,608 | 3,473,057 |
Be it remarked that among the exports corn alone figured in 1839 for 835,486 rubles for Theodosia, and 1,755,052 rubles for Eupatoria; and as all this corn came from countries beyond the Crimea, the nullity of the peninsular exportation is apparent. Moreover, the gross total of three and a half millions is scarcely the fifteenth part of the annual exportation of the town of Odessa alone. In order to give a more exact idea of the industrial and commercial situation of the Crimea, we set down the details of its exports and imports in 1839.
| IMPORTS. | |||
| ARTICLES. | KERTCH. | THEODOSIA. | EUPATORIA. |
| rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | |
| Cotton | 49,993 | 33,650 | |
| Cotton thread | 4,080 | 4,986 | |
| Turkish cotton cloths | 14,164 | 532,976 | |
| Chairs | 5,750 | ||
| Wooden vessels | 3,645 | 2,441 | |
| Woollen caps | 4,504 | 29,218 | |
| Oil | 20,636 | 3,589 | 16,997 |
| Sickles | 5,000 | ||
| Wines | 12,069 | 2,190 | 2,342 |
| Porter | 4,600 | 2,171 | |
| Cassonade | 14,354 | ||
| Fresh and dried fruit | 100,402 | 15,107 | 27,464 |
| Fine pearls | 4,000 | ||
| Coffee | 4,319 | 25,102 | |
| Linen thread | 2,204 | ||
| Nard juice and grapes | 6,269 | ||
| Turkish tobacco | 3,345 | 7,823 | |
| Olives | 3,467 | ||
| Raw silk | 9,008 | ||
| Dyed silk thread | 20,915 | ||
| Oak galls | 20,387 | ||
| Colours | 13,814 | ||
| Vegetables | 2,122 | ||
| Pepper | 3,063 | ||
| EXPORTS. | |||
| ARTICLES. | KERTCH. | THEODOSIA. | EUPATORIA. |
| rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | |
| Raw hides | 15,152 | 22,653 | 68,312 |
| Fish | 7,310 | ||
| Red caviar | 13,113 | ||
| Linseed | 6,100 | ||
| Rapeseed | 6,600 | ||
| Wheat | 31,040 | 745,031 | 1,544,313 |
| Wool | 41,185 | 19,087 | 344,997 |
| Cordage | 3,275 | ||
| Woollen felt | 7,670 | 31,424 | |
| Tanned leather | 18,375 | 5,150 | |
| Flax, hemp, and stuffs | 11,323 | 27,065 | |
| Butter | 8,133 | 61,445 | |
| Bar iron | 2,340 | 14,700 | |
| Salt | 8,813 | 5,700 | |
| Soda | 4,691 | ||
| Rye | 48,157 | 66,600 | |
| Barley | 39,485 | 1,333,640 | |
| Millet | 2,870 | 1,910 | |
| Glue | 3,494 | ||
| Raw Hemp | 3,264 | ||
| Locks | 22,296 | ||
| Copper utensils | 3,050 | ||
| Brass, and brass wire | 4,650 | ||
| Cutlery | 13,509 | ||
| Swords and epaulettes | 3,000 | ||
| Sheep skins | 3,650 | ||
| Suet | 11,893 | ||
| Turpentine | 2,100 | ||
| Beans | 8,589 | ||
| Flour | 2,120 | ||
| Raw silk | 3,200 | ||
We do not at all coincide in opinion with those who attribute the decadence we have just described to the general character of the people of the East. The Orientals, it is true, have none of that feverish activity which characterises the people of our climes; besides which their wants are so limited and so easily satisfied, that they can never, in their present social condition, become strenuous workers. Yet we have seen that the Tatars, when they first occupied the country, were distinguished for their agricultural and industrial labours, whether it was in consequence of their mixture with the old races, or merely of the propitious climate; they also employed themselves with such success in gardening and the cultivation of the vine and of corn, that the Crimea under the khans was considered one of the chief regions whence Constantinople drew its supplies. It was only the steppe tribes, whose sole wealth was their cattle, that remained true to their primitive habits and their nomade life. In like manner there exists to this day a very striking difference, both intellectual and physical, between the two fractions of the Mussulman race of the Crimea.
We believe, therefore, that under a better system it would have been easy to revive the laborious disposition of the Tatars by facilitating and encouraging commercial transactions, and gradually effacing the disheartening apprehensions under which the Mussulman population have naturally laboured since their great calamities befel them. Assuredly we cannot blame Russia for that depopulation of the country which was the first cause of its decadence. As victors, the Russians used all the rights of the strong hand to consolidate their conquest and extinguish all chance of insurrection. The means no doubt were violent, disastrous, and often even exceeded all the bounds of humanity; yet it was scarcely possible but that excesses should be committed in a war between Russian Christians and Mussulman Tatars, who had so often braved, triumphed over, and swayed the Muscovite power. In fairness, therefore, we can only criticise the measures adopted by the Russian government subsequently to the conquest, from the day when the country was completely pacified, and the Tatars submitted implicitly to the new yoke, and lost all hope of deliverance.
We have already seen how an act of caprice annihilated the commercial prosperity of Theodosia, which would naturally have had the greatest influence over the industrial development of the peninsula; and we have pointed out the mischievous measures that ruined various branches of the native trade. To these depressing causes, for which the government with its fatal system of prohibition and its half measures is alone responsible, we must add others no less active, because they principally affect the agricultural population who stand most in need of encouragement. We have already repeatedly mentioned the countless depredations of the inferior government agents. In the Crimea the difference of religion and language, and the difficulty of making any kind of appeal for redress, naturally rendered the local administration more troublesome and rapacious than in any other province. The consequence was that the Tatars led a life of fear and distrust, agriculture languished, and every man cultivated yearly only as much as was necessary for the subsistence of his family, that he might not excite the cupidity of the employés.
On his accession to the government, Count Voronzof, with his natural kindness, applied himself strenuously to improve the condition of the Tatars; he took them under his special protection, and prevented the rapacity of his underlings as far as in him lay. Unfortunately, his efforts could hardly avail beyond the limits of his own estates, and all his generous intentions were baffled or worn out by the incessant pettyfogging arts of the employés. Nothing could more signally exemplify the distrustful feelings of the Tatars, than the events which occurred during the famine of 1833, which was so great that whole families perished of hunger. Moved by these misfortunes the government offered aid to the Tatars, but incredible as it may appear, the proffered succours were generally refused, so much did the Mussulmans dread the price which would be afterwards exacted for such assistance.
Towards 1840, after the creation of the ministry of the domains of the crown under Count Kizilev, the imperial government set about the task in which Count Voronzof had failed. Men of the best character for intelligence and probity were sent to the Crimea, but their efforts were all ineffectual, and they soon retired in disgust from the useless struggle. The unfortunate Crimea was again surrendered to the unlimited power and endless knaveries of the captain ispravniks, and of the worthy subaltern agents of the local administration.
What are the destinies ultimately reserved for the Mussulman population of the Crimea,[83] now numbering barely 100,000 souls?[84] We are strongly inclined to anticipate its total extinction at a more or less remote date. The tribes are rapidly degenerating; the moral and physical forces of the nation are daily declining; the territorial wealth of the Tatars has been destroyed, sold, or divided; the native families distinguished for their past history or for their fortunes have disappeared; the population, instead of increasing, diminishes. There remains, therefore, no element of vitality to revive the effete remains of a power that made Russia tremble during so many centuries, and that even menaced for a while the political existence of all Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[77] These colonies now consist of nine villages, with a population of 1800 souls.
[78] Trade of the Sea of Azof, in 1838 and 1839.
| IMPORTS. | EXPORTS. | ||||
| 1838. Rubles. | 1839. Rubles. | 1838. Rubles. | 1839. Rubles. | ||
| Taganrok | Goods | 5,887,901 | 5,334,369 | 7,666,943 | 13,813,323 |
| Cash | 1,414,596 | 2,885,279 | |||
| Marcoupol | Goods | 300 | 987 | 3,422,107 | 6,276,882 |
| Cash | 640,660 | 1,515,525 | |||
| Rostof on | Goods | 3,205,406 | 6,078,037 | ||
| the Don | Cash | ||||
| Bordiansk | Goods | 2,971,426 | 4,107,638 | ||
| Cash | 768,722 | 825,113 | |||
| Total | 8,712,179 | 10,561,273 | 17,265,882 | 30,275,880 | |
[79] De La Mottraye, who visited the Crimea in 1711, speaks of a Soudak wine the flavour of which he compares with Burgundy. At that period the wines of the northern valleys sold at 2-1/2 centimes the bottle. In Peyssonel's time, in 1762, the Soudak wines fetched from 32 to 38 centimes the bottle; those of Belbek 22 to 25, and those of Katch, of which De La Mottraye speaks, 13 to 15. The Ukraine Cossacks and the Zaporogues consumed the greatest portion of these wines; about 1210 hectolitres annually according to Peyssonel. In 1784, at the time of the Russian occupation, the price of Soudak wine was 5 to 6 centimes the litre; it rose to 65 centimes in 1793, during the war with Turkey.—(See Pallas, Voyage dans la Russie Méridionale.)
[80] Previously to Count Voronzof, M. Rouvier, who introduced the breed of merino sheep into Russia, had planted vines from Malaga on the hill sides of Laspi, at the western extremity of the chain; but his example had not many imitators.
[81] Aidaniel is north-east of Ialta, a little town, the chief station for steamboats.
[82] Of roads perfectly practicable for wheeled vehicles there exist in the Crimea: 1. The road leading from Simpheropol to Sevastopol, skirting the northern slope of the Tauric chain; its length is thirty-nine English miles; 2. That from Simpheropol to Ialta, crossing the mountains at the foot of the Tchatir Dagh, forty-nine miles; 3. That from Ialta to Balaclava, proceeding along the southern coast as far as Foros, where it passes on to the northern side of the mountains; its length is forty miles between Ialta and Foros; the second portion was in course of construction in 1840. This line of road seems to us extremely ill-contrived. It has been carried along the very foot of the jura-limestone cliffs, for the purpose of avoiding expense in crossing the ravines; and thus it is completely exterior to the vine-growing and cultivable district, and every proprietor who desires to use it must make a private road at his own expense, in order to reach the elevated level of the highway. We say nothing of the roads in the plains, the construction of which, just as in the interior of Russia, consists merely in tracing the breadth and direction by a ditch on either side.
[83] Hitherto the Tatars have been exempted from military service; they are merely required to furnish one squadron to the imperial guard, to be discharged every five years. As for the taxes imposed on them they amount to the illusory sum of 8s. 4d. for every male individual, not including duty work on roads, transports, &c.
[84] The total population of the Crimea is about 200,000, including Russians, Greeks, Armenians, Karaïtes, Germans, and other foreigners.