The whole of this vakuf land, or church property, occupied and unoccupied, pays no taxes, so that a most profitable source of revenue is unavailable to the government.
The immense incomes of the vakufs are partly appropriated to the erection of mosques, hospitals, schools, fountains, baths, and other charitable institutions; and above all to the support of the Ulema themselves. But there is always an immense surplus, which lies dormant with previously accumulated hoards, unless resorted to for the promotion of some of the fanatical schemes and personal aggrandizement of the Ulema themselves.
These men, thus rendered independent of the government, and possessing unbounded influence over the minds of the superstitious people, and being, in fact, the ultimatum of every hope and project, have been the greatest barriers to national improvement; for, surrounded by wealth, and themselves of the lowest origin, they attach an undue value to worldly possessions; and trained in religious bigotry, they resist all innovations as infringing upon their own interests, temporal and spiritual; so that in destroying the janissaries, and leaving the Ulema unmolested, Sultan Mahmoud did but half the work of reform.
CHAPTER XII.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
The revenue of the government is about thirty-six millions of dollars, and is thus divided:
| Göshüre,tithe | $11,000,000 | |
| Saliane, land tax | 10,000,000 | |
| Haradj, Poll tax on Christiansubjects (lately abolished) | 2,000,000 | |
| Geömrük,customs | 4,300,000 | |
| Mirry and Ihtissab, indirecttax | 7,500,000 | |
| Vergys, or tributes of Egypt | $1,000,000 | |
| Vergys,,,or,,tributes,,of,,Wallachia | 100,000 | |
| Vergys,,,or,,tributes,,of,,Moldavia | 50,000 | |
| Vergys,,,or,,tributes,,of,,Servia | 100,000 | |
| 1,250,000 | ||
| $36,050,000 | ||
Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, though it contains, including all its suburbs, a population of nearly a million of inhabitants, is, owing to the system of centralization, exempt from the direct tax, which is levied only in the provinces. Of late there has, however, been a sort of an income tax established, requiring every house-owner to register all contracts of rent at the Police, and pay a fee thereon of two per cent. Besides this, they have also introduced another tax on commercial and financial transactions, such as stamped bills, &c.
Some of these taxes and revenues are collected by the agents of the government on its own account; and others are farmed out at public auction, with the view of avoiding the abuses and corruptions of the officials; the benefit of which arrangement was illustrated, when the custom-house was farmed out to the Armenian banker, Djezâyirly, who bid double the amount which the treasury used to realize.