Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879

by Sir Samuel White Baker

In submitting the enclosed statement of the accounts of Cyprus for the past five years, with the estimate of revenue and expenditure for the current official year, 1878-79, I propose to describe briefly the character and operation of the several taxes of the island in the past, and the considerations that have guided me in framing the estimate for the present year.

Dimes, or Tithes on Produce of the Land.

This is the Government share of the produce of the land, and constitutes by far the largest item in the revenue of the island. In the, year 1874 the tithe was raised to an eighth part, or 12 1/2 per cent on the produce, but that was abandoned in 1876, and the tithe is all that has been since levied with the sanction of the Turkish Government.

The unit of the Turkish revenue system is the village; then the nahie, or group of villages; then the caza (canton); then the sandjak (arrondissement); and, lastly, the vilayet, or province, under a Governor-General, Director of Finance, and Council of Administration. Throughout these several stages-from the village to the nahie, caza, sandjak, and chief place of the vilayet-there are excellent rules for the check and disposition of the revenues, but they are not observed. Indeed, in the judicial, as in the revenue and financial administration of the island, the organisation of establishments and rules of procedure are commendable in every way, but the rules are unknown to, or ignored by, the officials employed to administer them.

The tithes are farmed by the Turkish Government to merchants and speculators in the spring of each year, when the ripening crops enable all concerned to estimate the extent and quality of the year's produce. The sale of the tithes (by villages, nahies, or cazas, as may be preferred) commences in March and ends on the 15th June, and whatever tithes then remain unsold the Government undertakes to recover through its own agents.

When the sales are effected the tithe-farmer signs a bond for the amount, payable in six monthly instalments, commencing from the 1st August, with interest on instalments not paid at due date. Each tithe-farmer is required to have a sufficient surety, who also signs the bond and is jointly and equally responsible with the principal. After conclusion of the agreement, the tithe-farmer proceeds at once to watch the fields in which he is interested and to estimate the yield. He sees the grain cut, threshed, heaped, and insists upon its remaining upon the threshing-floor until his claim is satisfied-the claim always exceeding the stipulated tenth. For wheat, barley, and other grains, arrangements have to be made by the cultivators for transit to the nearest port of embarkation, on terms more or less unfavourable to themselves. Their cattle are taken away for transport when most required in their own fields, and they have to bear all the expenses of transit, except the expense of the first mile, which is paid by the tithe-farmers. For fruit, vegetables, and other perishable articles, the tithe is commuted in a money payment, respecting which there are usually disputes, determinable by the local Kaimakam or head Government official of each caza. The awards of these officials are always in favour of the tithe-farmers, who are members of the Administrative Councils, or otherwise persons of influence in the cazas comprised in their respective engagements. Later in the year, or about the 15th August, the vineyards are similarly visited by the tithe-farmers or their representatives, and estimates of the produce are made by them and by the cultivators. These estimates always differ, and are the subject of constant disputes, which are referred to the Kaimakam, whose award is generally in favour of the tithe-farmer. As the grape cannot be removed until the claim is settled, the cultivator submits to the exactions of the tithe-farmers rather than risk the deterioration or loss of his stock, and is thus practically mulcted in proportions far exceeding a tenth of the entire produce. The effect of these illegal exactions has been to reduce the cultivation of the grape throughout the island.

But, though keen in their dealings with the peasantry, the tithe- farmers are slow in their own payments to the Government Treasury.

These payments are required, under their bonds, in six monthly instalments from the 1st August; grace is allowed for forty days, and the instalments are required to commence on the 10th September. They are delayed, however, on various pretexts, and reclamations and remissions of revenue are often unjustly obtained through collusion with the local Kaimakams and Malmudirs. Thus, the tithe-farmer makes his bargain with the Government when the crops are ripening, recovers his claim directly they are gathered, indefinitely postpones his own obligations to the Government and often evades them altogether. Although, under his bond, interest is payable on overdue instalments, it is never enforced. An examination of the accounts revealed the existence of considerable arrear claims extending over several years, and for the most part irrecoverable now. Practically, the tithe-farmer's obligations have never been discharged in the year to which they belonged. Of the collections credited in the year 1876-77, nearly one-half was on account of the claims of prior years.

These facts clearly show that the operation of the tithe system has resulted in a loss of revenue to the State. It has impoverished the peasant, involving him in the toils of the money-lender as well as of the tithe-farmer. It has checked the productiveness of the island, the area now under cultivation being less than a third of all the culturable lands of Cyprus. Some modification of the tax, or of the machinery for its collection, would therefore seem to be imperatively required.

There are not wanting points of analogy, as of difference, between Cyprus and some of the British provinces of India, and a suggestion has been made to substitute the Indian system of a fixed money payment for the tenth of the produce in kind. Curiously enough, the converse proposition has lately found favour in India in connection with the agrarian riots in the Dekkan, and what is there regarded as the bane of the Indian system is now proposed here as the antidote of the Turkish system. Like the Cypriote, but in a greater degree, the Dekkan peasant is poor, indebted, and indifferent to the improvement of his land, and both are constantly liable to the effects of drought and famine. But whilst the State requires from the former only a tenth part of his actual crops, the Indian peasant is liable for the full money rate fixed without regard to the rainfall and the crops. As between the State and the peasant, the elastic tithe tax would seem to be preferable-its evil working in Cyprus being due mainly to the irresponsible and unscrupulous agencies entrusted with the collection of the tithes. In attempting any reform, therefore, care should be taken at the outset to avoid principles or methods that have contributed in India to evils similar to those that have to be rectified here. The direction and scope of the reform must necessarily depend upon more complete information than is at present available respecting the land tenures and local agricultural customs of this island, the varieties of soil, the means of irrigation actual and possible, and the conditions and habits of the agricultural classes generally.