The metropolitan dignity, and all other sees, are in his gift. The former is usually granted for life, or for the time of the giver’s reign. Its revenues amount to four hundred thousand piasters. They are derived from landed property bequeathed to the metropoly by deceased boyars and others, and from an annual capitation tax of fifteen piasters levied on the priests of the lower order, whose number amounts to fifteen thousand. The claims of the prince on this important revenue are not so openly avowed as on the civil offices; but they are understood with the person who is raised to the situation, or is confirmed in it by the successor.
The bishops of Argis, Rimnik, and Buzéo, are the next ecclesiastical dignitaries in rank, and the only qualified candidates for the metropoly among their numerous colleagues. They reside at Bukorest, and they form the supreme council of the church under the presidency of the archbishop. This council is the most corrupted tribunal of any in the country, and its acts and decisions, which proceed from any motives than those of moral tendency, would seem calculated for no other purpose than the encouragement of profligacy, and other disorders in the society. The will of the metropolitan, or that of the prince, is the only rule by which its concerns are conducted.
The constitution of Moldavia does not permit the prince to interfere with the affairs of the ecclesiastical council, nor with the financial concerns of the metropoly. The archbishop is elected by the nobility, and must be a native. The bishop of Romano, next in rank, is usually chosen to that dignity. The same regulations ought to exist in Wallachia, but a series of abuses have there rendered many evils irremediable.
Both principalities abound with monasteries originally established by different Voïvodes, and it was a long time customary with the inhabitants to consider as great acts of piety bequests of lands, houses, shops, or sums of money, made to them, insomuch that hardly any rich man died without having allotted a portion of his property to such a purpose.
These voluntary gifts had so accumulated, and the value of land has so increased, that some of the monasteries are now the richest establishments in the country. The greater number are in the gift of the reigning princes, who let them out for a space of time to the highest bidders. Others, being dedicated to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, are disposed of by them; but although the princes cannot appropriate to their own profit any part of their revenues, as they have the right of imposing taxes on them upon certain occasions, they frequently put them under contribution.
Besides the various important branches of revenue hitherto specified, the reigning princes possess many other means of raising money. The two principalities are an inexhaustible source of riches to them, and their proverbial appellation of ‘Peru of the Greeks’ is verified by experience.
CHAPTER IV.
GOLD AND SILVER MINES, &c.—PRODUCTIONS.—RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR EXPORTATION.—NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE.—TRADE OF IMPORTATION.
The chain of Carpathian mountains which separates the two principalities from the Austrian dominions, abounds in a variety of minerals. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, pitch, sulphur, and coals, are to be traced in many places; but although there is strong reason to believe they exist in abundance, no attempt is made to render them available, and this neglect is attributed to various motives, some of which would appear sufficiently justifiable.[[23]] The inhabitants maintain, that to undertake a work of a similar magnitude, the employment of a considerable capital and of a great number of men would be requisite, and consequently the country would have to support many heavy burthens long before it would begin to reap any advantage from their intended object; and that even after consenting to any necessary sacrifices, as the fruits of them would only serve to benefit the coffers of the Grand Signior, it is thought prudent to abstain altogether from creating so powerful an attraction to the leaders of the system of rapacity already too prevalent in the country.
On another hand, it is supposed that the precarious position of the Greek Hospodars, who live under the incessant apprehension of sudden recall and disgrace, induces them to bestow their whole attention to such resources only as are most immediately within their reach, and to neglect any plan that merely offers a remote prospect of gain.
The Porte then seems to be the only party much interested in this affair, as the only one capable of setting it properly on foot, and reaping a lasting advantage. Yet the Turks evince the same indifference, and political reasons are given in explanation, which, however, are by no means satisfactory; for surely no such considerations could prevent them from availing themselves of treasures which they have certainly assumed in every way the right of calling their own.