Note 19 — Chapter X · IBREEZ. THE GREAT PLAIN. DEVLEH.

It may be interesting to compare some of the prices of times past with those of the present day in Turkey.

The Baron de Tott, who wrote his ‘Mémoires sur la Turquie,’ about a century back, informs us that the “asper,” of which there were three to the “para,” was worth six deniers or one demi sol of France, equal to 2½ centimes; but that a deduction of 20 per cent. must be made in consequence of debasement.

The “asper,” therefore, was worth 2 centimes, and the piastre 2 francs 40 centimes. A hundred years earlier the piastre was worth nearly the double of this. This we learn from a traveller named Poullet, who published an account of his travels in 1668. “Thirty-five or forty ‘aspers’ made at most from 25 to 30 French sols.” He says that at Van he expended for himself and his horse one piastre per week.

The physician, Paul Lucas, who travelled in the Levant by command of Louis XIV., in the years 1705-6-15, says that at Smyrna partridges were sold at 1 sol each; woodcocks at 1½ sol. At the village of Kourou Kaidji, not far from Baluk Hissar, the “katerji,” who accompanied the traveller, bought a fine horse for 16 piastres.

The “seymens” (foot soldiers) who were stationed in the forests for the protection of travellers, used to exact 4 paras from every Christian.

When Paul Lucas was leaving Cavalla, he met, at some 200 paces from the town, a janissary, who attacked him, pistol in hand. “I drew out,” he says, “one of my own pistols in order to obtain satisfaction for this affront, but my valet, who was a sworn enemy of firearms, gave him 3 paras, with which the rascal was so well contented that he went off at full gallop, firing his two pistols in the air.”

One may perceive what influence “paras” could exert in Turkey in those days.

The same traveller writes, “At a village five hours from Ferré, six of us dined for 4½ sols, and even filled our flasks. It may be imagined that we did not fare luxuriously; but is it possible to obtain at less cost eggs, butter, cheese, and above all good wine, of which we were not sparing?”

About the middle of last century, when the piastre was worth about 3 francs, the following were the prices of certain articles:—

At Trebizonde, wrought copper cost 30 paras the “oke” (2¾ lbs. avoirdupois); walnuts, 7 or 8 paras per thousand.

At Rizeh, in the same province, Egyptian rice cost 60 paras per “kileh” of 40 okes; the rice of Philippopoli, 40 paras; “Pastourma” (dried and spiced beef) cost 10 paras per oke, sold by retail; black olives, 4 to 5 paras per oke; green olives, 13 to 14 paras; Crimean butter of first quality, 20 to 22 paras per oke; filberts, 90 to 100 paras per “quintal.”

At Guerzeh, a place seven to eight hours from Sinope, planks of walnut wood 8 feet long, 2½ feet wide, and 6 inches thick, cost 25 to 30 paras each. Similar planks of plane wood cost 15 to 16 paras.

Joists of oak 8 feet long and 3 inches in diameter cost 3 to 4 paras each. Planks of fir wood, narrow and thin, for constructing ceilings, cost from 40 to 50 paras per hundred.

The authority for these prices is a book on the commerce of the Black Sea, written by Peyssonel, a French traveller, in about 1750.

The same writer says that at Sinope a ship of war of two decks, pierced for seventy cannons, and launched with her masts, but without rigging, sails, or guns, cost only 15,000 to 16,000 piastres. A trading vessel of three masts could be built for 1800 piastres.

In 1657 a Turkish galleon was wrecked in the harbour of Alexandria. It was secured by fourteen anchors; the cables parted, as they had become rotten from having been left nine months in the water. “The Turks,” says Thevenot, “had never built so fine a galleon as this, not even that of the Sultana, which was captured a few years ago by the Knights of Malta, and which was so lofty that the cross-trees (?) of the Maltese galleys did not come up to her deck.” She had been built at Constantinople, and had cost about 38,000 piastres, but was already old. “She was armed with 40 guns, and could carry 3000 men. On her first voyage from Constantinople to Alexandria, this galleon had on board 2500 people.”

In 1820 a vessel built at Sinope cost 225,000 francs, without cannon or rigging.

The same traveller, Thevenot, tells us what was the rent of rooms in the khans at Constantinople.

“These khans,” he says, “are for lodging the merchants. If you wish for any of the rooms in them you must speak to the porter of the khan (the Oda Bashi), who keeps the keys of them; you must give him a ¼ or ½ piastre for the ‘opening,’ as they call it; and as long as you remain you pay an asper, or two or three per day, according to the rent fixed. Store-rooms for goods are let in the same way.” Thevenot died in 1667.

The freight of shipping seems also to have been very low. The Rev. Father Doubdan, a canon of S. Denis, who made a journey to Jerusalem in 1651, chartered a small vessel to convey him from Sidon to Jaffa, a distance of some 120 miles, at a cost of 9 piastres!