CONSTANTINOPLE perienced any severe seismic convulsion until July 10, 1894. On that day there was a violent shock lasting nearly twenty seconds. The damage wrought by it was chiefly in the quarters lying between the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed and the Adrianople Gate. All the damage has been repaired, and the ruined part of the grand Bazaar has been rebuilt on a much better plan. Trade.—The diminution of the trade of Constantinople caused by the territorial changes prescribed by the Congress of Berlin was heavily supplemented by that produced by the annexation of Eastern Rumelia to Bulgaria in 1885, as that province drew all its supplies of foreign merchandise from the capital from which a customs frontier now divides it. Of recent years, moreover, mainly owing to governmental interference with the passenger traffic between the capital and the Asiatic provinces, a large proportion of the provincial dealers now import for themselves by Ismid, Trebizond, Samsun, or Kerasund, instead of buying their supplies in Constantinople. About forty per cent, of the import trade of Constantinople is British; France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Italy share the balance, in proportions following the order in which they are mentioned. Constantinople produces nothing, and consequently exports nothing but waste products, but it receives much merchandise in transit. Latterly, however, a large proportion of it has been diverted—like the import trade, ;ind for the same reasons—to the ports of the Black Sea and to Ismid, which latter as a shipping-port is much assisted in its competition with Constantinople by the Anatolian Railway. The transit trade of Constantinople included, until quite recent years, yellow-berries, gall-nuts, madder-roots, and other colouring matters ; but these products have been superseded by the aniline dyes. In connexion with this decrease of trade it is noteworthy that several joint-stock banks have liquidated. Only the Imperial Ottoman Bank and a branch of the Credit Lyonnais remain. As far as can be ascertained, the average annual value of the goods passing through the port was, at the opening of the twentieth century, about £T11,000,000 (a Turkish lira = 18s.). It is, however, impossible to obtain exact figures, and it should be clearly understood that this is only an estimate, arrived at indirectly from a study of the custom receipts. The total given is made up as follows :— Exports. Imports. £T £T 1,000,000 Cereals Manufactured goods— 800,000 Mohair cotton, woollen, silk, 700,000 3,500,000 Carpets &c. 500,000 Silk and cocoons Haberdashery, iron400,000 700,000 Opium mongery 150,000 500,000 Gum tragacanth Sugar 100,000 400,000 Wool Petroleum 100,000 400,000 Hides Flour 350,000 300,000 Various Coffee 250,000 Rice . 100,000 Cattle 850,000 Various 4,100,000 Total . 7,000,000 Total The shipping visiting the port, counting all seagoing craft (including liners) other than coasters, numbered 13,357 vessels of 11,453,332 tons in 1893, 14,387 vessels of 12,501,102 tons in 1896, and 10,777 vessels of 10,288,091 tons in 1900. The minor industries in Constantinople, never very important, are declining, and foreign industrial undertakings have had little success. Education.—In the department of Education the only important fact is that the Turkish School of Arts and Crafts has been rebuilt and reorganized. Otherwise the educational record of the years 1885 to 1900 is limited to the opening of a few schools of the moi’e elementary sort. There are thirty-two foreign schools, one only of which is British. Two new charitable institutions, founded by the Sultan and supported by the Civil List, claim notice, namely, the Asylum for the Poor and the Hamidieh Hospital for Children. The Imperial Museum of Antiquities, opened in 1892, contains the celebrated Greek Sarcophagi, twenty-one in number, discovered at Saida, the ancient Sidon, in 1888. Local Government.—Constantinople contains four districts or “divisions” (Belad-i-Selessi), namely, Stamboul, Pera-Galata, Beshiktash, and Scutari, of which the Government is in the hands of the Minister of Police, who is ex officio Governor of Stamboul. The other three districts have each their Governor (mutessarif), who is appointed by the Sultan, and is subordinate to the Minister of Police. All matters concerning public order and security are controlled by these four Governors, each of whom
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is provided with a separate staff of police and gendarmery, each district having its own police court, of which the Governor is the presiding magistrate. The municipal government of the four metropolitan divisions is vested in the Prefect of Stamboul, who is appointed by the Sultan. He is the President of a Council of twenty-four members, who are appointed either by the feultan, or by the Minister of the Interior in cases where there is no Palace candidate. The Prefecture has charge of all that concerns the streets, the markets, and the bazaars, including the street porters and the public weighers. It has also control over the public baths and the hospitals, of which latter there are three ; and is charged with the collection of all city dues, including the Eerghi (Property Tax). The Prefecture is divided into ten cerdes, or wards, each of which has a president, vice-president, secretary, engineer, and physician, all of whom are appointed by the Council of the Prefecture. The Prefect is immediately subordinate to the Minister of the Interior. A military commandant, having under his orders a detachment of the garrison of Stamboul, is appointed to each of the four districts, the supreme military commander being the Dersaadet Mcrkez Commandani—i.e., Commandant de la Place —Commander of the Garrison of Constantinople. The outlying parts of the city are divided into six districts (Cazas), namely, Princes’ Islands, Guebzeh, Beicos, Kartal, Kutchuk-Tchekmedj4, and Shil4—each of which has its Governor (Jcaimakam), who is usually chosen by the Palace. These districts are dependencies of the Ministry of the Interior, and their municipal affairs are directed by agents of the Prefecture. Population.—The city population, according to official estimate, numbers 880,000 ; the aggregate population of the six suburban districts is officially estimated at 320,000 ; giving a grand total of 1,200,000, which is the official estimate of the entire population of the city of Constantinople and its faubourgs. The Armenian element of the population was appreciably reduced by the events of 1895-96 ; but no trustworthy figures in connexion with this diminution are obtainable. In the four central districts of the city the first-class thoroughfares and a considerable proportion of those of the second and third order are now fairly well lighted with gas. Water Supply.—From the time of the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks up to the year 1882 one method of obtaining water for the city was followed to the exclusion of all others: This method was to trap the rain in the natural hollows of the forest of Belgrade (about 18 miles north-east of Constantinople), together with the water of the rivulets which trickle through some of them. It was effected by throwing a dam across the lowest end of each depression, thus stopping the outflow of water, and forming a reservoir called Bend in Turkish. There are nine of these “ Bends.” The water from the “ Bends ” is conveyed to its destination in earthenware pipes set in cement, and laid underground except in places where depressions of the soil necessitate an aqueduct. In several cases where that occurs the remains of the ancient aqueducts are utilized. The pipes convey the water to the public fountains, from which the poorer classes take it as they require, and it is distributed by the corporation of watercarriers {sakka) to those who can afford to pay the cost of delivery. This was the only water system of Constantinople up to the year 1885. The radical defects of this system suggested to Kiamil Bey, Grand Master of Ceremonies at the Court of the Sultan, in conjunction with a foreigner residing in Constantinople, to apply for a concession to bring water from Lake Derkos, which is about 28 miles west of the Black Sea mouth of the Bosphorus, and about 3 miles from the Black Sea shore. The application was finally granted in 1881 to the associate of Kiamil Bey, who had himself died in the meanwhile. A French company was formed, with a capital of twenty million francs, to carry out the undertaking; the works were begun in 1882, and on 1st July 1885 the new water supply was inaugurated. Lake Derkos has a total length of 8 miles, and a mean breadth of 2 miles. It.is abundantly supplied by the river Karaman and its tributaries flowing down from the Strandja Dagh. The water, when taken from the lake, is first filtered, and then raised by a steam elevator (600 h.p.) to a height of 365 feet, whore it enters the main conduit, 29 miles long, and is thence distributed by the deliverypipes, of which the total length at the present time is 165 miles. The quality of the Derkos water is excellent, and the service is thoroughly well conducted. Until the year 1893 the Asiatic suburbs had no water supply but such as individual families obtained by cisterns, wells, &c. In 1888 a German firm obtained a concession for establishing water-works at the Sweet Waters of Asia—a lake lying between the villages of Kandili and AnatoliHissar, which is fed by mountain streams from the Kaiish-Dagh and Alem-Dagh. A company called the Compagniearedes Eaux de Scutari-Kadikeui was formed in 1890, with a sh capital of £144,000 and a debenture capital of £160,000. The works were commenced in January 1891, and the supply service began m October 1893. ~ . I Authorities.—P. de Tchihatchef. Bosphore et Constantin-
