No. 772.
Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople
,
January 29, 1874. (Received February
24.)
No. 186.]
Sir: I have the honor herewith to transmit
a copy of the new stamp-tax law recently promulgated by the Sublime
Porte. As this law is at present of little” interest to the few
citizens of the United States residing in Turkey, 1 have not thought
it necessary to furnish the Department with an English translation
of so extended adocument, as it differs very little from similar
laws in force in various European countries. I have inclosed two résumés of the prominent features of the law
from the local newspapers, which may contain sufficient information
for the purposes of the Department. If, however, the Department
should wish to possess an English version of the entire law, I shall
have it prepared and forwarded without delay.
It was intended that this stamp-law should go into effect on the 1st
day of March next, O. S.; but at a meeting of the foreign
representatives, lately held at the French embassy, it was decided
by a majority I of the ministers that the law in question would
impose an additional tax upon commerce within the signification of
the terms of exemption [Page 1149]
from such burdens contained in the ancient capitulations. It was
therefore determined by the meeting that a sanction to the
enforcement of the stamp-law could not be given by the
representatives of the foreign powers until after it had been
authorized by their various governments. The Sublime Porte has been
notified of that decision, and requested to postpone the enforcement
of the law until the powers should have the opportunity of
expressing their opinions on the subject. To that request the
Sublime Porte, with its usual amiability, will probably yield
without an effort at self-assertion.
In view of this condition of things, one may well ask by whom the
Ottoman Empire is governed, since a council of foreign
representatives may by an intimation suspend or nullify the action
of any decree or law that may be issued by the Sultan or by his
government. So odious and dependent a state of tutelage would not be
borne by the humblest recognized government among the European
states. An appeal to the antiquated capitulations at this day seems
like the enaction of a solemn farce; so completely have the age and
the Ottoman Empire outgrown the state of things against which the
provisions of the capitulations were designed to guard civilized
nations in their intercourse with Turkey.
Why the Ottoman Empire submits to this slur upon its sovereignty,
this denial of its right of self-government, this continual and
vexatious interference with its internal affairs, can only be
accounted for by supposing that it is easier for an indolent people
to endure an abuse that has obtained the force of habit than to
redress it by means that might require a violent exertion or a proud
appeal to the justice of nations. If the latter were firmly made,
Ido not believe that the opinion of the world, without giving a
manifest wrong its sanction, could deny to Turkey the right to
regulate itsdomestic economy, and to treat with other nations upon
terms of reciprocity, and in that manner only.
None but questionable friends, or undoubted cynics, will deny that
the government of the Ottoman Empire is sufficiently liberal and
enlightened to conduct its international relations upon a footing of
equality, and, as between nations, to be entitled to receive all
that it is willing to concede. It possesses also sufficient power
and intelligence, and a sufficent sense of justice, to be able to
conduct its international public business without the constant
advice and the solicitous interference of those self-constituted
guardians who proffer friendship and coercion in the same hand. The
persons who are forever crying out that the Ottoman Empire shoulddo
something for itself, should develop its resources, should reform
its judiciary, should civilize and educate its people, should liken
itself to the nations of Europe, are the last persons to permit it
to take a single step without tugging at those leading-strings that
confine it within its ancient barbarous limits. What advancement can
be hoped for from a government that is deprived of independent
action, that sees with the eyes, hears with the ears, thinks with
the brain, and acts with the will of others! What scope is there for
natural development or for the growth of national virtues within the
shadow of this moral servitude? No freedom of actions that will lead
to the results with which this century has endowed the nations of
Europe can be Expected from a people that since it entered the
European family as a relative has not drawn a single free breath,
has not been permitted to pursue its own interests in its own way,
nor in accordance with the course marked out for it by nature. That
kind of indulgent thralldom which pets its object into imbecility
may have the same disastrous result in dwarfing character as the
thralldom of force. None of those national characteristics, [Page 1150] pride, patriotism,
self-confidence, courage, intolerence of foreign interference,
which, even in disagreeable excess, form the foundations of a
nation’s strength, can long survive in people that yields itself up
to be thus systematically pampered, upheld, and directed by its
neighbors.
Characterize the Turk as we may, he is yet a human being, the
descendant of a race before whose name, not many centuries ago, all
Eastern Europe turned pale; and I have watched with pain and shame
the working of the insidious policy through which the Christian
nations are sapping his remnant of strength, draining the last coin
from his treasury, delivering him over to the usurer, the sharper,
the swindler of their own creed; and meanwhile, fondling him and
smiling in his deluded face as they blindly prepare him to become
the easy prey to some ambitious neighbor. Ido not say that there is
this motive in the system, but the result will be as though there
were; and common wisdom should foresee and prevent a catastrophe
upon which the powers of Western Europe speculate with so much
horror, and which they have already shed their blood to avert.
The next time the sovereignty of Turkey is menaced, the horror may be
no less, and the bloodshed no less, bat both will be vain.
I trust that the United States will never become a party nor a
patient witness to the undermining process which is slowly working
the ruin of the Ottoman Empire; that we will concede to the Turks
all that we demand for ourselves; and that we will set to the other
friendly but shortsighted nations an example of a great and
magnanimous power that scorns, in spite of the temptations of
self-interest, to take advantage of the weakness or the pliant
character of a friendly people in our international relations with
it; and, above all, that we will refrain, either by advice or
dictation, from intermeddling in itsdomestic affairs, when, as at
present, it seems bent on making a last effort, by usual and
practiced means, to replenish its exhausted resources. I beg,
therefore, to suggest that the Government of the United States will
sanction, since the Sublime Porte thinks that sanction necessary for
its action, the new stamp-law or any other law that the Ottoman
government may enact for the legitimate increase of its
revenues.
I have, &c,
[Inclosure.]
[From the Levant Times and Shipping
Gazette, Constantinople, Wednesday, January 7,
1874.]
the new
stamp-regulations.
We have just received from the Porte a copy of the regulations
concerning the new stamp-system. The first article sets forth
what instruments are subject to the stamp, namely, those
relating to loan transactions, deeds of partnership or
association, and every sort of contract, bills of exchange,
checks, receipts, certificates of deposit, snares and bonds of
public companies, teskeres and takrirs, hodjets, inventories,
acts of authorization, judicial orders, receipts for public
salaries or pensions, mazbattas of civil or commercial
tribunals, extracts and copies of publicdocuments made for
private individuals, placards and notices of all kinds,
passports for the provinces, bills of lading and
charter-parties, policies of insurance, and, generally, all
deeds or writings produce-able in a court of law or before the
councils of the empire; finally, newspapers, which are to bear a
2–para stamp a copy, (about one-tenth of a penny.) The
exceptions from the stamp aredocuments passing from one public
department to another or delivered to private individuals
against a receipt; receipts fordonations for the poor, to
schools, religious and charitable establishments; certificates
of indigence; judgments, &c., of criminal and police courts;
and periodical publications relative to science. For bills
contracts, receipts, delegations, &c, the stamp will be a
proportional one, commencing [Page 1151] at 20 paras for sums from 100 to 1,000
piasters, 1 piaster for from 1,000 to 2,000 piasters, and then
rising 1 piaster for every 2,000 piasters up to 20,000, from
which point the stamp will be at the rate of 5 piasters for
every 10,000 piasters or fraction thereof, with further
modifications higher up in the scale, 1,000 piasters being the
amount where the sum is from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 piasters,
and above the latter figure, 500 piasters for every million or
fraction of a million. Shares and scrip certificates of
companies authorized by imperial decree will be subject to a
stamp of 1 per cent, on the nominal capital, and all foreign
stocks, loans, shares, or bonds, quoted and negotiated on the
bourse of Constantinople, must also be stamped at the same rate.
There will be a 10–para stamp for all receipts, &c, for sums
under 100 piasters, and a uniform stamp of 10 paras for checks.
Placards and notices will have to bear a stamp of 1 piaster
each; on bills of lading and charter-parties the stamp will be
only 10 paras; for petitions to the Sultan, 2 piasters; and for
an ordinary petition, 1 piaster. Provision is made for the
effacement of the stamps when used, and there are heavy
penalties for evading the tax. Future notice will be given as to
the mode of gettingdocuments stamped or obtaining paper ready
stamped, or the affixable stamps.
[From the Levant Herald January 9,
1874.]
The first legislative enactment resulting from the programme of
fiscal reform, announced two months ago by the ministry, now
appears in the regulations just published for the application of
the new stamp-law. There is nothing particularly original in the
regulations. They are framed upon the experience of other
countries, and they ordain the attachment of a stamp to
instruments or publications to which such attachment is or has
been required in England and in France. The regulation,
therefore, is so far safe and contains nothing in itself which
will militate against its successful application. The scale
adopted is moderate; and while the regulations cover a
sufficiently wide field to promise considerable financial
results, they do not weigh oppressively in any direction so as
to occasion resistance to or invite evasion of their
application. We have, therefore, nothing to say against the
principles which have guided the ministry in framing the new
regulations.
The instruments to which an ad-valorem stamp is required to be
affixed are contracts of every kind, bills of exchange and
promissory notes, and every other instrument for the transfer of
value. The scale adopted is half a piaster (about a penny) for
sums from 100 to 1,000 piasters, and a piaster for sums over
1,000 piasters and up to 2,000 piasters. Above that figure one
piaster is added for every 2,000 piasters up to 20,000, and over
20,000 5 piasters will be charged upon every 10,000 piasters or
fraction of that sum. When the amount reaches a million and a
half of piasters anddoes not exceed 2,000,000, the stamp is
1,000 piasters; and over 2,000,000, it is 500 piasters for every
million or fraction of a million.
Ordinary trade-receipts are to bear a stamp of 10 paras and
upward in a graduated scale proportioned to the sum. Stocks,
shares, and bonds negotiated on the Constantinople bourse are to
take a stamp of one-half per cent. Policies of insurance are
included in the above category, as well as alldocuments or
writings which may be produced in evidence before any Ottoman
tribunal. Passports are to bear a stamp, as also checks, which
are submitted to the moderate imposition of 10 paras. Petitions
to the Sultan are taxed with a stamp of 2 piasters. Bills of
lading and charter-parties bear only a 10–para stamp, while
placards and public notices pay 1 piaster. Newspapers are to be
covered by a 2–para stamp, which seems to be scarcely enough to
make this tax worth the trouble of application. A stamp of 5
paras would not have sat heavily upon the better class of
newspapers, and might have tended to weed the native press of
publications which convey neither information nor instruction,
and which serve no other end than to occupy the attention of the
bureau de la presse. In this
particular the new tariff would bear modification. Roughly
stated these are the principal features in the new
stamp-regulations, the text of which we publish in our French
columns. The point in connection with this reform, which, under
present circumstances, is the most interesting is its material
results to the treasury. The ministry estimates these, modestly
enough, at £T200,000—modestly enough, that is to say, supposing
the organization of the stamp-office to be good from the outset,
and its working to be kept up rigidly to the standard of like
offices in France and in England. Not only must that
organization be perfect as far as regards the collection of the
stamp-duties, but it must be so devised as to impose a minimum
of inconvenience upon the public. It is in administrative
organization that the Turks most fail. The ministry makes many
good laws, and makes them in good faith, meaning that they
should be carried out; but when they come to be put into
execution they, in many cases, become so bemuddled, mutilated,
and distorted by the indolence, incapacity, and unintelligence
of the officers employed to carry them out, that the best
designs of the government are defeated, and mischief arises out
of [Page 1152] that which was
planned for good. The object of this tax, as of every other, is
general good—to promote general interests. Now it is seen, in
the case of the tithe, how, by a vicious system of application,
this tax so oppresses the particular interests on which it
immediately bears that general interests suffer most materially.
It will, then, entirely depend upon the manner in which the
details of the new stamp-regulations are carried out whether it
will prove to be an advantage or not. In their framing there is
nothing to raise complaint. It depends upon the administration
to render their application either easy and inoffensive or
harassing and obnoxious. Tax-paying is not a pleasant process in
itself, and it, therefore, needs to be sweetened by every
possible facility to the tax-payers. This is a principle which
the Turkish government has yet to apply, if not to learn. The
collections of the customs due, of the tithe, of the sheep-tax,
even of the royalties on mines, are all effected with a maximum
of vexation, and general interests suffer most seriously
therefrom. Having, then, two full months before it in which to
organize the new stamp-office, it is to be hoped that the
government will bestow the greatest care upon the details of
that organization, so that the reform we are discussing, which
is in itself sound, and which, fiscally speaking, should be
inoffensive to the contributors and profitable to the treasury,
may not prove a vexation to the one and a disappointment to the
other.
