Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus Part 37

When the vines were in full bearing, the next thing to be considered was to find a market for their produce; but here arose a great and unforeseen difficulty, and the brilliant expectations of the planters were soon miserably disappointed. In spite of the difficulties of the route, some merchants yielded to the earnest solicitations of the governor-general and his imitators, and arrived on the coast to purchase; but the demands of the proprietors were exorbitant; their first outlay had been very great, and their produce small, yet they were bent on realising at once the amount of their investments. They thought, too, that by setting a high price on their wines, they would secure their reputation; accordingly they fixed it at twenty to twenty-five rubles the vedro (0.1229 hectolitres), and immediately they lost all chance of sale.

The business prospered better in the valley of the Soudak, where the same modifications had been introduced into the culture of the vine. The hill wines were sold at the rate of twelve to fifteen rubles the vedro, and those of the plain at five and six. But this did not last long; in 1840 the wine growers of Soudak could no longer dispose of their stock, though they had reduced their prices to two and three rubles for the best qualities, and to one and one and a half for the lowland wines. As to the wine-growers of the southern coasts, they were very glad at that time if they could find purchasers at the rate of five or six rubles the vedro.

Several causes contributed to these unfortunate results. The southern coast, as we have already said, consists of a long narrow strip of argillaceous schist and detritus, with a very steep inclination, and overtopped throughout its length by high cliffs of jura limestone. In consequence of these topographical conditions, the heat is very great in summer; the soil, which is quite dest.i.tute of watercourses, dries rapidly, and the many ravines by which it is intersected, completely deprives it of any little moisture that may remain in it. The scarcity of rain augments these disadvantages, so that the vine plants procured from abroad degenerate rapidly; as the grapes cannot ripen before autumn, the wine loses much in quality; and, moreover, the quant.i.ty is far from abundant, in proportion to the extent of the ground. These circ.u.mstances, combined with those occasioned by the desire to exalt the wines of the Crimea in public opinion, inflame both the pretensions of the proprietors and the indifference of the merchants, who could never have disposed of the coast wine at the high prices asked for it. These were afterwards considerably diminished, but not sufficiently to produce any effect. Whatever be said to the contrary, it is certain that the wines of the southern Crimea can never sustain any sort of comparison with those of France or the Rhine; hence they continued to be held in low repute, and the merchants of the interior still found it more to their advantage to make their purchases in the northern valleys, which were easy of access, and where the wine was incomparably cheaper. In spite of all their efforts, therefore, the wine-growers of the southern coast could not find a market for their produce, and were obliged to consume the chief part of it themselves.

It may, perhaps, excite surprise that no attempt has been made to evade the difficulties of land-carriage by seeking outlets by sea, and procuring customers in the great maritime towns of Russia. But unluckily there exists between Russia and Greece an ancient treaty, which the tzars, for political considerations no doubt, persist in religiously observing, and by virtue of which Greek wines are received almost free of duty in the imperial ports. Whoever is aware of the prodigious quant.i.ty and incredible cheapness of the wines of the Archipelago, and of the great facilities they afford for effecting mixtures and adulterations, will easily conceive, that with such a compet.i.tion to encounter, the sale of Crimean wines became absolutely impossible. If the culture of the vine in the Crimea was induced by encouragements on the part of the government, then the landowners were grossly duped. But, as we shall explain by and by, the ministry seem never to have looked favourably on this branch of industry, and the vine-growers have only their own extreme want of forethought to blame for all the disasters that have befallen them.

At Soudak, however, the mischief appears to us attributable solely to the misconduct of the authorities. We have already stated that the vintage speculations of Soudak were at first much more prosperous than those of the southern coast. The situation of the valley, which is of very easy access for northern traffic, and the decided preference of the German colonists for white wines, for many years kept the fine plain of Soldaya in a thriving if not an opulent condition. But unfortunately, that western part of the coast not being within the region which the governor-general and the great landowners had taken under their special protection, Soudak was completely abandoned to her own resources; her roads were left without repairs, and the local administration took no measures whatever for the preservation of order and the security of individuals. When I visited the coast in 1840, the roads of this district were in the most deplorable condition;[82] they were strewed with fragments of carts and casks; a German waggoner was killed in my presence by the breaking down of his waggon; thieving and pillage were the order of the day in the valley, and the proprietors could only preserve their chattels by keeping a close personal watch upon them day and night.

The consequences of this culpable neglect may readily be imagined.

Purchasers diminished in number year by year, the wines lost their value, and the unfortunate proprietors with large stocks on hand were reduced to great poverty. All sorts of expedients were adopted under the pressure of the calamity; the wines were turned into vinegar, but again the speculation failed for want of a market. We heartily desire that our reasonable remonstrances in favour of Soudak may reach the imperial government, so that effectual measures may be taken to revive the great natural wealth of that magnificent valley. We do not know the intentions of the present finance minister, but it is to be hoped that he will not partake the narrow views of his predecessor. Count Cancrini was a fanatic partisan of the consumption of foreign wines, and at the same time the declared enemy of the home growth, which he regarded as most injurious to the customs' revenue of the empire.

In the present state of things it is not easy to predict the future fortunes of the Crimean wine production. For our own part, we are thoroughly convinced that France has no sort of compet.i.tion to fear on the part of those regions. Whether the cultivation of the vine be concentrated in the valleys or on the hill sides, we do not think that the vintage can ever rival ours. It has been very justly remarked that wherever the vine and the olive grow together, the wines cannot have that delicacy and that _bouquet_ which belong only to our temperate climates. We believe, however, that if the wines of the Archipelago were subjected to higher duties, if the means of transport were rendered more facile, and increased cultivation were given to the more open hill sides that extend towards the east of the Tauric chain, the Crimea would soon be enabled to supply the demand of the whole empire for the commoner sorts of wine, and the result would, perhaps, be extremely advantageous in diminis.h.i.+ng the mischievous use of ardent spirits. Such a change as this would evidently be not at all prejudicial to French commerce, which sends only wines of the first quality to the south of Russia.

According to a report printed in the Russian journals of 1834, and cited by M. Dubois, the 7,100,000 vine plants, contained in that year on the old and new plantations, were distributed as follows:--

South-west coast of the Crimea 1,600,000 Soudak and south-east coast 2,000,000 Valley of the Katch 2,000,000 " the Alma 500,000 " the Belek 500,000 German colonies 500,000

The wine yielded by the vintage of 1832, was 32,307 hectolitres, of which 1694 were the produce of the south-west coast, 6050 that of Soudak, and 7865 that of the valley of the Katch.

The plantations have augmented considerably since that time; we cannot venture, however, to accept as authentic, the following statistics of the annual production of the Crimea, given us by landowners in 1840:--

Valley of Soudak 80,000 vedros 9,760 hectolitres Southern coast 120,000 " 14,640 "

Northern valleys 750,000 " 91,500 "

We have not much to say of the other branches of agriculture; they are all in the most deplorable state. The magnificent forests, yielding such quant.i.ties of timber, that formerly clothed the mountains, are rapidly disappearing. Camel breeding, formerly very productive to the Tatars of the plain, has given place to lank flocks of merinos. The most fertile valleys are in the same state of desolation in which they were left by the great calamities at the close of the last century, and the peninsula now produces scarcely corn enough for its own consumption. Horticulture alone has made any real progress. Some foreigners practise it with profit in the northern valleys, which for many years past have enjoyed the privilege of supplying all the fruit used at the tables of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Manufactories are almost in the same state of decay as agriculture.

Morocco and other leathers formerly const.i.tuted an important part of the exports from the Crimea; at present the value of these exports is no more than 129,646 rubles. It is about five years since this branch of industry was ruined. All that time there existed on the mountains of the peninsula a great quant.i.ty of goats, which being left at liberty, caused, it must be confessed, much damage to the forests, by nipping off the young shoots. According to the usual Russian practice of attacking secondary causes rather than going at once to the root of any evil, the local administration could devise nothing better in the case than to proclaim a war of extermination, by giving every one the right of hunting and killing goats, in all places and at all seasons. The goats were almost all destroyed, and with them fell of necessity the greater part of the manufactories for morocco leather. It would certainly have been easy for authorities, possessed of any practical ability, to preserve the forests without exterminating the goats; but as they would not, or could not, deal with the real destroyers, the n.o.ble landowners, they wreaked their spite on the quadrupeds. It is really inconceivable with what rapidity the finest forests of the Crimea are disappearing; year by year whole hills are totally stripped, and the government, stern as it has shown itself against the goats, takes no means to check this fatal devastation. Several great landowners are engaged in lawsuits gravely affecting their rights, and meanwhile, until their causes shall have been decided, they use their opportunity to cut timber as fast as possible. Foremost in those proceedings is Admiral Mordvinof, who has already destroyed the exceedingly rich forests that clothed the hills above the valley of Baidar. The effects of this clearing away of the forests are already felt severely; the rivers are diminis.h.i.+ng in volume, a great number of springs have run dry, and fire wood, now costs as much as forty rubles the fathom at Ialta.

Another branch of industry, likewise very profitable in former times, was the working of the rich salt-pits in the environs of Kozlov (Eupatoria). Only a few years ago eighty vessels used to come to the port from Anatolia, to take in cargo. The price of the salt was then very low, but the trade was nevertheless a source of employment and profit for all the surrounding population. The minister of finance was jealous of the profits realised by individuals in this trade, and therefore laid a considerable export duty on the salt. In the following year not a single vessel came from Anatolia, and it was soon ascertained that, prompted by necessity, the people of the southern sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea had found rich salt-pits in their own territory.

The following table of the commerce of the Crimea in 1838 and 1839, is taken from official doc.u.ments. The figures contained in it are in our opinion exaggerated, for they do not by any means agree with those resulting from the detailed table we shall give further on.

------------+-----------------------+----------------------- IMPORTS. EXPORTS.

-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- 1838. 1839. 1838. 1839.

------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- rubles. rubles. rubles. rubles.

Kertch 175,321 250,887 226,999 123,082 Theodosia 673,535 695,130 1,281,244 955,108 Eupatoria 185,480 131,222 2,299,365 2,394,867 Balaclava 6,605 +-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- Total 1,040,941 1,077,239 3,807,608 3,473,057 ------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

Be it remarked that among the exports corn alone figured in 1839 for 835,486 rubles for Theodosia, and 1,755,052 rubles for Eupatoria; and as all this corn came from countries beyond the Crimea, the nullity of the peninsular exportation is apparent. Moreover, the gross total of three and a half millions is scarcely the fifteenth part of the annual exportation of the town of Odessa alone. In order to give a more exact idea of the industrial and commercial situation of the Crimea, we set down the details of its exports and imports in 1839.

IMPORTS.

---------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+ ARTICLES. KERTCH. THEODOSIA. EUPATORIA. ---------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+ rubles. rubles. rubles. Cotton 49,993 33,650 Cotton thread 4,080 4,986 Turkish cotton cloths 14,164 532,976 Chairs 5,750 Wooden vessels 3,645 2,441 Woollen caps 4,504 29,218 Oil 20,636 3,589 16,997 Sickles 5,000 Wines 12,069 2,190 2,342 Porter 4,600 2,171 Ca.s.sonade 14,354 Fresh and dried fruit 100,402 15,107 27,464 Fine pearls 4,000 Coffee 4,319 25,102 Linen thread 2,204 Nard juice and grapes 6,269 Turkish tobacco 3,345 7,823 Olives 3,467 Raw silk 9,008 Dyed silk thread 20,915 Oak galls 20,387 Colours 13,814 Vegetables 2,122 Pepper 3,063 ---------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+

EXPORTS.

---------------------------+-----------+------------+----------- ARTICLES. KERTCH. THEODOSIA. EUPATORIA.

---------------------------+-----------+------------+----------- rubles. rubles. rubles.

Raw hides 15,152 22,653 68,312 Fish 7,310 Red caviar 13,113 Linseed 6,100 Rapeseed 6,600 Wheat 31,040 745,031 1,544,313 Wool 41,185 19,087 344,997 Cordage 3,275 Woollen felt 7,670 31,424 Tanned leather 18,375 5,150 Flax, hemp, and stuffs 11,323 27,065 b.u.t.ter 8,133 61,445 Bar iron 2,340 14,700 Salt 8,813 5,700 Soda 4,691 Rye 48,157 66,600 Barley 39,485 1,333,640 Millet 2,870 1,910 Glue 3,494 Raw Hemp 3,264 Locks 22,296 Copper utensils 3,050 Bra.s.s, and bra.s.s wire 4,650 Cutlery 13,509 Swords and epaulettes 3,000 Sheep skins 3,650 Suet 11,893 Turpentine 2,100 Beans 8,589 Flour 2,120 Raw silk 3,200 ---------------------------+-----------+------------+-----------

We do not at all coincide in opinion with those who attribute the decadence we have just described to the general character of the people of the East. The Orientals, it is true, have none of that feverish activity which characterises the people of our climes; besides which their wants are so limited and so easily satisfied, that they can never, in their present social condition, become strenuous workers. Yet we have seen that the Tatars, when they first occupied the country, were distinguished for their agricultural and industrial labours, whether it was in consequence of their mixture with the old races, or merely of the propitious climate; they also employed themselves with such success in gardening and the cultivation of the vine and of corn, that the Crimea under the khans was considered one of the chief regions whence Constantinople drew its supplies. It was only the steppe tribes, whose sole wealth was their cattle, that remained true to their primitive habits and their nomade life. In like manner there exists to this day a very striking difference, both intellectual and physical, between the two fractions of the Mussulman race of the Crimea.

We believe, therefore, that under a better system it would have been easy to revive the laborious disposition of the Tatars by facilitating and encouraging commercial transactions, and gradually effacing the disheartening apprehensions under which the Mussulman population have naturally laboured since their great calamities befel them. a.s.suredly we cannot blame Russia for that depopulation of the country which was the first cause of its decadence. As victors, the Russians used all the rights of the strong hand to consolidate their conquest and extinguish all chance of insurrection. The means no doubt were violent, disastrous, and often even exceeded all the bounds of humanity; yet it was scarcely possible but that excesses should be committed in a war between Russian Christians and Mussulman Tatars, who had so often braved, triumphed over, and swayed the Muscovite power. In fairness, therefore, we can only criticise the measures adopted by the Russian government subsequently to the conquest, from the day when the country was completely pacified, and the Tatars submitted implicitly to the new yoke, and lost all hope of deliverance.

We have already seen how an act of caprice annihilated the commercial prosperity of Theodosia, which would naturally have had the greatest influence over the industrial development of the peninsula; and we have pointed out the mischievous measures that ruined various branches of the native trade. To these depressing causes, for which the government with its fatal system of prohibition and its half measures is alone responsible, we must add others no less active, because they princ.i.p.ally affect the agricultural population who stand most in need of encouragement. We have already repeatedly mentioned the countless depredations of the inferior government agents. In the Crimea the difference of religion and language, and the difficulty of making any kind of appeal for redress, naturally rendered the local administration more troublesome and rapacious than in any other province. The consequence was that the Tatars led a life of fear and distrust, agriculture languished, and every man cultivated yearly only as much as was necessary for the subsistence of his family, that he might not excite the cupidity of the _employes_.

On his accession to the government, Count Voronzof, with his natural kindness, applied himself strenuously to improve the condition of the Tatars; he took them under his special protection, and prevented the rapacity of his underlings as far as in him lay. Unfortunately, his efforts could hardly avail beyond the limits of his own estates, and all his generous intentions were baffled or worn out by the incessant pettyfogging arts of the _employes_. Nothing could more signally exemplify the distrustful feelings of the Tatars, than the events which occurred during the famine of 1833, which was so great that whole families perished of hunger. Moved by these misfortunes the government offered aid to the Tatars, but incredible as it may appear, the proffered succours were generally refused, so much did the Mussulmans dread the price which would be afterwards exacted for such a.s.sistance.

Towards 1840, after the creation of the ministry of the domains of the crown under Count Kizilev, the imperial government set about the task in which Count Voronzof had failed. Men of the best character for intelligence and probity were sent to the Crimea, but their efforts were all ineffectual, and they soon retired in disgust from the useless struggle. The unfortunate Crimea was again surrendered to the unlimited power and endless knaveries of the captain _ispravniks_, and of the worthy subaltern agents of the local administration.

What are the destinies ultimately reserved for the Mussulman population of the Crimea,[83] now numbering barely 100,000 souls?[84] We are strongly inclined to antic.i.p.ate its total extinction at a more or less remote date. The tribes are rapidly degenerating; the moral and physical forces of the nation are daily declining; the territorial wealth of the Tatars has been destroyed, sold, or divided; the native families distinguished for their past history or for their fortunes have disappeared; the population, instead of increasing, diminishes. There remains, therefore, no element of vitality to revive the effete remains of a power that made Russia tremble during so many centuries, and that even menaced for a while the political existence of all Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] These colonies now consist of nine villages, with a population of 1800 souls.

[78] _Trade of the Sea of Azof, in 1838 and 1839._

--------------------+-----------------------+---------------------- IMPORTS. EXPORTS.

+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- 1838. 1839. 1838. 1839.

Rubles. Rubles. Rubles. Rubles.

Taganrok {Goods 5,887,901 5,334,369 7,666,943 13,813,323 {Cash 1,414,596 2,885,279 Marcoupol {Goods 300 987 3,422,107 6,276,882 {Cash 640,660 1,515,525 Rostof on {Goods 3,205,406 6,078,037 the Don {Cash Bordiansk {Goods 2,971,426 4,107,638 {Cash 768,722 825,113 +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- Total 8,712,179 10,561,273 17,265,882 30,275,880 --------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------

[79] De La Mottraye, who visited the Crimea in 1711, speaks of a Soudak wine the flavour of which he compares with Burgundy. At that period the wines of the northern valleys sold at 2-1/2 centimes the bottle. In Peyssonel's time, in 1762, the Soudak wines fetched from 32 to 38 centimes the bottle; those of Belbek 22 to 25, and those of Katch, of which De La Mottraye speaks, 13 to 15. The Ukraine Cossacks and the Zaporogues consumed the greatest portion of these wines; about 1210 hectolitres annually according to Peyssonel. In 1784, at the time of the Russian occupation, the price of Soudak wine was 5 to 6 centimes the litre; it rose to 65 centimes in 1793, during the war with Turkey.--(See Pallas, Voyage dans la Russie Meridionale.)

[80] Previously to Count Voronzof, M. Rouvier, who introduced the breed of merino sheep into Russia, had planted vines from Malaga on the hill sides of Laspi, at the western extremity of the chain; but his example had not many imitators.

[81] Aidaniel is north-east of Ialta, a little town, the chief station for steamboats.

[82] Of roads perfectly practicable for wheeled vehicles there exist in the Crimea: 1. The road leading from Simpheropol to Sevastopol, skirting the northern slope of the Tauric chain; its length is thirty-nine English miles; 2. That from Simpheropol to Ialta, crossing the mountains at the foot of the Tchatir Dagh, forty-nine miles; 3. That from Ialta to Balaclava, proceeding along the southern coast as far as Foros, where it pa.s.ses on to the northern side of the mountains; its length is forty miles between Ialta and Foros; the second portion was in course of construction in 1840. This line of road seems to us extremely ill-contrived. It has been carried along the very foot of the jura-limestone cliffs, for the purpose of avoiding expense in crossing the ravines; and thus it is completely exterior to the vine-growing and cultivable district, and every proprietor who desires to use it must make a private road at his own expense, in order to reach the elevated level of the highway. We say nothing of the roads in the plains, the construction of which, just as in the interior of Russia, consists merely in tracing the breadth and direction by a ditch on either side.

[83] Hitherto the Tatars have been exempted from military service; they are merely required to furnish one squadron to the imperial guard, to be discharged every five years. As for the taxes imposed on them they amount to the illusory sum of 8_s._ 4_d._ for every male individual, not including duty work on roads, transports, &c.

[84] The total population of the Crimea is about 200,000, including Russians, Greeks, Armenians, Karates, Germans, and other foreigners.

CHAPTER XLIII.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BESSARABIA.

TOPOLOGY--ANCIENT FORTRESSES--THE RUSSIAN POLICY IN BESSARABIA--EMANc.i.p.aTION OF THE SERFS--COLONIES-- CATTLE--EXPORTS AND IMPORTS--MIXED POPULATION OF THE PROVINCE.

To complete our account of the southern regions of Russia, it remains for us to speak of Bessarabia, the most remote province which the tzars possess on the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea, and the country which formed, down to the commencement of the present century, one of the most valuable possessions of the princ.i.p.ality of Moldavia. We will not now endeavour to withdraw the veil that covers the history of past ages, or discuss the effects produced upon this province by the expeditions of Darius and of Alexander, the Roman conquests, the Tatar invasions, and the Mussulman dominion: we will confine ourselves to contemporaneous facts, the only ones which can have some chance of exciting, if not interest, at least curiosity.

Bessarabia is bounded on the south by the Danube, north and east by the Dniepr and the Black Sea, and west by the Pruth, which separates it from Moldavia, and by Bukovine, a dependency of Austria. It thus forms between two rivers which might easily be rendered navigable, a strip of more than 375 English miles in length, with an average breadth not exceeding fifty. This strip, which expands gradually as it approaches the sea, is divided into two regions, totally distinct both in population and in topographical character. The southern part, to which the Tatars have given the name of Boudjiak, consists of the flat country which extends to the sea between the mouths of the Danube and lower part of the Dniestr. It has all the characteristics of the Russian steppes, possesses but a few insignificant streams, and is chiefly fitted for rearing cattle; it yields little to tillage, except in some localities along the watercourses, where numerous colonies of Germans and Bulgarians are settled. The northern part adjoining Austria is, on the contrary, a hill country, beautifully diversified, covered with magnificent forests, and rich in all the productions of the most favoured temperate climates.