SIR JOHN’S PROGRAMME
Sir John regarded his audience with the Kaimakam as nothing more
than a prologue: the real action had yet to begin. His first
business was “to make my selfe an Ambassadour by delivering His
Majesty’s Credentials to the Gran Signor and His Letter to the Gran
Visir.”[33] But that could not be done at Constantinople. For over
a dozen years the seat of the Ottoman Empire had been at Adrianople.
Mohammed IV. nourished an unconquerable detestation of
Constantinople. It was said that when any of his Ministers ventured
to urge upon him the advisability of showing himself there, he
used to answer: “What shall I do in Stambul? Did not Stambul
cost my father his life? My predecessors, were they not always
the prisoners of rebels? Rather than go back to Stambul, I would
set fire to it with my own hands.” True or apocryphal, these
words describe the position accurately. Constantinople under the
Sultans, like Rome under the Caesars, was the home of an insolent
militia and a turbulent mob. The maladies which infected the
Empire had their breeding-ground in it. It supplied a centre for
all the intrigues and seditions which time and again had brought
Turkey within an inch of disruption. Its revolutionary habits
made it insecure. So the reigning monarch, except for occasional
visits reluctantly undertaken and speedily terminated, kept away
from the ill-omened city. Love of sport conspired with fear of
death to drive the Grand Signor from his capital. For never had
Turkey known so great a Nimrod. With other Sultans the chase
had been a recreation; with Mohammed IV. it was an obsession--a
monomania. “When He cannot range to Hunt,” says Finch, “He is
never well.”[34] Hence his nickname of _Avji_, or the Hunter.
The fatigues he underwent in the indulgence of this consuming
passion are almost fabulous: in the height of summer as well as in
the depth of winter, he sallied forth two or three hours before
sunrise and spent the whole day dashing up hill and down dale like
one possessed by a thousand restless demons. The courtiers whose
privilege it was to ride in the Sultan’s train looked back with
unfeigned regret to the soft vices of his father: what were the
amorous whims of Ibrahim compared with the strenuous vagaries of
Mohammed? But if he spared his courtiers as little as he spared
himself, this sportsman spared his humbler subjects even less.
Wherever he hunted, the inhabitants of the district were obliged
either to provide beaters--sometimes as many as 30,000--or to beat
the woods themselves. In the summer, they had, in addition, their
crops ruined. In the winter, numbers of these wretched peasants,
exposed to cold and hunger during several days and nights, paid
for their master’s pleasure with their lives. So it came to pass
that, while the titular capital of the Empire, in the absence of
the Grand Signor’s luxurious Court, drooped like a flower in the
shade, the Imperial sun shone upon Adrianople: the environs of that
town affording exceptional facilities for the pursuit of game--of
all pursuits the one this degenerate son of Osman loved the most
and understood the best.[35]
To Adrianople, therefore, Sir John would have to betake himself.
The journey was expensive, and the Levant Company extremely
close-fisted. But in this juncture our Merchants could not stint
the piper, seeing that they called the tune. For the presentation
of his Credentials, though the first, was the least of the motives
that impelled Finch to the Sublime Threshold.
It had been the ambition of every English Ambassador up to
that date to renew the Capitulations originally granted to
the English by Sultan Murad III. in 1580,[36] with a view to
obtaining a confirmation and elucidation of old and the addition
of new privileges. During the reign of the present Sultan the
Capitulations had already been renewed twice, by Sir Thomas
Bendyshe and by Lord Winchilsea; and Sir Daniel Harvey would have
renewed them for the third time, if death had not prevented him.
Sir John Finch was anxious to tread the path of his predecessors
and to go farther than they.
There were, in the first place, tariffs to be revised and
Customs-duties to be reduced, or defined to our advantage. For
instance, by a Hattisherif, or Imperial decree, granted to Sir
Sackville Crow, the Merchants of Aleppo had to pay 3 per cent
_ad valorem_ on the goods they imported--cloths, kerseys, cony
skins, tin, lead--as well as on the goods they exported--raw
linen, cotton yarn, galls, silk, rhubarb and other drugs. This
decree determined what was to be called 3 per cent in terms of
Turkish weights, measures, and money, leaving no loop-hole for
extortion. But, resting as it did solely upon the Sultan’s word, it
was regarded as reversible at his pleasure. Therefore, Sir John’s
predecessors had laboured to have it inserted in the Capitulations,
but without success, and the Hattisherif had gradually become so
antiquated that not only the local Customs authorities refused to
obey its provisions, but the Grand Vizir himself refused to enforce
them. Finch wished to embody this decree in the Charter, so that
the English should henceforth have not only the Grand Signor’s
signature but also his oath, and convert what was a mere concession
to merchants into a covenant between prince and prince.
Another Article coveted by the Ambassador aimed at securing a
similar definition for duties levied upon our Factors at Smyrna
and Constantinople. By the Capitulations they were obliged to pay
3 per cent on imports and exports. But differences had lately
arisen between them and the Customs authorities concerning English
cloth. The duty had been fixed when the English imported only a
kind of coarse cloth called “Londras,” for which they were content
to pay _ad valorem_; but since they had begun to import finer
cloths they demurred, insisting that the Customs authorities were
not entitled to more than the amount of duty established of old.
The authorities, on their part, to avoid what they considered an
attempt to cheat the Grand Signor, insisted that the duty should
be paid in kind. Sir John had so far let the merchants compound
with the authorities underhand, in order that our case might not
be prejudiced by the judgment of inferior Courts; but it was his
intention to have the matter settled at Adrianople: success on
this point, he reckoned, meant some 60,000 dollars a year saved;
and besides, it would enable the English to trade in cloth of
equal fineness with that of their Dutch competitors on infinitely
more advantageous terms--paying only two where the Dutch paid six
dollars per piece.
Next, there was in our Capitulations a clause by which Englishmen
engaged in litigation with natives for a sum above 4000 aspers were
entitled to bring their case before the Divan. But this clause,
being limited to private individuals, did not protect the English
against the Grand Signor’s officials, whose arbitrariness grew in
proportion to their distance from the “Fountain of Justice”; for
they had it in their power to squeeze the defendants by detaining
them and sequestering their ships and goods. The Ambassador wished
to deprive the local tyrants of every temptation by introducing
into the Capitulations an Article which authorised the English
Consul on the spot to become surety for his countrymen.
Another abuse Finch sought to remedy was of a converse nature.
Native defendants used to evade prosecution by putting in a claim
not to be sued except before the Divan, where the practice was for
the successful litigant to pay 10 per cent on the debt recovered,
instead of the 2 per cent with which the provincial Cadis were
nominally content. This frightened Englishmen from suing in the
best Court of Justice, and gave the Cadis a chance of extorting
from them 6 or 8 per cent. It was the Ambassador’s object to render
such evasions and extortions impossible by obtaining an Article
which made the fees uniform.
Further, Sir John wished to establish uniformity in the anchorage
charges imposed upon English shipping, and to remove a chronic
grievance by exempting a ship which had paid anchorage at one
Turkish port from a like liability in another she might call at in
the course of her voyage.
Such were the most important innovations Sir John contemplated.
But the most piquant of all referred to the contingency of English
factors in Turkey robbing their principals in England and shielding
themselves from English justice by becoming Mohammedans--“turning
Turks,” as the phrase went. This interesting problem had arisen
out of a recent incident at Smyrna. In September 1673 a young
gentleman of good family and rigid religious upbringing, one, too,
who had a fair fortune of his own, was tempted by the Evil One to
commit a deed that covered the English “Nation” in the Levant with
shame. Availing himself of his partner’s absence, he appropriated a
large quantity of goods and gold belonging to several merchants at
home. Then he went before the Cadi and made a solemn profession of
Islam, so that he might shelter himself under the Moslem Law, which
admitted no Infidel’s evidence against a True Believer. We possess
a full account of this scandalous affair from the pen of our Consul
at Smyrna, who tells how, after seven months’ unremitting pursuit,
he managed to recover the best part of the property and to reduce
the culprit to such distress that at last the wretch humbly begged
him to contrive his return to Christendom and Christianity in the
frigate which had brought Sir John out.[37] As a safeguard against
similar accidents, the Ambassador proposed that the Porte should be
asked to allow in future Christian witnesses in such cases.[38]
Over and above all these matters of business, there was a point
of honour to be struggled for--a point by which Sir John set
immense store. The French enjoyed a privilege which the English
had for generations craved in vain: the King of France, alone
among Christian monarchs, was honoured by the Turks with the
title of _Padishah_, or Emperor; the King of England was styled
simply _Kral_, or King. The representatives of Queen Elizabeth,
it seems, not caring much for titles, had acquiesced in that
modest designation, and the precedent once established, all the
efforts of later envoys had failed:[39] “So hard a thing it is
to unrivitt what Time has fixd’,” moralised Sir John; but the
hardness of the thing, instead of damping, fanned his ardour. If
he could only get that high-sounding title for his sovereign, what
a feather would it be in his cap! He had already, at his audience
with the Kaimakam, taken the first step towards that goal. He had
commanded his Interpreters most particularly not to forget, in
translating his speech, to render the word “King” by “Padishah,”
_not_ “Kral”; and as they, aware of the tenacity with which the
Turks clung to established customs, evinced some reluctance to
attempt an innovation, Sir John had agreed, when he uttered the
word “King,” to add “or Padishah,” thus securing the Interpreters
by his authority. That was done accordingly, and “taken without any
exception.” But it was only the thin end of the wedge. Sir John was
resolved to prosecute “with my utmost Vigour” the insertion of the
title into the new Capitulations;[40] and so to score off all the
ambassadors who went before and bequeath a legacy of imperishable
lustre to all those who should come after him.
A comprehensive programme, excellent in conception; but for its
execution Sir John had to wait.
While the Grand Signor hunted, his Grand Vizir was busy conducting
hostilities with Poland and, simultaneously, negotiations for
peace. Sir John was kept informed of these proceedings by the Dutch
Resident, who, with his wife, his children and his Secretaries,
followed the Ottoman camp, having orders from his Government to
watch the march of events in concert with the Emperor’s Resident.
Holland and Germany were then at war with France, which endeavoured
to bring about an agreement between Poland and Turkey and to induce
the latter Power to turn her arms against the Emperor. England, on
the other hand, had recently made peace with Holland, and the Dutch
Resident, before his departure from Constantinople, had recommended
his “Nation” to Sir John’s protection. He now wrote to him about
the prospects of peace.
An envoy from the new King of Poland, John Sobieski, was expected
in the Grand Vizir’s camp every moment; and in case of an
agreement, it was said that the Ottoman Army would join the Polish
in a common campaign against the Muscovite. What inclined the Turks
to an accommodation, besides Sobieski’s conciliatory attitude,
was the fear of an attack from Persia. So Sir John’s informant
reported. “But, My Lord,” said Sir John, “notwithstanding these
fayr Intimations of Peace there can be no certainty of it, For the
Publique Prayers have bin made these ten dayes over the Empire
for the Gran Signor, which begin not till He is out of His own
Territory’s, and must continue till victory or Peace.... In the
Interim it seems by the vast Quantity of Slaves that dayly from
the Black Sea are sent hither, that the Turke meets with little
opposition.”[41]
In the interim, we, for our part, cannot do better than take a look
round at the place in which Sir John lived, the people among whom
he moved, and the things that occupied his enforced leisure. Such
a description will make the subsequent narrative more intelligible
and instructive, without unduly delaying the action; for, truth to
tell, many months had to elapse before there was any action worth
mention.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Finch to Coventry, Sept. 9, 1675, _Coventry Papers_.
[34] Finch to Coventry, Jan. 11-21, 1674-75, _Coventry Papers_.
[35] See Winchilsea’s despatches, _passim_, _S.P. Turkey_, 17, 18,
19; _Finch Report_; Rycaut’s _Memoirs_; Covel’s _Diaries_, p. 207.
[36] The Latin version of that Charter is preserved at the Public
Record Office, _S.P. Turkey_, 1. A copy of it, with an English
rendering, will be found in Hakluyt’s _Navigations_ (Glasgow,
1904), vol. v. pp. 178-89.
[37] Rycaut’s _Memoirs_, p. 311. For an amusing example of the
young man’s Puritan scrupulosity see Covel’s _Diaries_, pp. 107-8.
[38] See “New Articles added to the Capitulations,” together with
“The Grounds and Advantages” thereof, by Sir John Finch, in the
_Coventry Papers_.
[39] _E.g._ Sir Thomas Glover to Salisbury, March 3, 1606-7;
Winchilsea to Nicholas, Nov. 11-21, 1661, _S.P. Turkey_, 5 and 17.
[40] Finch to Arlington, May 25, 1674; the Same to Coventry, Sept.
9, 1675, _Coventry Papers_.
[41] Finch to Arlington, July 27, S.N., 1674, _Coventry Papers_.