¹ William, Leonard Langer, European Alliances and Alignments: 1871–1890 (2d ed., New York: A. A. Knopf, 1950) (hereafter European Alliances);Google ScholarSumner, B. H., Russia and the Balkans, 1870–1880 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937);Google ScholarWilliam, Norton Medlicott, The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near Eastern Settlement, 1878–1880 (London: Methuen, 1938).Google Scholar

² Donald, C. Blaisdell, European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1929);Google ScholarAdib, Roumani, Essai historique et technique sur la Dette publique ottomane (Paris: Marcel Giard, 1927) (hereafter Essai).Google Scholar

³ William, Leonard Langer, The Franco-Russian Alliance, 1890–1894 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929), pp. 202, 392.Google Scholar

⁴ In The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890–1902 (2d ed., New York: A. A. Knopf, 1951), pp. 332–337, Langer mentions Nelidov's opposition to the French project but does not go into the matter of the means by which the French tried to win Russian support.Google Scholar

⁵ Bernadotte, Schmitt, The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908—09 (Cambridge and New York: H. Fertig, 1937), p. 125.Google Scholar See also the chapter on the Bulgarian affair in Wade, D. David's monograph European Diplomacy in the Near Eastern Question (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1940).Google Scholar

⁶ Anderson, M. S., The Eastern Question, 1774–1923 (London: Macmillan, 1966; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966);CrossRefGoogle ScholarMarriott, J. A. R., The Eastern Question (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940).Google Scholar

⁷ Razdel Aziatskoi Turtsii po Sekretnim Dokumentam Biblioteki Ministerstva Inostrannikh Del (The Partition of Asiatic Turkey According to Secret Documents of the Library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) (Moscow: Izdanie Litizdata N.K.I.D., 1924), p. 15 (hereafter Razdel Aziatskoi Turtsii).Google Scholar

⁸ Türkiye ve Rusya: XVIII Yüzytl Sonundan Kurtuluš Savašιna Kadar Türk-Rus Ilišikleri, 1798–1919 (Turkey and Russia: Turkish–Russian Relations from the End of the Eighteenth Century until the War of Independence, 1798–1919) (Ankara: Ankara Universitesi Basιmevi, 1970).Google Scholar

⁹ Sumner, B. H., Tsardom and Imperialism in the Far East and Middle East, 1880–1914, Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. xxviii (London: Humphrey Milford Amen House, 1940);Google ScholarFiruz, Kazemzadeh, ‘Russia and the Middle East,’. in Russian Foreign Policy: Essays in Historical Perspective, ed. Ivo, Lederer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), pp. 489–530. Both works approach Russian policy in the Ottoman Empire from the vantage point of Russia's preoccupation with the Straits.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Adrien, Biliotti, La Banque impériale ottomane (Paris: Henri Jouve, 1909);Google ScholarCharles, Morawitz, Les Finances de la Turquie (Paris: Guillaumin, 1902).Google Scholar

¹¹ Earle, E. M., Turkey, the Great Powers and the Bagdad Railway: A Study in Imperialism (New York: Macmillan, 1923) (hereafter Turkey);Google ScholarNovichev, A. D., Ocherki Ekonomiki Turtsii do Mirovoi Voini (Essays on the Economy of Turkey before the World War) (Moscow: Akademiia Nauk, 1937) (hereafter Ocherki).Google Scholar

¹² Langer, , European Alliances, p. 337.Google Scholar

¹³ Gabriel, Noradounghian, Recueil d'actes internationaux de l'Empire ottoman, Vol. I (Paris: Cotillon, 1897), p. 334;Google Scholaribid., Vol. 11 (1900), pp. 239–240; Novichev, , Ocherki, p. 224. The principal of the Treaty of Adrianople was reduced by 60 percent four years later and the remaining sum again by 60 percent in 1836.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Hurewitz, J. C., Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East: A Documentary Record, 1535–1914, Vol. I (Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1956), p. 96 (hereafter Diplomacy).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Seymour, Becker, Russia's Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1914, Russian Research Center Studies, No. 54 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), p. 40 and Appendix II.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Barbara, Jelavich, A Century of Russian Foreign Policy, 1814–1914 (Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1964), p. 166. The amount was subject to an upward revision by the Treaty of St. Petersburg in 1881.Google Scholar

¹⁷ According to the treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, Bulgaria was obliged to pay a tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Neither treaty, however, specified the amount. The signatory powers at Berlin only shelved the matter of its determination (Sumner, , Russia and the Balkans, pp. 411, 528).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Although the Muharrem Decree Project between the Porte and its creditors (December 1881) ceded the Bulgarian tribute to the latter, Russia's refusal to participate in an international settlement on the amount of the tribute effectively forestalled the realization of any sum from this revenue source (Vincent, Caillard, Report on the Revenues Ceded by Turkey to the Bondholders of the Ottoman Public Debt Showing the Results Obtained during the First Quinquennial Period and Some Remarks on Cognate Subjects [London: Effingham Wilson, 1887], p. 77).Google Scholar

¹⁹ The agreement drawn up on May 14 in Istanbul and ratified on June 29 in St. Petersburg set down the payment of interest-free annuities of 350,000 Ottoman liras (Articles I and II). The sums assigned to its service were fixed at 75 percent of the total yield of the ašar (tithe) and ağnam (a tax on sheep) in the designated vilayets and mutasarrifliks (Article IV). The net yield of the specified revenues in these provinces (i.e., less the cost of collection) was to be deposited directly by the local authorities in a branch of the Ottoman Bank. If there were a surplus of more than 25 percent, the Ottoman Bank would turn it over to the Ministry of Finance. In case the 75 percent was not realized, the Ministry of Finance would assign the aşar and ağnam taxes of additional kazas to make up the difference. The 25 percent surplus would be delivered to the provincial administration only after the amount of the payment slated for the indemnity had been reached (Article VII). The Ottoman government would forbid its own Ministry of Finance and the provincial administrations to draw upon the amounts set aside through havalat (orders for money) (Article VIII). A special arrangement would be worked out between the Ottoman Bank and the Bank of Russia on the payments (Article VI). The sources, amounts (in Ottoman liras), and vilayets were: Ağnam Aşar Total Aleppo 40,000 40,000 Konya 138,000 138,000 Kastamonu 110,000 110,000 Adana 70,000 70,000 Sivas Sancak of Sivas 55,000 Sancak of Tokat 20,000 Sancak of Kara Hisar-1 şarki 79,500 Kaza of Kara Hisar 4,500 Kaza of Saşehri 40,000 397,500 437,500 A text of the treaty appears in Başbakanlιk Arşivi (Archives of the Prime Minister), Yildιz Evrak Koleksiyonu, Kisim 25, Evrak 52/26 (Başbakanlik Arşivi is hereafter referred to as BBA).

²⁰ The Turks initially wanted to hand over the administration of the assigned revenues for the indemnity to the Public Debt Administration so as to evade the burden of handling an additional debt. The French and British creditors of the Porte, not wishing to have the character of the Debt Council changed by the political imbroglio that the inclusion of a representative of the Russian government would involve, felt obliged to decline this proposal. The creditors insisted that the Debt Council remain an intermediary between the Porte and the private bondholders of the Ottoman Public Debt. The Russians, however, demanded the supervision of some financial institution – be it the Ottoman Bank or Debt Council, if not inspectors from the Bank of St. Petersburg. The Turks feared that sooner or later this right would lead to a further encroachment upon their financial sovereignty. The outcome was a compromise between Russian insistence on some form of control and Ottoman intransigence. The Russian demand for the right of inspection by auditors was formally granted by a beyanname (declaration) between the Ottoman Bank and the Ministry of Finance (Roumani, , Essai, p. 115;Google ScholarBlaisdell, , European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire, p. 91; BBA, İrade Koleksiyonu, Meclis-i Mahsus, 3291; Auswärtiges Amt Archiv, Türkische Finanzen, Vol. 7, Hirschfeld to Foreign Office, 13 January, 1882 [Auswärtiges Amt Archiv, Türkische Finanzen is hereafter referred to as AAA/TF]).Google Scholar

²¹ AAA/TF, Vol. 29, Marschall von Bieberstein to Foreign Office, 20 April 1899.

²² Ulrich, Trumpener, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, 1914—1918 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 4.Google Scholar

²³ In addition to the indemnity for the costs of the war, the San Stefano Treaty and the Definitive Treaty of Peace both stipulated indemnities to cover the damages incurred by Russian subjects in the Empire (mostly members of Orthodox minorities who held patents or berats conferring Russian citizenšhip upon them). The ceiling set on these claims was 1,076,000 liras. The claims filed only came to a quarter of this amount and were paid off in six irregular installments between 1884 and 1902.

²⁴ AAA/TF, Vol. II, clipping from Le Soleil, 7 06 1888.Google Scholar

²³ ibid., Vol. 13, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 22 06 1892.Google Scholar

²⁶ AAA/TF, Vol. 10, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 17 10 1887.Google Scholar

²⁷ ibid., Vol. II, clipping from Le Soleil, 7 06 1888.Google Scholar

²⁸ ibid., Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 24 07 1888; BBA, Bab-ι Ali Evrak Odasι, 82701 (Bab-ι Ali Evrak Odasι is hereafter referred to as BEO). For a text of Nelidov's note, see AAA/TF, Vol. II, Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. l'Ambassadeur de Russie à S. E. Said Pacha le 17/29 Mai 1888.Google Scholar

²⁹ AAA/TF, Vol. II, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 9 10 1888.Google Scholar

³⁰ AAA/TF, Vol. 12, Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. l'Ambassadeur de Russie à S. E. Said Pacha le 5/17 Novembre 1888.

³¹ ibid., Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. le Ministre des Affaires étrangères à S. E. M. de Nelidow le 27 Novembre 1888; Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. l'Ambassadeur de Russie à Said Pacha le 15/27 Novembre 1888.

³² ibid., Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. le Ministre des Affaires étrangères à S. E. M. de Nelidow le 27 Decembre 1888.

³³ AAA/TF, Vol. 12, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 27 and 28 02, 28 03 1889.Google Scholar

³⁴ When Hirsch decided to sell Out his shares in the Oriental Railroad Company in 1887, the Russians approached him with an offer for his holdings which they wanted to have as a means of pressure against Bulgaria. Hirsch did not accept their offer but the allegation of collusion between Hirsch and the Russians lingered (Kurt, Grunwald, Türkenhirsch: A Study of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist [Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translation, 1966], p. 61).Google Scholar

³⁵ AAA/TF, Vol. 12, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 14 and 27 02 1889.Google Scholar

³⁶ ibid., Vol. 13, Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. l'Ambassadeur de Russie à Said Pacha le 7/19 Mars 1890.

³⁷ ibid., Copie d'une note adressée par S. E. Said Pacha à l'Ambassadeur de Russie le 5 Juin 1890.

³⁸ BBA, İrade Koleksiyonu, Meclis-i Mahsus, 4895, 25 ve 26 Muharrem 1308.

³⁹ In 1890 when the shah awarded a British subject a monopoly on the buying, selling, and transporting of tobacco throughout Iran, Russian merchants complained to their government which lodged two formal protests with the Persian Foreign Ministry. The Persian government disregarded these. The Russian legation in Tabriz set about mobilizing Persian merchants who also opposed the monopoly. As a result the Shah was forced to remand the concession (Kazemzadeh, , ‘Russia and the Middle East,’ p. 515).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ AAA/TF, Vol. 13, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, II 04 1892.Google Scholar The Porte had been attempting since 1882 to convert the commercial treaties of 1860/61 regulating import and export duties from a uniform ad valorem rate to a differentiated basis. Such an arrangement was reached with the Germans in 1891 but putting it into force was dependent upon the acceptance of the same principle by other states (Blaisdell, , European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire, p. 158).Google Scholar

⁴¹ AAA/TF, Vol. 13, Radowitz, to Foreign Office, 22 06 1892.Google Scholar

⁴² ibid., clipping from The Standard, 8 11 1892.Google Scholar

⁴³ AAA/TF, Vol. 23, Edgar, Vincent, ‘Rapport sur la situation financiere de l'Empire ottoman,’ 12 1896.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ France, Ministére des Affaires étrangères, Commission de publication des documents relatifs aux origines de la guerre de 1914, Documents diplomatiques français (1871–1914), Ist ser. (1871–1900),Google Scholar Vol. XII, Paul, Cambon to Hanotaux, , 10 08 1896, pp. 723–724.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ AAA/TF, Vol. 21, clipping from The Globe, 31 10 1896;Google ScholarRadolin, to Foreign Office, 26 11 1896.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Morawitz, , Les Finances de la Turquie, pp. 107–108.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Bernard, Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (2d ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 343.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ BBA, İrade Koleksiyonu, Maliye, 8 Sa'ban 1315, 27.

⁴⁹ Calculated into this sum was a 550,000 Ottoman lira maintenance cost for the prisoners of war of 1877–1878. This sum was to have been paid after 1879 in twenty- one installments over seven years.

⁵⁰ The announcement that the Porte would collect a 4 million Ottoman lira indemnity from the Greeks brought about competition among its creditors from the war. Approximately 2.4 million Ottoman liras were destined for payment on these wartime loans. Between November and April, the Russian ambassador pressed for between 1.2 million and 1.5 million Ottoman liras (AAA/TF, Vol. 28, Marschall, von Bieberstein to Foreign Office, 4 02, 11 03, and 11 05 1898).Google Scholar

⁵¹ BBA, Yildiz Esas Evrak Koleksiyonu, Kisim 39İ, Evrak 156/45, meselesi hakkιnda hariciye nazιrι marifetiyle Rus elcisine vāki olan Beyanat-ι Hümayun (An Imperial Declaration concerning the problem of the war indemnity Russian ambassador by the foreign minister) [1315]. No date is given states that it was drawn up at the beginning of the financial year (March 1898).

⁵² BBA, BEO, 85171, Project outline sent to Tevfik, Pasha, minister Ottoman Bank, 4 06 1898.Google Scholar

⁵³ BBA, İrade Koleksiyonu, 1316, Maliye, Muharrem, 4; BEO, 90567.

⁵⁴ BBA, BEO, 89143; Morawitz, , Les Finances de la Turquie, p. 109;Google ScholarSchiozer, to Foreign Office, 8, 10, and 22 08 1898;Google ScholarBiliotti, , La Banque imperiale ottonane, p. 79.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ While the agreement empowered the Ottoman Bank to withhold in advance sums destined for the provincial budgets until the 350,000 Ottoman lira annuity had been met, in practice the bank continued to collect whatever sums the provincial administrations handed over to it. The Turks naturally did not welcome the provision of one more external control over a set of the Empire's revenues. Not only did the provincial authorities fail to uphold the convention but also the Ministry of Finance itself violated the agreement within six months of ratification (BBA, BEO, 105838).

⁵⁶ BBA, BEO, 96092, 7 Mart 1315; Morawitz, , Les Finances de la Turquie, pp. 109–110;Google ScholarBiliotti, , La Banque impériale ottomane, p. 79;Google Scholar AAA/TF, Vol. 29, Marschall, von Bieberstein to Foreign Office, 9 and 15 04 1899. In a note to the Ottoman government at the time the convention was being concluded, the director of the Ottoman Bank, Hamilton Lang, declined any responsibility for assuring regular payment of the indemnity (AAA/TF, text of Hamilton Lang's note, 13 May 1899).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The Russians had grown suspicious of German intentions in the spring of 1899 when the Sultan granted the German-owned Baghdad Railroad Company the right to build the railroad terminus-harbor at Haydar Paşa. The Russian press denounced the proposed line as inimical to Russia's vital interests. The railroad would compete with the Russian Caspian and Caucasus lines. It would open up the markets of Mesopotamia and Persia to German wares and lead to the development of oil fields in the area which would rival those of Baku. Furthermore the press pointed out that the kilometer guarantees for the Baghdad line would interfere with the payment of the indemnity. In November, when Tsar Nicholas and the Russian foreign minister, Count Muraviev, visited Potsdam, the Tsar expressed the hope that the German railroad interests would not conflict with Russian financial or strategic interests. He received the assurance that the railroad had only been necessitated by the growth of German industry and the quest for new markets. The Tsar agreed at the time not to raise any objection to the tentative concession the Deutsche Bank was about to receive (John, Baptist Wolf, The Diplomatic History of the Baghdad Railroad [Columbia: University of Missouri, 1936], pp. 25–27 [hereafter Baghdad Railroad];Google ScholarEarle, , Turkey, p. 148).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Novichev, , Ocherki, p. 232.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ ibid.., p. 233.

⁶⁰ Wolf, , Baghdad Railroad, p. 28;Google ScholarEarle, , Turkey, p. 149.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Novichev, , Ocherki, p. 233;Google ScholarPaul, Imbert, La Renovation de l'Empire ottoman: affaires de Turquie (Paris: Librairie Académique, 1909), pp. 7, 79.Google Scholar

⁶² Although Witte had to resort to foreign loans to finance a program of industrialization, he would not forgo the chance to bind China and Persia closer to Russia through financial inducements. Thus, in 1895 the finance minister helped China pay off a war indemnity to Japan by setting up the Russo-Chinese Bank. The bank, ‘one of the most important first fruits of the Franco-Russian Alliance,’ as Sumner calls it, provided China with funds obtained through French loans. It also assumed control over the construction of a Russian railroad line across Manchuria. In 1897 Witte directed the State Bank of St. Petersburg to buy out Lazar Poliakov, the Russian owner of the Loan and Discount Bank of Persia. The bank henceforth became an outright instrument of Russian policy, facilitating commercial ventures in Persia and financing the heir apparent as well as a host of court luminaries (Kazemzadeh, , ‘Russia and the Middle East,’ p. 509;Google ScholarSumner, , Tsardom and Imperialism in the Far East and Middle East, pp. 9–10;Google ScholarJelavich, , A Century of Russian Foreign Policy, p. 238;Google ScholarEntner, M. L., Russo-Persian Commercial Relations, 1828–1914, University of Florida Monographs, No. 28 [Gainesville; University of Florida Press, 1964], pp. 34–39, 46).Google Scholar

⁶³ AAA/TF, Vol. 29, Marschall, von Bieberstein to Foreign Office, 24 04 1899.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ ibid., Vol., Bodman, to Foreign Office, 10 08 1904.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Bulgaria accepted the ‘loan’ to be amortized over a period of 75 years and at an interest rate of 4.75 percent but was able to meet little more than the interest payments. Even though Bulgaria was not a good credit risk, Russia persisted in her efforts to win Bulgarian favor through financial inducements. After entering World War I (October 1915), Bulgaria suspended payment on the debt to Russia, never to resume it thereafter. Relations between Bulgaria and the Soviet Union were only reestablished as late as July 1934 at which time the debt was renounced. According to the Turkish–Soviet Treaty of March 1921, the Soviet Union had forgone all claim to the remaining thirty-four annuities on which the Turks were to have again assumed payment in 1949 (Kesiakov, B., ed., Prinos kum Diplomaticheskata Istoriia na Bulgariia, 1878–1925 [A Contribution to the Diplomatic History of Bulgaria, 1878–1925]Google Scholar [ Sofia, 1925 ], pp. 35–6; Bulgaria, , Annuaire statistique du Royaume de Bulgarie [Sofia: Imprimerie de l'Etat, 1909–1934];Google Scholar U.S.S.R., Ministerstvo Inostrannikh Del S.S.S.R., Dokumenti Vneshnei Politiki S.S.S.R. [Foreign Policy Documents of the U.S.S.R.], Vol. XVII [Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Politicheskoi Literaturi, 1971], pp. 207, 213, 265;Google ScholarMehmet, Gönlübol and Cem, Sar, ‘Millī Mücadele Devrinde Türk Dιş Politikasι’ [Turkish Foreign Policy in the Period of the National Struggle[ in Olaylarla Türk Dιş Politikasi 1919–1965 [Turkish Foreign Policy, 1919–1965],Google Scholar ed. Bilge, A. Suat, Publications of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Ankara University, No. 279 [Ankara: Sevinç Matbaasi, 1969], p. 30;Google ScholarHurewitz, , Diplomacy, II, 95).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ BBA, Yildiz Esas Evrak Koleksiyonu, Kisim 9, Evrak 1820, Zarf 72, Karton 4, Muhtira-i Hümayun (An Imperial Memorandum).

⁶⁷ Charykov, N. V., Glimpses of High Politics through War and Peace (New York: Macmillan, 1931), p. 226.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ The Russian government began to explore the potential of the Turkish market for Russian trade. In 1910 Russian Trade Committees were established in Istanbul and Izmir to facilitate commercial ventures and in 1913 the Ministry of Commerce sent a special investigatory commission to Turkey. The Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs drew up a project for the merger of the Russian Asiatic Bank and the largely French-owned Salonika Bank. Finally in late 1913 an ambitious economic project was worked out with Cavit Bey, the Young Turk minister of finance (this had been preceded by a similar agreement between Turkey and France) (Novichev, , Ocherki, pp. 223, 235–46;Google ScholarAdamov, , Razdel Aziatskoi Turtsii, pp. 15–16).Google Scholar