Manufacturers special advantages

The State, the departments, and the parishes will enter on contracts with the manufacturers who enjoy these special advantages, for the supply of such objects as are necessary, or a period of from five to ten years.

The exclusive right of manufacture in some definite district, for a period of thirty years at most, is now only granted to factories of the following products :

Sugar, stuffs and threads of silk, cotton, linen and hemp, ropes, refinery of petroleum and its products, animal, mineral, and vegetable oils and grains, all kinds of preserved goods, slaughterhouses and stalls for the fattening of cattle with a view to the conserving and exportation of meat, food pastes, basket work, fine leather for boots, marble, granite, etc., iron, foundries, carts and other vehicles, paper, wood pulp and cardboard, glass, artificial dyes, chemical manures and. requisites for chemical laboratories, turpentine, cement, lime and plaster of Paris, beside all other new industries whose utility is recognized by the Ministerial Council.

The right of exclusive manufacture in a certain district is granted by the Ministerial Council on the evidence of the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture. The manufacturer wishing to obtain this right has to apply to the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, enclosing plans, estimates, etc.

The effect of these measures, as will be seen, must be to encourage nascent industries and doubtless enterprising men will not hesitate to profit by them.

A special law of January 23rd, 1904, regulates the organization of trades and professional syndicates. This law is the outcome of tolerably long experience, acquired under the regime of a former law on the same subject. Its object is not so much to favor artisans, as to oblige them to form separate corporations in order to prevent unfair competition, to collaborate for the improvement of the trade, to form funds for insurance and loans, etc.

Under the existing regime, then, no one can practice a trade without possessing a regular certificate given him by the syndic of his guild, after he has given proof of a sufficient knowledge of the trade which he proposes to follow. Several clauses of the law concern the relations of employers and apprentices or pupils, and details are given as to the necessary contracts. Employers are in this way sure of a constant supply of apprentices and pupils, while the latter are protected from every kind of ill-usage at the hands of their masters.

Improve handicrafts

A further object of this law is to improve handicrafts by the establishment of technical schools, and by the organization of exhibitions, competitions, etc. Several important institutions, such as cooperative and friendly societies, are the outcome of the initiative of the guilds. Certainly, these are indirect methods of improving handicrafts; others, more efficacious, must be taken to improve the situation of the artisans. It is to be hoped that the National Assembly will soon fill this gap in our industrial legislation.

 

Industrial establishments in Bulgaria

A census of the industrial establishments in Bulgaria was taken for the first time at the end of 1906 (December 31st). Before we examine the results of this census, it will be of interest to see what the state of these industries was before that date. This we can gather from the following table;

Factories opened before 1897.  Factories opened between 1897 and 1900.Capital in Industries.  No. Capital in thousands of francs.   Number of workmen employed.

1. Leather 3             215         150         4 775     127
2. Woollens 25 4,609     1,716     1 no       40
3. Alcohol 6 1,055     67           3 830     7i
4. Beer 12 2,081     288         4 355     60
5. Soap 4 200         75           1 45       15
6. Pottery 4 996         210         5 1,760 460
7. Ironmongery 3 220         70           I 40         4
8. Shot — —           —           I 22         27
9. Furniture 2 140         30           2 300     75
10. Carpets 2 120         386         — —     —
11. Cigarette paper 1             60           45           — —     —
12. Silk 100 x6o        — —     —
13. Cotton — —           —           11,200   450
14. Stockings, etc. 1             15           25           — —     —
15. Dying 1 10           32           I 10         30
16. Spirits 6 325         5i            — —     —
17. Sugar — —           —           1 3,000 300
18. Matches — —           —           1 300     —
19. Chemicals — —           —           0             12
20. Cardboard — —           —           O            7

Total                                      71           10,176 ;               3,002     338,827,               1,678

Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture

According to the calculations of the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, the total number of factories and workshops founded in Bulgaria, from the date of our emancipation to 1901, comes to about 440, with a total capital of 50,000,000 francs.

As to the present state of Bulgarian industry, we have not at hand exact statistics of the number of workpeople and the capital employed. But, taking into account that the minimum capital of each factory or workshop under consideration is 25,0 francs, and the minimum number of hands employed 20, it will be seen that our industries are of considerable importance. Some of these factories employ as many as two or three hundred hands. Beside this, we have not taken account of the small enterprises, whose number is legion. In the department of the Chamber of Commerce of Sofia alone, there are over 500 workshops, 108 of which are carpenters’ shops.

On December 31st, 1907, there were 166 industrial establishments, distributed as follows:

3 Mining.

8 Metallurgical.

6 Ceramics.

15 Chemicals.

57 Food stuffs and breweries.

51 Textiles.

8 Furnitures.

13 Leather.

1 Paper Mill.

4 Various other industries.

The capital invested in these industries is shown in the following table:

Industry.             Number of fiictories.      Capital invested, francs.               Percent.              Average per factory.

Food stuffs and brewing               56           14,375,54351     4698       256,70613

Textiles                                                45           6,603,52641        2158       146,74503

Ceramics                                             6             1,926,69087        630         321,14961

Chemicals                                           13           1,338,96225        438         102,99710

Mining                                                 3             774,07752           2*53      258,02587

Leather                                                12           685,18000           214         54,59833

Furnituremaking                             8             599,61655           192         73,70207

Metallurgical                                     6             331,24634           108         55,20800

Paper                                                   1             185,43300           o6i          185,43300

Various others                                  4             3,818,94634        1246       954,73659

Total                                                     154         30,599,43279     100000  198,69768

Education in Bulgaria

What truth there may be in this explanation I have no means of saying; but I think the extent to which public education is now carried in Bulgaria is not without danger to the State. To my mind it is utterly impossible to imagine that the young lads who, year after year, are leaving these high schools with a far better education, in as far as book-learning is concerned, than nineteen middle- class young Englishmen out of twenty, will be content to go back to their homes, till their small farms, and lead the same lives of hard-working penury as their fathers led before them.

It is only a few, after all, of the boys brought up in the high schools who can become pupil-teachers in the elementary schools. The Bulgarian Church offers little attraction to men of education. Trade and industry are as yet so little developed that young and intelligent men cannot hope to find the employments in professional and mercantile pursuits they would naturally turn to in more advanced communities. Practically private bulgaria tour, all that a clever educated Bulgarian lad has to look to as the reward of his studies upon leaving school, is the attainment of some post in the public service; the best way to obtain such posts is to engage in political agitation. There is, therefore, a strong probability of Bulgaria’s becoming inundated with professional politicians.

Example of Greece

The example of Greece is sufficient to show the evils inseparable from a state of things under which political agitation is the best, if not the sole, pursuit by which men can hope to earn a livelihood on the strength of their education. The danger, however, of this state of things is fully recognized by many of the leading Bulgarian statesmen; and the good sense of the community may, there is reason to hope, provide a remedy against the growing evil. Already there is some talk of rendering the education provided at the high schools no longer gratuitous, and of compelling parents who desire a higher education for their children than that imparted at the primary schools, to pay a material part of the expense of secondary education. There is talk, too, of suppressing the grants provided by the State, out of which children of needy parents are supplied with the funds required to pursue their studies at the high schools.

The real remedy, however, for this evil, whose existence is almost universally admitted, is the extension of local trade and local industry. It seems to me, therefore, that the system of education now established throughout the principality, excellent as it is, must lead, as a necessary corollary, to the introduction of foreign capital, without which there is no possibility of local trade and industry being developed for a considerable time to come.

Standard Oil Company

There, on our extreme left and near the water, is the country estate of Khedive Ismail Pasha, father of the last Khedive of Egypt who was dethroned by England during the war because of his pro Turkish sentiments. Ismail Pasha’s estate is in Europe but the hills which seem next to it are on the other side, in Asia, and the funny looking buildings on top as well as the low buildings on the shore are the depots of the Standard Oil Company. They used to belong to an uncle of Madame Ismet Bey but now they belong to the Standard Oil.

No, her uncle has not sold his rights: it just happened that the Standard Oil stepped in before he had time to have them renewed. His house, or what used to be his house is the one just opposite us. He used to have the most beautiful caiks in the Bosporus, ten or fifteen years ago, and his wife and his daughters would go every Friday to the Sweet Waters of Asia in those long, slim racing barks, with tapering ends, rowed by three or sometimes four boatmen with flowing sleeves, a beautiful embroidered carpet covering the stern, its corners trailing in the sea. He used to have a passion for flowers and you can see even from here the roof of the hothouse where he grew the most exotic plants he could think of: rare varieties of chrysanthemums and poppies from the Far East private tours istanbul, tulips from Turkestan and Persia, mogra and lotus trees from India. Now he has sold his house and has barely enough to live on.

Side of Bosporus

The Sweet Waters of Asia are nearby, just between the ruins of the old mediaeval castle built by Sultan Mahomet the Conqueror before he laid siege to Byzance and the Imperial Kiosks of Chiok Soo, a real jewel. Further to the right that low, rambling white building is the yali of the family of Mahmoud Pasha. They entertain a great deal and have asked us to tea next Sunday. Now we pass again without realizing it to the European shores; the old castle on the hill is the Castle of Europe, the first stronghold of the Turks on this side of the Bosporus, and the big building next to it is the famous Robert College, the American College for Boys.

The view is so gorgeous that it cannot be described. I wish I had a canvas and the technique of Courbet, the talent of Turner and the daring of Whistler to paint in all its splendor the clear sky of the Bosporus, so clear and so blue that the eyes can almost see that it is endless  the red and gold flakes of its dark green vegetation, so luxuriant that it speaks of centuries of loving care the peaceful atmosphere of its old houses, so restful that you can feel that generations of thinkers and philosophers have meditated behind their walls the harmonious outline of its hills, so smilingly round that only immemorial age can have so smoothly curved them the mystery of its always running currents, running so continuously that they should have long ago emptied the Black Sea into the Mediterranean.

Prominent Turkish family of Constantinople

At present it is probably the most socially prominent Turkish family of Constantinople and the reason underlying its social activities is quite well known among the other Turkish families who, while possibly not entirely approving them, hold the family of Mahmoud Pasha in great respect for the utterly unselfish manner in which all its members live up to their, convictions.

Its social activities are looked upon as having a political reason or significance. In the first place the family was one of the first and bitterest enemies of the Committee of Union and Progress which, after engineering most marvelously the Turkish Revolution, had instituted a most objectionable sort of plural dictatorship conducted by its own members.

Mahmoud Pasha’s family who, like all the other old Turkish families, did not approve of this dictatorship of the few, became very active in the Liberal Party organized in opposition to the Committee. So far, so good! But with the extreme enthusiasm which is a characteristic of all the family, it carried on its war against the Committee by taking a firm and active stand against any and all of its policies. It fought the Committee on every ground, not so much because it was opposed in principle to this or that other policy but just because this or that other policy emanated from the Committee. For this purpose it joined hands with every party that was formed against the Committee. It kept up this war for years and years and one of its members a most brilliant specimen of young Turkish manhood sacrificed his life on the altar of his convictions during this long drawn feud.

Committee embraced

It was quite natural that when the Committee embraced a pro German policy Mahmoud Pasha’s family would automatically become anti Germans. But instead of being satisfied with fighting this nefarious pro German policy by an exclusive pro Turkish policy as was done by most of the other prominent Turkish families Mahmoud Pasha’s family had to go one better and ever since the armistice has actively embraced a pro-British policy. Therefore, it feels that it can perfectly well entertain and lead a social life even under the present conditions in Constantinople.

The second reason which moves this family to participate so actively in the social life of Constantinople is its belief that after all social life in the Turkish capital should be led by the Turks themselves. And rather than abandon the functions of society leaders to some foreigners, or worse still to some Greeks, Armenians or Levantines, the family makes every sacrifice needed to hold and prolong its leadership. Therefore it gives large entertainments and weekly teas amounting to real functions.

 

Evening in Emirghian

I wish I was endowed with enough insight to understand the mischievous whisper of its always dancing, always running little waves. I believe they want to tell us that although the winds have pushed them south ever since time began and will continue to push them south until the end of the world, although they seem to follow the wind in an endless mad rush, they still are there. They mischievously laugh because they will always remain there, despite the wind and all its strength. I believe they want to give the Turks an object lesson as to how nothing can be swept away against its will.

Our first evening in Emirghian passed very quietly. The Turks being very reserved by nature it always takes some time before the ice is broken, even among members of the same family. We passed the time sitting around and talking, giving a chance to our hosts and to my wife to know each other.

But for every day thereafter Madame Ismet Bey and her son had arranged some special entertainment for us. Quietly, unostentatiously and with the characteristic lack of show with which well-bred Turks entertain their guests, they succeeded in giving us, without our being aware that it had all been prearranged, a different distraction every afternoon. Friends and neighbors would drop in for tea one evening and a little dance or a little bridge game would be organized as on the spur of the moment. Another afternoon they would take us in their rowboat for an outing on the Bosporus and we would stop either to call on some friends or to walk around or take some refreshments in the casino of the park at Beikos, which at this season is quiet and pleasant.

Sweet Waters of Asia

Once we had a small picnic at the Sweet Waters of Asia. We went in the rowboat up this little stream a miniature Bosporus, with old tumbledown houses by the water, big trees leaning their branches covered with autumnal golden leaves over old walls covered with vines, here and there a ramshackle wooden bridge spanning the stream and giving it the appearance of a Turkish Venice, and then large meadows on both sides, where groups of people were, like us, taking advantage of the last few days of summery sunshine of the year. Old Turkish women in black dusters, their hair covered with a white veil arranged Sphinx fashion, were sitting cross-legged near the water in silent and impassible contemplation, while younger women their daughters or granddaughters were sitting a few steps away on chairs, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and chattering away their time.

Cosmopolitan clique of Constantinople

The Sunday we called on them the immense rooms of their magnificent house were crowded to full capacity. Foreign officers of high rank in resplendent uniforms, members of the different high commissions and distinguished visitors of all nations were elbowing each other and alas also quite a few Levantine, Greek and Armenian business men whose standing in the business community had forcibly made a place for them in this cosmopolitan clique of Constantinople. Of course the crowd here was not representative of Turkish society, but rather of the cosmopolitan society that one meets in every principal center of Europe. Only a very few Turks were present, mostly old friends of the family who had come more with a desire to show their esteem and respect for the charming hostesses than mixing with the international crowd they were sure to meet there.

The three daughters of the family were doing the honors with a tact and courtesy only possible in scions of old families whose breeding in etiquette has extended to so many generations that it has finally become second nature. They were assisted in their duties by two granddaughters of Mahmoud Pasha, two young Turkish debutantes, who were so earnestly endeavoring to overcome their natural shyness and act like their elders that their charming awkwardness was really delightful to watch. It amused my wife greatly to make a mental comparison between this refreshing shyness of the Turkish debutantes and the self-confidence and forwardness of their American sisters. To this day I don’t know which of the two schools my wife really approved of!

Most humorous note

Of course the brothers and husbands of our hostesses were also there, circulating from group to group and introducing the guests to each other. And to me the most humorous note of the whole afternoon was given when the husband of one of our hostesses a middle-aged gentleman, very serious and very widely learned confided to me that for him entertainments and social functions of this kind were terrible bores but that he had to go through with them just to please his wife. Husbands are the same all over the world! . . . As I did not contradict him he took me in the quietest corner we could find and we had a long and interesting talk on subjects which took us far away from our surroundings.

Nevertheless I could not help but agree entirely with my wife when she told us, on our return to Emirghian, that she had found the whole thing “somewhat too stiff,” and I believe Madame Ismet Bey was also of our opinion and felt that we were sincere when we told her that we much preferred her own small at homes and the unpretentious little parties to which she had taken us on the previous days.

 

Tour guide Ensar

I was born in Turkey and live in Turkey, Istanbul. I have been a professional tour guide for 19 years. Although I am a licensed guide for whole Turkey. As Tour guide Ensar,  I am especially an expert on the daily Istanbul tours. One thing that you can be sure about is on whatever tour you are with me in Istanbul, you will be satisfied. I also really like meeting new people from different countries and cultures. It doesn’t matter where you come from, you will find something from you and your culture in my city – Istanbul.

No matter what tour I do – whether it is a city tour in Istanbul or a longer tour in Anatolia, around Turkey, Black Sea region or a tour abroad, I always approach to people and my job professionally, with understanding and patience.

Christianity in Turkey has a long history. Anatolia had always been the cradle of Christianity. It is the birthplace of many Christian Apostles and Saints. It is also the birthplace of many interesting stories during customized tours Istanbul.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church Sveti Stefan (also the Bulgarian Iron Church), was ready in 1898 after one and a half year of work. It is on the shore of the Golden Horn between Balat and Fener squares (near Eyup district). The public could see it on 8 September, the same year due to Exarch Joseph.

With the conquest of the Balkans all the Bulgarian lands went under the authority of the Ottomans. Before that Bulgaria had always had constant connections with Eastern Thrace. Then its lands became part of the Ottoman Empire. Because of that, the Bulgarian colony in the capital of the Empire, Istanbul, became bigger. Among Bulgarians it was famous as Tsarigrad. The colony consisted of mostly craftsmen and merchants. Istanbul was also the centre of journalism and enlightenment for the Bulgarians.

Americans or Britishers

Small boys in vividly colored shirts, knickers hanging loose below their knees, wearing shapeless fezzes with a small blue bead against the evil eye would be running around and prancing with little girls clad in Kate Greenaway skirts colored with the brightest shades of the rainbow, their loosened hair flapping over their narrow shoulders. Simple folk all, neither peasants nor city folk just the families of small village traders the kind of people whose pictures foreign newspapermen find a malign pleasure in publishing as representative Turks.

They might as well publish pictures of tenement house dwellers of New York and London as being representative Americans or Britishers. Many gypsies were there, going from group to group to tell fortunes, to sing or to dance, gypsy women of all ages and of suspicious cleanliness, who can always be detected in Constantinople by the fact that they are the only ones to wear colored bloomers, while some old Greek and Armenian women wear black bloomers. By the way, another conception of foreigners which my wife shared but which she lost after a short stay in Constantinople was this very one of bloomers: in all our stay in Turkey she did not see a single Turkish woman wearing them.

Kurdish porters

A little further up on the shores of the stream was a group of Kurdish porters, big, athletic fellows, watching a bout of wrestling: two of their companions stripped to the waist, their legs and feet bare, their bodies soaked in oil, engaged in a l bout of cat as catch can, while further up some Laze sailors of the Black Sea were dancing their slow rhythmic national dance to the sound of weird flutes and tambourines

We had to go well upstream to find a place where we could enjoy our picnic peacefully and without onlookers. But I must say that we enjoyed it thoroughly, quite as much as the spectacle we had on our way up and down the river. I could not help however realizing how much a few years had changed the general aspect of the Sweet Waters of Asia. Before my departure it used to be the smartest place to go to during the good season on Friday and Sunday afternoons. You would meet all your friends there and the place used to be congested with the most graceful “caiks” and rowboats of the Bosporus.

On Sunday we went to tea at the house of Mahmoud Pasha. It was a big affair, almost an official reception, as are all entertainments given by the family of Mahmoud Pasha. This family is what might be called another great and old Turkish clan.

Territory of Diarbekr

In the territory of Diarbekr, I was the guest of a very rich old man, who had a handsome son. One night he said, “During my whole life I never had any child but this son. Near this place is a sacred tree, to which men resort to offer up their petitions. Many nights at the foot of this tree I besought God, jauntily he bestowed on me this son.” I heard that the son was saying to his friends in a low tone of voice, u How happy should I be to know where that tree grows, in order that I might implore God for the death of my father.” The father was rejoicing in his son’s wisdom, whilst the son despised his father’s decrepitude.

Many years have elapsed since you visited your father’s grave; what piety have you shown towards your parent, that you should expect dutifulness from your son?

Vigor of youth

Once, in the vigor of youth, I had performed a long journey; and at night, being fatigued remained at the foot of a mountain. A debilitated old man, -who arrived after the caravan, said, “Why do you sleep? Get up; this is not a place for repose.” I said to him, “How can I proceed, not having the use of my feet?” He replied, “Have you not heard how it has been said, that proceeding and halting is better than running until you are fatigued?”

0 ye, who wish to reach the end of your day’s journey, be not in haste; listen to my counsel and learn patience. The Arab horse makes two stretches on full speed, and the camel travels slowly day and night.

Agreeable manners

An active, pleasant, and merry youth, of agreeable manners, was one of our happy society; sorrow in no shape entered his breast; laughter would not suffer him to close his lips. A considerable time had passed without my happening to meet with him. Afterwards I saw him with a wife and children; his merriment had ceased, and Ms Countenance was much altered. I asked him, what was the matter? He replied, “When I became the father of children, I left off childish sport. When you are grown old give up puerilities, and leave play and joking to youth. Look not for the sprightliness of youth in old age, since the stream will not return again to the spring-head. When the field of com is fit for the sickle, it does not wave in the wind with that vigor as when it was green. The season of youth has elapsed: alas those days which enlivened the heart. The lion has lost the strength of his paw, and, like an old leopard, I am now contented with a cheese.”

An old woman having stained her hairs black, I said to her, “0 my little old mother, you have made your hair black, but cannot straighten your bent back.”