Letters from Turkey by Helmuth von Moltke: 2-The Condition of Wallachia — The traces of long servitude.
2-The Condition of Wallachia — The traces of long servitude. — Consulates. — The minor influence of the government on the country. — Comparison with Serbia.
Wallachia has only entered the ranks of civilized nations five years ago, and although this happened under the condition of double dependence, it has still gained the right to regulate its internal administration according to its own judgment. Therefore, Europe looks forward to the beginnings of a better condition, which, although developed in a short period, may be the result of great upheavals.
The physiognomy of this country bears the terrible marks of long servitude. Half in ruins and heaps of rubble, the cities lie without walls, without gates, for any resistance had been a crime until now. After the resistance had repeatedly proven fruitless and often led to ruin, the people of Wallachia thought of no other means of escape than flight. As soon as a Turkish troop appeared across the Danube, anyone who had something to lose fled to the forests of Hungary or Transylvania. The boyars always set this example, and in forty years, the Wallachian population fled seven times.
The settlements of this land lie in valleys, as though hidden, for those who remained behind sought protection in their poverty, their misery, and in secrecy. If only protection and the security of property were ensured, they could bear it. The little encouragement given to the settlers is likely due to the consular relationship, which makes all foreigners a burden to the government. Those who placed themselves under the protection of a consul are not subject to the country's laws. The government cannot directly tax, judge, or punish them, and even for police crimes, it must turn to the consuls. The Austrian consulate in Bucharest is said to have 5000 armed men. Often, Germans are under British protection, Frenchmen under German, and even Wallachian subjects find ways to avoid their own government in this way. Russia has renounced this misuse, but certainly exercises indirect, mighty protection across the country.
It is highly likely that Wallachia possesses vast treasures of precious and other metals. The rivers carry so much gold dust that the Gypsies use it to pay taxes to the government; mercury springs from the ground in certain areas, and the salt found here is a major source of income for the government. However, nothing has been done to develop a metallic mining industry. This lack of enterprise has been explained by secret treaties, but the true reason is probably that mining requires very large capital, which only yields returns over time. A hereditary prince would not hesitate to incur expenses that would have to yield rich returns, but is Alexander Ghika in the same situation?
In the main directions across the country, postal connections have been established, and the traveler is transported quickly, though very uncomfortably, even in the most favorable seasons. However, since no improvements have been made to the roads and bridges, it is almost impossible to travel from one place to another after prolonged rain in this heavy clay soil. The rivers, which rush down from the Carpathians, fill their wide beds in the plains and interrupt all traffic. The condition of the roads is still very poor in this land; there are no roads, the Danube only runs along the border, and the rivers that flow into it are not navigable and are hardly made so. Therefore, the Danube is little more than a barrier against the Turkish pest for Wallachia. The quarantine facilities, however, are so poorly arranged that any traveler would do well to avoid them. They inspire so little confidence that Austria maintains its own quarantine facilities at the Wallachian border.
It is astonishing to encounter a city like Bucharest with nearly 100,000 inhabitants in this wilderness. In Bucharest, there are palaces, societies, visits, theaters, fashionable merchants, newspapers, and carriages; but as soon as one steps outside the gate, one plunges into barbarism. A society of naturalists and a model farm have been established, but even the cultivation of potatoes has not yet been introduced to Wallachia. In the city, one sees the court, but in the countryside, the government is absent. The improvements made in the condition of Wallachia so far, the emancipation of the peasant, the reduction of his burdens, the restriction and establishment of taxes, the establishment of posts and pest control lines, the paving of the streets, the establishment and training of 6000 militia men, are almost entirely the work of the Russian occupation under General Kisselev. However, it is fair to say that the Russian general was allowed to do many things that the Wallachian prince could not, and the time is still too short for a satisfying condition to have developed in such a long and heavily burdened country.
Serbia forms, in many respects, the counterpart to Wallachia. In Serbia, there are neither boyars nor any other nobility, no large cities, nor a court, but only the people and the prince. Milo?, this remarkable man, with his sword, fought for the freedom of his fellow countrymen, but he neglected to establish their civil condition. Certainly, he was right to reject the ideas of those who sought to implement chambers, elections, and voting— in short, a new copy of the Charter of Truth from the Seine to the Morava; but what the country unquestionably needed was laws. The prince has reserved all the power for himself and has transferred the organization of the state to a military camp's discipline. He sees himself as the sole landowner in the full extent of his principality because, when the Turks conquered this region, the Serbs' right to property was extinguished and transferred to the Sultan. Milo? considers the current landowners merely as vassals, not as true owners. Their sons inherit the land, but they cannot pass it on to collateral relatives.
Finally, it seems that Milo? has monopolized all trade, especially the highly important and profitable pig trade for Serbia, in which this prince was raised. Through this monopoly, he has amassed enormous wealth, and this monopoly has brought about far more than certain bloody legal decisions.
Milo? Obrenovi? was received with particular distinction during his time in Constantinople, and he remains loyal to the Porte, as he is clever enough to recognize that only through it does his principality exist. In the interior of his country, he rules through the memory of great services, by uniting all material power in his hands, and through the influence of immense wealth. Externally, he is strong due to the martial, capable character of the Serbian people, for although his militia is not large, every Serb knows how to wield arms, for which possession they have fought so long.
Original text: https://archive.org/details/briefeberzustnde00molt
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