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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 885
in all theTurkith feas, a right of paffing through the Dardanelles, all the commercial
immunities granted to the moft favoured nations in amity with the Porte, the towns of
Azof and Taganroc, the three fortreffes of Kinburn, Kerth, and Yenikalé, and a
large diftrict between the Bog and the Dnieper.
Many fpeculations have been made concerning the extent and value of the traffic
which Ruffia is likely to eftablifh in the Black Sea, and the revolution which it may
effet in the commerce of Europe, by transferring part of the Baltic trade to the ports of
the Mediterranean. In confequence of this change, it is afferted, the fouthern pro-
vinces will find a vent for their fuperfluous productions; the Ruffian veffels will open a
profitable trade with Criav Tartary, with the Auftrian provinces at Kilia-Nova, with the
Turks at Conftantinople, and with the Greeks in the Levant. ‘The iron of Siberia,
the corn, hemp, and flax of the Ukraine, and the contiguous provinces, will be fent
from the havens of the Black Sea, through the Dardanelles, to fupply the ports of the
Mediterranean ; and thus France and Spain will be furnifhed with naval ftores by a
cheaper and more expeditious navigation than through the Baltic and the Northern
Ocean. As the completion of this great and extenfive projeé& can only be the work of
time, and depends on a variety of contingencies, we cannot pretend to form any abfolute
decifion on the probability of its failure or fuccefs; but a confiderable light may be
thrown on this intricate fubje& by an attention to the following objeéts of inquiry *.
I. The traffic on the Turkifh Seas before the peace, with an account of their havens
and exports. II. The ports and territory ceded to Ruffia, and the new towns con-
{tructed by the Emprefs. III. The productions of the fouthern provinces, and the na-
vigation of the Don and Dnieper. IV. The progrefs hitherto made by the Ruffians to
eftablifh an intercourfe between the Black Sea, through the Dardanelles, with the ports
of the Mediterranean.
I. The traffic on the Turkifh Seas before the peace of 1774, was chiefly carried on by
the Greeks, Armenians, and Turks; andthe Ruffians poffeffed no port, either on the
Sea of Azof or the Euxine ; Tcherkafk, capital of the Don Coflacs, was the place where
the productions of this empire and Turkey were reciprocally exchanged. The Greek
and Armenian merchants failed to Taganroc, where they performed quarantine, and then
roceeded with their merchandize to ’cherkafk ; having firft paid the duty at Temernik,
a fmall village on the Don, now the fortrefs of St. Dmitri. ‘Icherkafk was alfo the
emporium of an inland commerce with the merchants of Kuban and Crim Tartary.
The imports were chiefly Greek wines, raifins, dried figs, almonds, oil, rice, faffron,
painted linens and cottons; the exports, hides and leather, coarfe linen, hard-ware,
and caviaret, &c. The Greek and Armenian merchants, in returning to Conftanti-
nople, fupplied the ports of the Sea of Azof and the Euxine with Ruffian and European
commodities. f :
In order to form a general idea of the traffic in the Turkifh Seas, we muft take a
curfory view of their havens, imports and exports.
Among thetarbours 0 the Black Sea reforted to by the Greek and Armenian mer-
chants, the moft frequented were thofe of Crim Tartary, now called Taurida ; namely,
Yenikalé, one of the fortreffes lately ceded to Ruffia, Balaklava, Koflof, and Caffa,
now Theodofia, which merits a particular defcription. Caffa and the whole peniniula,
which were before under the dominion of a khan, who was a vaflal to the Turks, were,
* In this enquiry I have principally followed Guldenftaedt’s Effay Von der Hafen am Azowlchen
Schwartzen afd Weiffen Meere. in Journ. St Pet. for 1776. : A
+ See Tarif of the Imported and Exported Wares. Buf. Hift. Mag. xi. p. 373.
i by
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