Samples of Translated Texts 507
possessors of all the wealth ... The fruiterers and merchants put a double price
on provisions and supplies and reap [a harvest of ] profits. They rob the people. It
is apparent that neglect in this matter redounds to the harm of believers in time
of trouble and to the benefit of fruiterers and merchants.
... The sure cause of the augmenting and increase of the Treasury is the cer-
tain help of the grand vizier to the defterdars, his allowing their presentation of
reports and his paying attention to these. For any matter connected with the
public moneys orders must not be given heedlessly, without seeing the account
books of the Treasury and investigating its benefit or harm and without referring
it to the decision of the defterdar.
Certain tax concessions, instead of being farmed out, should be committed to
the charge of trustworthy and upright persons on government account.
Always striving with care to reduce the expenditure and augment the income
of the Treasury, he [the defterdar] should especially abstain from waste and
spending to no purpose. For the learlend men of the Faith and the great authori-
ties on doctrine have specified that the portion allotted to the venerable judges
from the public treasury should be only enough for necessary wants and to avert
poverty ... Since the Treasury of the Moslems is the inherited property of no one,
it is essential to abstain completely from dissipating and wasting it. Every one
must meditate always upon the questioning and answering in this world and
that to come, on the punishment and reward, and be on his guard against this.
Let the janissary corps not be increased. Let them be well disciplined, few but
élite, and all present in time of need. In this connection also it is fitting to be
extremely careful and to be attentive and persevering in keeping their rolls in
proper order and in having the soldiers actually present. The late Lütfi Pasha,
who was formerly grand vezir, has written in his Asafnâme: “Fifteen thousand
soldiers are a great many soldiers. It is an heroic deed to pay the wages year by
year of fifteen thousand men with no decrease”. But under the present condi-
tions the soldiers and pensioned veterans and repeaters of prayers who get pay
and rations have exceeded all limits.24 Süleyman Penah Efendi (See Chapter 8)
From Mora ihtilâli tarihi (“History of the upheavals in Morea”):28
28 Penah Efendi – Berker 1942–1943, 239–240/309–311, 397, 475–476.