'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎147] (156/568)

ADMINISTRATION 147
mercantile suits, causes relating to bills of exchange and promissory
notes and matters of the kind, subject to appeal to the local High
Court on the civil side. The procedure of these Courts is stated to
have been based on the Code Napoleon. If a foreign subject was
a party to a suit in the Commercial Court, one or two assessors of the
same nationalit}' as the toreign subject were added to the Court; the
proceedings were watched by a representative of the foreigner's con
sulate, and an appeal lay to the Chief Commercial Court at Con
stantinople.
Imperial Departments of Revenue.—These were the Customs,
Public Debt, Tobacco and Salt Monopolies, and Land Records.
Customs was one of the most important revenue agencies, pro
ducing more in Baghdad and Basra than even the land-taxes. The
Department was under a Director-General at Baghdad, who dealt
direct with Constantinople, and had a deputy with his establishment
at Baghdad and at Basra ; officials of lower rank and clerks were
stationed at Khanikin, Qizil Eibat, Mandali, and Bedrah on the
Persian frontier, at Nashweh and Kurna on the Shatt el-'Arab, at
Suq esh-Shuyukh on the Euphrates, and on the Tigris at Qal'at
Salih, Amara, Kut el-Amara, Suweira, and Kazimain. By agree
ment with the Powers, the import duties were, in 1907, raised to
11 per cent, ad valorem. The export duty was 1 per cent.
and a refund of 10 per cent, ad was permitted on goods
exported within six months of importation. Without an agreement
with the Powers, these duties were enhanced from time to time by
the ingenious device of requiring various stamps of different and
varying denominations to be affixed to documents presented to the
Customs House. Some of these stamps wex*e ostensibly ear-marked
for the cost of the Hejaz Railway, others were simply revenue stamps.
In some cases this imposition entailed as much as 50 per cent,
additional on the customs duty proper. That the administration of
the customs was highly corrupt goes without saying. It is reported
that at Basra the export trade evaded taxation altogether. The
import duties actually paid are said to have averaged not more
than 6 per cent., including duty, bribe, and porterage, instead of
11 per cent.
The Department of Public Debt existed for the benefit of the
European bondholders of the Ottoman Government, and was subject
to international control. It was represented by superintendents
at provincial head-quarters, with assistants at all the more important
places, and travelling inspectors. The principal sources of revenue
made over to the Public Debt for management were fisheries,
liquor, salt, silk, and stamps : it was practically an Excise Department,
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