The exact number of population in the two principalities has never been properly ascertained; but the nearest calculation approaches to one million of souls in Wallachia, and five hundred thousand in Moldavia, since the last peace of Bukorest.

This population is, in each principality, divided into three distinct classes; the Boyars, or nobles, of the different orders; the tradesmen of all descriptions; and the peasants, with others, who are liable to the common taxes and contributions.

All the male peasants are, by their birth, subject to the capitation tax, from the age of sixteen; with the exception of some few who compose a privileged body called Sokotelniki, they are divided into associations called Loods, each of which is composed of a certain number of individuals, from five to ten, according to their respective means, and pays a fixed sum of six hundred piasters every year to the prince. According to the registers of the Wallachian Vestiary in 1818, the total of the loods in the seventeen districts, amounted to eighteen thousand, which, at the rate of six hundred piasters, gave an annual income of 10,800,000 piasters.^[21] This amount of revenue is considered as becoming the property of the reigning prince, and not as due by the inhabitants to the Ottoman government, as some writers have represented.

The treaties made by Mahomet II. and Suleÿman I. in leaving to Wallachia and to Moldavia the power of choosing their own princes, bound these alone to pay an annual tribute; the amount of it was at different periods increased; but it is now fixed at two millions of piasters for Wallachia, and one million for Moldavia. The Porte has indeed broken its original engagements by assuming the exclusive right of giving to those countries Greek princes instead of their own; but in doing so, the Ottoman court did not degrade the character of sovereignty inherent in the native Voïvodes; and if the present princes did not bear that character, their decisions would not be, as they are, without appeal for the natives.

The policy of the Porte, and the precarious position of the Greek Hospodars, have, however, for a long time rendered the fixed amount of the tribute due to the Porte merely nominal; and it is perfectly understood that the latter, on receiving their appointments, engage to satisfy any calls of the Turkish government, of money and other necessaries.

Besides the loods, there are in Wallachia about one hundred thousand individuals, and a proportionable number in Moldavia, who do not belong to the class of peasants, but who pay taxes at an equal rate. These are the tradesmen, Ottoman Jews, and other Rayahs.

The privileged class called Sokotelniki is composed of fifteen thousand individuals taken from among the peasantry, and who were, till lately, perfectly exempted from every kind of contribution levied by government; but within a few years the greater number of them have been made liable to an annual capitation tax of twenty piasters each.

Their institution dates its origin from a remarkable reform made by Constantine Mavrocordato, in 1736, when he had the government of both principalities at the same time.

Until that period, most of the peasants were slaves of the Boyars: Mavrocordato abolished the system, and no attempt was ever made since to renew it. In order, however, to indemnify in some measure the Boyars for the loss of their slaves, he regulated that each should be allowed to exact from a limited number of his peasants an annual tribute, in any shape whatever; and that this class of peasants, to whom he gave the name of Sokotelniki, should be entirely exempted from the burthen of public imposts.

Every Boyar of the first rank is now entitled to eighty Sokotelniki, each of whom pays him the annual sum of eighty piasters; some few, instead of receiving money, employ their Sokotelniki in the cultivation of their lands, and thus derive a much greater advantage from them.

The privilege, however, is not hereditary either with the possessors, or the private tributary. Every rank had a fixed number; and by the inattention and neglect of many princes, as well as by the unceasing increase of titles of nobility, the Sokotelniki became so numerous, that in 1814 the government in Wallachia determined to allow no longer to private individuals a considerable amount of revenue which could be appropriated to its own use. A new law was therefore made, which formed into government-loods all Sokotelniki who were not attached to the first class of Boyars. The institution of this law was warmly supported by the members of the divan, who, with their equals, had no loss to apprehend; but it created great discontent in all the other classes affected by it, and particularly with the Boyars of Crayova, who being more given to agricultural occupations than the other land-proprietors derived great advantage from the employment of their Sokotelniki; and they unanimously determined to oppose the new regulation, as far as it related to themselves; they threatened to complain to the Porte through the channel of the Pashah of Widdin, who appeared willing to second their representations with all his influence. The ferocious Haffiz-Alli^[22] had at that time the government of Widdin; and as he was the prince’s personal enemy, he would have profited with eagerness of any opportunity to do him injury. The prince therefore modified the law relating to Sokotelniki, and those of the Bannat of Crayova were excluded from it. The following year he succeeded in compelling them to submit to a tax of twenty piasters each.

Another privileged class exists in both principalities, and is called Poslujniki; its number, however, is far inferior, and it is composed of some of the foreign peasants who come from Bulgaria, Servia, and Transylvania, to settle in the principalities.

The Poslujniki are given to the Greek Boyars, and to foreign residents of distinction; a custom which has become habitual since upwards of fifty years. They pay no money to the persons to whom they are attached; but it is their business to supply them with provisions of wood, barley, hay, poultry, eggs, butter, and game, in consideration of which they are exempted from government imposts, and receive some protection from their chiefs when they experience any vexations from the Ispravniks, or their subalterns.

Constantine Mavrocordato did not include the gypsies in the abolition of slavery; we shall place our remarks on this curious people in a more appropriate chapter.

At the last peace concluded at Bukorest between Russia and the Porte, it was stipulated that, in consideration of the two principalities having borne all the weight of the war, they should not, during the first two years after the day of their restitution, pay any tribute. The agreement was in the sequel merely observed with regard to the lood-system, through which it had been always customary before the war to collect the imposts; and, under a variety of other forms and denominations, contributions were paid to the Ottoman authorities of an amount proportionable to the present rates.

The most important regular revenues of the princes, after the loods, are derived from, the following branches:—

The administration of these branches of government is always sold to private speculators; and the above-specified sums have been paid by them in advance the last six years. Some merchants, and others possessed of considerable fortunes in the country, have acquired their riches by these speculations.

In Wallachia it has become customary that most of the public officers give a share of their profits to the prince, who, according to the estimate of their amount, receives it in anticipation; the whole together, with the value of the presents made to him on conferring titles of nobility, secure to him a private income of about two millions of piasters.

The metropolitan dignity, and all other sees, are in his gift. The former is usually granted for life, or for the time of the giver’s reign. Its revenues amount to four hundred thousand piasters. They are derived from landed property bequeathed to the metropoly by deceased boyars and others, and from an annual capitation tax of fifteen piasters levied on the priests of the lower order, whose number amounts to fifteen thousand. The claims of the prince on this important revenue are not so openly avowed as on the civil offices; but they are understood with the person who is raised to the situation, or is confirmed in it by the successor.

The bishops of Argis, Rimnik, and Buzéo, are the next ecclesiastical dignitaries in rank, and the only qualified candidates for the metropoly among their numerous colleagues. They reside at Bukorest, and they form the supreme council of the church under the presidency of the archbishop. This council is the most corrupted tribunal of any in the country, and its acts and decisions, which proceed from any motives than those of moral tendency, would seem calculated for no other purpose than the encouragement of profligacy, and other disorders in the society. The will of the metropolitan, or that of the prince, is the only rule by which its concerns are conducted.

The constitution of Moldavia does not permit the prince to interfere with the affairs of the ecclesiastical council, nor with the financial concerns of the metropoly. The archbishop is elected by the nobility, and must be a native. The bishop of Romano, next in rank, is usually chosen to that dignity. The same regulations ought to exist in Wallachia, but a series of abuses have there rendered many evils irremediable.

Both principalities abound with monasteries originally established by different Voïvodes, and it was a long time customary with the inhabitants to consider as great acts of piety bequests of lands, houses, shops, or sums of money, made to them, insomuch that hardly any rich man died without having allotted a portion of his property to such a purpose.

These voluntary gifts had so accumulated, and the value of land has so increased, that some of the monasteries are now the richest establishments in the country. The greater number are in the gift of the reigning princes, who let them out for a space of time to the highest bidders. Others, being dedicated to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, are disposed of by them; but although the princes cannot appropriate to their own profit any part of their revenues, as they have the right of imposing taxes on them upon certain occasions, they frequently put them under contribution.

Besides the various important branches of revenue hitherto specified, the reigning princes possess many other means of raising money. The two principalities are an inexhaustible source of riches to them, and their proverbial appellation of ‘Peru of the Greeks’ is verified by experience.