sultan by whom
they were granted; thus in 1569 Sultan Selim II. renewed the French
capitulations granted by his predecessor. In 1583 England obtained her
first capitulation, until which time France had been the official
protector of all Europeans established in Turkey. Later on, England
claimed to protect the subjects of other nations, a claim which is
rejected in the French capitulations of 1597, 1604 and 1607, the
last-named of which explicitly lays down that the subjects of all
nations not represented at Constantinople by an ambassador shall be
under French protection. In 1613 Holland obtained her first
capitulation, with the assistance of the French ambassador, anxious to
help a commercial rival of England. In 1673 the French, represented by
the marquis de Nointel, succeeded in obtaining the renewal of the
capitulations which, for various reasons, had remained unconfirmed since
1607. Louis XIV. had been anxious to secure the protectorate of all
Catholics in Turkey, but was obliged to content himself with the
recognition of his right to protect all Latins of non-Turkish
nationality; his claims for the restoration to the Catholics of the Holy
Places usurped by the Greeks was also rejected, the sultan only
undertaking to promise to restore their churches to the Jesuit
Capuchins. An important commercial gain was the reduction of the import
duties from 5 to 3%; and all suits the value of which exceeded 4000
_aspres_ in which French subjects sued, or were sued by, an Ottoman
subject, were to be heard not by the ordinary tribunals but at the Porte
itself. Later, France's friendship secured for Turkey a successful
negotiation of the peace of Belgrade in 1739, and the result was the
capitulation of 1740; this is no longer limited in duration to the
sultan's lifetime but is made perpetual, and, moreover, declares that it
cannot be modified without the assent of the French. It conferred on the
French ambassador precedence over his colleagues. Austria had obtained
capitulations in 1718, modified in 1784; Russia secured similar
privileges in 1784. In the course of the 18th century nearly every
European power had obtained these, and such newly-established countries
as the United States of America, Belgium and Greece followed in the 19th
century.

The chief privileges granted under the capitulations to foreigners
resident in Turkey are the following: liberty of residence,
inviolability of domicile, liberty to travel by land and