Pontus, Bithynia and the Bosporus

Abstract

Everyone who has the slightest acquaintance with the Crimea at the present time, and especially with the economic conditions which prevail there, is thoroughly aware of its intimate connexion, both economic and social, with the southern coast of the Black Sea—with Samsun, Eregli, Sinope, Kerasund, Trebizond and other towns. Great masses of workmen from these parts flood the cities of the Crimea. Practically all shipments by sea in vessels of small displacement are carried out by the owners of feluccas, who hail from the municipal centres of ancient Pontus and from the neighbouring sea-towns of what was once Bithynia. A glance at the map is sufficient to show that there is no casual connexion here; the close interconnexion between the shores of the Crimea and the southern coast of the Black Sea, which is almost visible with the naked eye from the southernmost point of the Crimea, has been brought about by the natural conditions of the locality. The decline in the prosperity of the southern Turkish coast of the Black Sea and the great prosperity of the Crimea in the years immediately preceding the war were the chief reasons why the Crimea played the part of employer, and the sea towns of the southern coast the part of supplier of labour. They provided as well the necessary tonnage for coastwise shipping, mostly in the shape of small sailing vessels. Such could not always be the case, nor indeed have such conditions continuously prevailed, although, generally speaking, similar relations must needs be established quite independent of the fortune assigned by history to the districts with which we are now dealing.