As the Sultan has never relaxed his determination to crush the power and the influence of the well-to-do families, an independent existence has now been made impossible for them. Therefore everyone of birth and education must depend upon a Government salary for his maintenance, and so be at the mercy of the Sultan, who has gradually and systematically obtained control of all the financial resources of Turkey. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing in Turkey as a distinct aristocracy. High titled officials of the State may impress foreign observers as being members of an aristocracy, but in reality those officials can be raised even from people of the lowest station in life. There have always been, nevertheless, good old families in the provinces, who, though they received the appreciation and respect of the masses, had no pretensions to any actual superiority over their dependants. The governing factions, who were appointed and promoted by the central Government, were quite distinct from either the rich or the poor populations of most Turkish provinces. This state of society existed up to the beginning of the present reign. When Abd-ul-Hamid began to establish his personal rule, and founded the present bureaucracy, he saw a danger in the independent manner of life of the old families, and in their democratic and friendly relations with the poorer classes.
At first he tried to demoralise those ancient families by conferring upon them official titles and decorations, hoping thus to impress them with an idea of rank, which would bring attendant jealousies, and make them strive hard to gain higher rank and decorations than the rest of their fellows. Besides this, the Sultan acquired large tracts of land in the fertile districts throughout the empire, and, as a step in his policy of wholesale acquisition, the lands and properties of the local magnates were gradually taken possession of on some pretext or other by the administrators of the Civil List. Thus it was that those who had once been independent landowners received official titles, and became part and parcel of the Palace official world. They now depend almost entirely for their living upon salaries paid out of the public treasury, which treasury is supplied for the most part by taxes extorted from the poorer provincials and peasant proprietors.