The Ispravnicates are also given to persons of that description, jointly with the sons of Boyars, who, at a very early age, commonly make their _début_ in public career by those appointments. They receive a salary of five hundred piasters per month, besides which they have perquisites, which, in some of the richest districts, they extend as far as twenty thousand piasters a year. CHAPTER III. POPULATION.—TRIBUTE AND TAXES.—OTHER BRANCHES OF REVENUE.—METROPOLITAN DIGNITY.—MONASTERIES. 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.