a measure of self-rule, headed by a council of elders (dimogerontes) or primates (proestotes), who assumed office every February and were selected from among the city's 15–20 aristocratic families (archontes). The archontes held much power, sometimes using it for the benefit of the Greek community, but at others allying with the Ottoman authorities to preserve their privileges. Under the archontes were the noikokyraioi ("burghers"), numbering 24 families according to Skouzes, the pazarites, merchants and artisans, and the xotarides, the poorer farmers. The villagers of Attica, the choriates, were ranked at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The climate was healthy, but the city relied chiefly on pasture—practiced by the Arvanites of Attica—rather than agriculture. It exported leather, soap, grain, oil, honey, wax, resin, a little silk, cheese, and valonia, chiefly to Constantinople and France. In the late 18th century, the city hosted a French and an English consul. Although its administrative status in the early Ottoman centuries is unclear, by the 17th century Athens, though formally part of the Sanjak of Eğriboz (Negroponte, modern Chalkida) and hence ultimately under the jurisdiction of the Kapudan Pasha (the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman fleet), formed part of the vakıf of the Haramayn, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and was administered by the Kizlar Agha (the chief black eunuch of the Imperial Harem). Usually, however, its proceeds were rented out in a tax-farming arrangement to individuals, who then governed the city as its voivode. The voivode or zabit (head of police) was appointed for annual tenures, beginning in March of each year. The post was lucrative, and voivodes generally tried to secure the renewal of their appointment. Bribes to the central government, but also the support of the local primates, were instrumental for the purpose. The zabit was complemented by the mufti, the local Muslim religious leader, the kadi (judge, head of the sharia court), the serdar (military governor), and the dizdar (commander of the Acropolis of Athens). In 1760, Athens became a malikhane, a special landed estate that belonged to the Sultan but was given to high officials as a usufruct estate that entitled its owner (malikhane sahib) to the collection of the tithe and other tax proceeds, in theory for life, in exchange for a lump sum and an annual rent. The owner often sub-let the proceeds to one or more third persons, who then held the post of voivode.