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Changes in factor markets in the Ottoman Empire, 1500–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2009

ŞEVKET PAMUK
ŞEVKET PAMUK
Affiliation:
Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, and European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Abstract

The most important determinant of Ottoman economic institutions and their evolution in the early modern era needs to be sought in the Empire's social structure and political economy. Merchants and producers were never in a position to influence the state elites and to push for institutional changes that would favour the growth of the private sector. As a result, many of the key institutions of the Ottoman order, including the state ownership of land and the urban guilds, remained intact until the nineteenth century. In contrast, institutions related to state borrowing changed significantly. This difference in the political power of different groups explains – better than geography or resource endowments, Islam or culture – the striking divergence in the trajectory of different factor markets.

L'évolution des marchés de facteurs de production dans l'empire ottoman, 1500–1800

C'est dans la structure sociale et l'économie politique de l'Empire ottoman qu'il faut aller chercher ce qui a le plus influencé les institutions économiques ottomanes et leur évolution au cours de l'ère moderne. Marchands et producteurs n'ont jamais été en position d'influencer les élites de l'Etat ni d'agir pour obtenir des modifications des institutions susceptibles de favoriser la croissance du secteur privé. Il s'ensuit que la plupart des institutions de base de l'ordre ottoman, y compris la terre propriété de l'Etat et les corporations urbaines, restèrent inchangées jusqu'au 19e siècle. Par contre, les institutions concernant les emprunts d'Etat changèrent de façon significative. C'est cet écart entre les pouvoirs politiques des différents groupes qui explique, mieux que la géographie ou les dotations en capital, mieux que l'Islam ou la culture, la divergence frappante de développement qu'ont connue les marchés de facteurs de production.

Faktormärkte im wandel im osmanischen reich, 1500–1800

Die Faktoren, welche die ökonomischen Institutionen und ihre Entwicklung im osmanischen Reich am stärksten beeinflussten, sind in der Sozialstruktur und der politischen Ökonomie zu suchen. Kaufleute und Produzenten waren niemals in der Lage, die staatlichen Eliten zu beeinflussen und auf institutionelle Veränderungen zu drängen, die ein Wachstum des Privatsektors begünstigt hätten. Infolgedessen blieben viele der Schlüsselinstitutionen des osmanischen Reiches, wie etwa das Staatseigentum am Boden und die städtischen Zünfte und Gilden, bis ins 19. Jahrhundert intakt. Die mit der staatlichen Kreditaufnahme verbundenen Einrichtungen dagegen veränderten sich grundlegend. Diese markanten Divergenzen im Entwicklungspfad der unterschiedlichen Faktormärkte lassen sich durch Unterschiede in der politischen Macht verschiedener Gruppen besser erklären als durch den Verweis auf Geographie oder Rohstoffausstattung, den Islam oder die Kultur.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 24 , Special Issue 1: FACTOR MARKETS IN GLOBAL ECONOMIC HISTORY , May 2009 , pp. 107 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

ENDNOTES

1 For a recent argument, see Pamuk, Şevket, ‘Institutional change and the longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 1500–1800’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 (2004), 225–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 The Ottomans were not unaware of mercantilist thought and practice. Early-eighteenth-century historian Naima, for example, defended mercantilist ideas and practices and argued that if the Islamic population purchased local products instead of imports, coinage would stay in Ottoman lands; see Naima, Tarih-i Naima, ed. Zuhuri Danışman (Istanbul, 1968), vol. 4, 1826–7, and vol. 6, 2520–5.

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17 Istanbul was a giant, consuming city dependant on its vast hinterland. The classic work on the economy of the capital city and the nature of state intervention in that economy remains Robert Mantran, Istanbul dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1962), chapitre II, 233–86; see also Inalcik, ‘The Ottoman state: economy and society’, 179–87.

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19 Ş. Pamuk, A monetary history of the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge, 2000), 66–76, 88–111.

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37 In essence, this was identical to the commenda of Europe. For discussions of the Islamic origins of European commenda, see A. L. Udovitch, ‘At the origins of the Western commenda: Islam, Israel, Byzantium’, Speculum 37 (1962), 198–207, and Ashtor, E., ‘Banking instruments between the Muslim east and the Christian west’, Journal of European Economic History 1 (1972), 553–73Google Scholar, and Çizakça, A comparative evolution, 10–32.

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39 Inalcik, ‘The Ottoman state: economy and society’, 212–14.

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48 G. Parker, ‘The emergence of modern finance in Europe, 1500–1730’, in C. M. Cipolla ed., The Fontana economic history of Europe, vol. 2 (London, 1974), 560–82. For the case of France, the country most likely to have influenced the changes in Ottoman institutions of public finance during the eighteenth century, see Eugene N. White, ‘France and the failure to modernize macroeconomic institutions’, in Michael D. Bordo and Roberto Cortes-Conde eds., Transferring wealth and power from the old to the new world: monetary and fiscal institutions in the 17th through the 19th Centuries (Cambridge, 2001), 59–99.

49 S. R. Epstein, Freedom and growth: the rise of states and markets in Europe, 1300–1750 (London and New York, 2000), 16–29.

50 My calculations as presented in Pamuk, A monetary history of the Ottoman Empire, 191–2.