Theme: Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems in the Ottoman Empire 1450-1750
(Agricultural production, trade and commerce, manufacturing, labor systems, and challenges)
By Haolin Chen
Annotations:
1. The city of Byzantium, built by the Greeks in 657 BCE, became the capital of the Byzantine Empire under Constantine in 330 CE. Its
strategic location, connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, gave it access to Asian goods from farther east. The city flourished
under burgeoning trade as enormous wealth was funneled to both the government and the growing merchant class. (continuity)
2. Islam, developed in the seventh century in the Arabian peninsula under Muhammad, eagerly encouraged commerce due to nomadic traditions.
The relatively comfortable status of merchants in Muslim lands encouraged commerce. A common code of trade developed between
merchants in the Indian Ocean gave initial advantage to Ottoman traders; but increasing Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean and
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increasing Ottoman focus on domestic economies slowed maritime commercial growth. Overland trade via Iran and domestic trade flourished,
as Europeans increasingly dominated Ottoman foreign trade. (continuity, change)
The enduring African slave trade between the Muslim world and Africa continued under the Ottomans. Prisoners of war captured by SubSaharan African troops were directed across the Sahara desert to Northern Africa, where they are brought and transported to Muslim lands,
where they perform military or domestic tasks. In the period 1550 to 1800 roughly 2 million slaves were transported to Muslim lands. Slavery
was based on religion, not ethnicity, as manumissions occurred when slaves converted to Islam. This economy paralleled the Atlantic slave
trade, in which about 8 million African prisoners of war from 1550 to 1800 were transported to American colonies for backbreaking
plantation or mining labor, discriminated by ethnicities, and rarely receive manumissions. (continuity)
The city of Constantinople was conquered by Sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror” in 1453 after a long siege, marking the end of the Byzantine
Empire. Subsequently the Ottomans renamed the city to Istanbul and made it their capital. The increasing commerce in Asian goods funded
the expansion of Istanbul into a cosmopolitan city supporting intense maritime trade between Europe and Asia and the growth of a merchant
class dominating trade and amassing wealth. (continuity)
Between 1453 and 1502 a series of wars were fought between the Ottoman Empire and Venice in control of Mediterranean islands, important
bases for merchant activities in the area. The truce between the two states marked the limited trading influence of Ottomans in the
Mediterranean Sea. Increasing inactivity of the Ottoman fleet due to the deadly defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in Greece in 1571 by European
fleets decided the orientation of the Ottoman government on domestic rather than maritime economy. Portuguese success in controlling trade
in the Indian Ocean in the period owed this decision. (change)
Under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1520s the system of taxation in the empire was perfected. Turkish cavalries from the
initial conquest held land grants, administering and taxing the local peasants, rayas, in return for military support to the state. The rayas’
agricultural output continued to be the most important sector in the Ottoman economy, as land taxes continued to make up most of the state’s
income. This policy paralleled that of the European governments of the same period, who derived most of their state income from commercial
taxes. (change)
The Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent granted a capitulation to King Francis I of France in 1536, which gave immunity of Shari’a and tariff
rates for French merchants in Ottoman lands. This agreement ensured Ottoman accesses to European goods and French profits in the trade.
The reciprocal benefits for both states quickly turned sour, however, after the death of Suleiman and the decline of Ottoman military. Another
capitulation to the English in 1580 for the access to European firearms, placing the Ottomans in dependence to European goods. The
increasing lists of capitulations to different powers of Europe caused the spiral downfall of Ottoman domestic economy and proved European
trade domination over the area. Similar rights like capitulations were forced upon European trade partners – Amerindians, colonists, some
Africans, Indians, and the notable exception of Chinese - using superior military technology by the end of the period. (change)
Surname-i Hümayun, or Book of the Imperial Circumcision Festival, is an album which recorded the celebrations held for the circumcision
festival of Prince Mehmed, son of Sultan Murad III, in 1582. In its paintings an elaborately-dressed glassmaking guild was presenting glass
orbs and cups to the Sultan. This record offered a first-hand description of Ottoman manufacturing: local crafts such as glassmaking and
metalworking flourished like in Persian times, as guilds supported and protected the artisans’ political and commercial rights. However, the
manufacturing sector made up minimal amount of Ottoman economy, as agriculture provided the chief economic output for the state, similar
to contemporary China. (continuity)
In the period 1585 to 1650, Janissaries, infantry troops levied from the Balkans and using firearms, gained increased prominence in defending
the Ottoman state from Safavid and nomadic threats. Growing demands for firearms from European merchants exhausted the state treasury.
Land-owning Turkish cavalries increasingly lost power as their lands were seized and converted to revenue. The collapse of the land-grant
system intensified the depravity of state incomes; increasing rebellions from the Turkish cavalries between 1590 and 1610 further displaced
farmers and discouraged agriculture. Tax farming by local administrations proved ineffective and disastrous as more and more rayas were
forced to emigrate or rebel. The Janissaries in the period gained power as some began engaging in urban commerce. The insufficiency of land
taxation to support centralized gunpowder states was also shared by the Safavids of Iran and the Mughals of India. (change)
10. Europeans, due to their American colonies (especially the Potosi mine in Peru), began inputting vast amounts of silver into the world
economy starting in the 1530s. In 1585 to 1650 the influx of silver caused vast inflations in the Ottoman Empire as many landlords and
merchants became bankrupt. The adverse effects of silver inflation were felt across Eurasia in the period, promoting economic weakening and
social unrests. (change)
11. Similar to the early Islamic caliphates, when the Ottoman government became increasingly decentralized due to rebellions and Janissary
power, regional cultures and trade flourished. The port of Izmir on western Anatolia gained commercial success as its population grew to
30,000 to 40,000 in 1650, thanks to European, Jewish, and Armenian merchants; great traffic on wool, beeswax, cotton and silk pass through
the port as it transformed into a multicultural entrepot. Similar port cities boomed in Anatolia in 1600s and 1700s, as the volume of maritime
trading with the Europeans increased and multicultural contacts forged distinctive local cultures. However the increasing production of local
crafts and crops, especially cash crops like tobacco and coffee, which orients to European tastes foreshadow the eventual incorporation and
dominance of European merchants over Ottoman trade. (change)
12. The fall of the Safavid Empire in 1722 to Afghan nomads heavily damaged Ottoman commerce of Asian goods. Deprived of a source for
Iranian silk or Chinese tea, Ottoman elites increasingly depended on the European merchants on Asian goods. Ottoman economic advantage
ebbed as Europeans increasingly seized Ottoman foreign trade. (change)
13. The Tulip Period of 1718 to 1730 in the Ottoman Empire marked the transformation of Ottoman economy from dominance and domestic
focus to decay and reliance on European goods. In the period Ottoman elites experienced a frenzy-like fashion of European books, clothing,
furniture, and especially high-priced tulips. European culture flourished in Istanbul and increasing European dominance over Ottoman trade
had only exacerbated. Despite conservative Janissary revolts in 1730 which ended the Tulip period, the lack of confidence and power over
trade had clearly spelled doom for Ottoman power by the end of the period.(change)
Thesis: Ottoman Empire in the period 1450-1750 experienced increasing decline of the land taxation
system, which discouraged domestic agriculture and upset government stability; also the escalating
European domination and Ottoman capitulation of foreign trade, especially of Asia, saw the decay of
global trade, already at the periphery of Ottoman economy. Istanbul, however, maintained its trade status
as Islam fostered merchants to develop booming local cultures, similar to the early Islamic caliphates.