Economic history of the Ottoman Empire

Economic history of the Ottoman Empirecovers the time period, between 1299- 1923. The economic history was divided into two distinctive sub periods. First one is the classic era (enlargement), which was a closed agricultural economy, showing regional distinctions within the empire.

Second one is the reformation era (westernization). It was mainly composed from state organized reforms which began from administrative and political structures and than extended to the related transformations from state to public functions. The change began with the military reforms and its extension to military associated guilds (Ottoman: Yonca) to public craft guilds. These reformations during Tanzimatexpended to education, taxation, and even subsidizing of the small industry.

Reformation Era

Prior to the Siege of Vienna, Ottoman Empire was not subjected to regular diplomatic customs, nor was it recognizing the right to existence of the Christian states, which were considered tolerated enemies. The Vienna failure starts a process of medievalisation of the Ottoman state, as the Muslim faith is gradually replaced by financial and civil contracts in all the aspects (external relations, army recruiting, state organization etc.)

Social structure had remained stereotypically feudal. A strong, zealously followed religious establishment had helped to sustain this and resulted in most official posts, legislations and culture moreover being heavily influenced by the prolific Islamic councils and having strong outwards signs of Islam. The Madrasas, the primary education centres of the empire, had staunchly religious doctrines and acted as an expresser of the contemporary Muslim world view. Also, foreign policy, at least with relation to European states, was highly pragmatic but also pre-emptive, a foreign policy common to earlier European feudal states. Many official posts required active or previous military experience; Grand Viziers, the equivalent chief ministers of other contemporary nation, often commanded the army in person. Such a social and administrative structure, however, remained effective and efficient in conducting foreign policy, gains in Europe being evidence for this.

Areas of economic surplus, above self-sustaining bases, were few in relation to the area under Ottoman rule. Such areas focused around an urban centre surrounded by well tilled arable farmland. Populations and population density was huge where substantial rural to urban migration had occurred; famine, conflict and extortion from tax-farms being the main stimulus for this. Cities, as in Europe, were the focuses of manufacture and trade. Ottoman cites had a large out put of goods, where comprehensive guild systems maintained quality at the expense of competition. However, the main source of Ottoman wealth came from less industry reliant goods and raw materials, mainly items from the east such as silk and gems; also the passage of such goods generated revenue due effective taxing measures. In comparison to its neighbours, the Ottoman empire was immensely wealthy.

Industrial Revolution

Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne ( Adrianople) and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis. To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of the Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous. The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues as much as possible without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact. The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all of their contemporaries.This organization developed a new group of people (scribial "man of the pen"), partly highly trained ulema which developed a financial professional body.The effectiveness of this financial professional body behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.The economic structure of the Empire was defined by its geopolitical structure. The Ottoman Empire stood between the West and the East, thus blocking the land route eastward and forcing Spanish and Portuguese navigators to set sail in search of a new route to the Orient. The empire controlled the spice route that Marco Poloonce used. When Christopher Columbusfirst journeyed to America in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith; an economic power which extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in significance of the land routes to the East (as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean) as parallelling the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself. By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were prevalent and the Ottoman administrators could not have realized, within the social and political system they were living in, the dynamics and principles of the capitalist economy of the Modern Age.

State

Unlike many states, the Ottoman Empire was happy to use the talents of Greeks (and other Christians), Muslims and Jews, in revolutionizing its administrative system.The rapidly expanding empire utilized loyal, skilled subjects to manage the empire, whether Albanians, Phanariot Greeks, Armenians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Hungarians or others. This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the empire, which was initially undertaken in the Greek language to the west, using the Greek subjects. Like the Byzantines before them, the Ottomans practiced a system in which the state had control over the clergy. The nomadic Turkic forms of land tenure were largely retained — with a number of unique adjustments — in the Ottoman period. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic Iran continued to be important in Ottoman administrative circles. In the Ottoman judiciary, for example, the courts were run by Kadı, i.e. religious judges appointed by the sultan who exercised direct control over members of the religious establishment. Ultimately, the Ottoman administrative system was a blend of influences derived from the Turks, the Byzantine Greeks, and the Islamic world.

The Ottomans were primarily administrators and not producers, in the sense that the empire did not employ a program of economic exploitation (as did the colonial empires of the modern European states). Its economic outlook (fiscalism) stressed abundance and regulated prices within the marketplace to ensure social stability, and the state never developed a Western mercantile outlook of maximum production, leaving commerce very largely in the hands of the non-Muslim population. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders within the overarching context of orthodox Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.

House of Osman

The "Ottoman dynasty" (c. 1290–1922) or as an institution "House of Osman" was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration. The Ottoman sultan, pâdişâh or "lord of kings", served as the empire's sole regent and was considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he did not always exercise complete control.

Throughout Ottoman history, however — despite the supreme de jure authority of the sultans and the occasional exercise of de facto authority by Grand Viziers — there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. New sultans were always chosen from among the sons of the previous sultan, but there was a strong educational system in place that was geared towards eliminating the unfit and establishing support amongst the ruling elite for the son before he was actually crowned. There were only two attempts in the whole of Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Osmanlı dynasty, both failures, which is suggestive of a political system which for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.

After the dissolution of the empire, the new republic abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate and declared the Ottoman Dynasty as persona non grata of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. The current head of the House of Osman is Ertuğrul Osman V living in New York City.

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