COMMERCE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE DURING THE CLASSICAL PERIOD AND OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATORS? INTERVENTIONIST APPROACH TO ECONOMICS

Abstract

Starting with the years of its foundation, Ottoman Empire paid great attention to commerce. It encouraged trade as long as it was beneficial to its economy and took precautions for the healthy operation of commercial activities. It is possible to examine the commercial activities of Ottoman Empire under two categories as domestic and foreign trade. In this article, our primary aim was to reflect the Ottoman Empire?s approach to commercial activities. After presenting brief information about domestic and foreign trade, we have commented about the customs system, organizations of derbent and menzil, and land and sea ways which were established to provide the healthy operation of the commercial activities. On the other hand, it is also a reality that Ottoman Empire sometimes intervened economy in order to operate its economic system without any problem. However, its interventions present variations depending on the regions of the Empire. The laxity of the interventions in some regions was mostly understood as the weakness of the central government?s control over that region. In this paper, we will argue that the laxity of interventions did not always refer to a decrease in the ruling power of the government. On the contrary, it was due to Ottoman administrators? interventionist approach to economy and economical usage of the ruling power.