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The Ottoman Industrial Revolution*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Extract

The European industrial revolution adversely affected the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century and was instrumental in its final collapse. The eastward flow of European goods grew rapidly in the years following the end of the Napoleonic era in 1815, and Ottoman lands soon became important markets for many European manufacturers. Their wares increasingly displaced traditional Ottoman products, made Ottoman handicraftsmen jobless, reduced Ottoman internal sources of taxes, and so contributed to eventual European control of Ottoman finances. These phenomena are well known and have received appropriate recognition as symptoms of an economic invasion that was aided by the diplomacy of West European consuls and ambassadors, and sanctified by largely unquestioned European arguments in favor of laissez-faire.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

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page 73 note 4 FO 78/611, Cartwright to Aberdeen, Constantinople, 22 February 1845.Google Scholar

page 73 note 5 The Paris revolution of February 1848 was the cause of alarm in capitals as far east as Istanbul. A new grand vezir, Sarim Paşa, reportedly tightened control of Ottoman finances, including those associated with the new industries. MacFarlane, vol. II, pp. 599 ff.Google Scholar

page 73 note 6 FO 195/329, Dadian to Hensman, Istanbul, 13 Nov. 1848.Google Scholar

page 73 note 7 The Times (London), 23 Jan. 1850, p. 6. The Dadians apparently regained their personal properties since the family remained prosperous and several individuals were prominent in Porte affairs until the mid-1890s. They continued to hold the title and functions of barutcu başi until sometime between 1870 and 1889. See Boutros-Ghali, pp. 102–24.Google Scholar

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page 74 note 1 FO 195/290, Carr to Canning, Büyukdere, 20 Oct. 1848;Google ScholarMacFarlane, vol. II, pp. 227, 611f., 628ff.Google Scholar

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page 74 note 6 The Times, 29 Jan. 1845, p. 6;Google Scholar MacFarlane, vols. I, II, passim. For more moderate views of ‘jobbery’ see Hamlin, pp. 57–60, and JC, II Feb. 1845, p. 1.Google Scholar

page 75 note 1 Regular five-day summaries of the Sultan's activities in JC indicate that Abdülmecid visited even the nearest factories no more than once per year during the period 1843–8.Google Scholar

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page 75 note 3 MacFarlane, vol. II p. 620f.Google Scholar

page 75 note 4 MacFarlane, vol. II p. 620f.Ibid. p. 453.

page 75 note 6 Alageyik, p. 9.Google Scholar

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