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State formation and urbanization trajectories: state finance in the Ottoman Empire before 1800, as seen from a Dutch perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2009

Wantje Fritschy
Wantje Fritschy
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts, History Department, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Looking at state finance in the Ottoman Empire from a Dutch perspective shows remarkable differences between the two systems. This article suggests that these differences were related to the fact that, in contrast to those in the Ottoman Empire, fiscal systems in western Europe, and especially in the Netherlands, developed within a context of economy-driven rather than state-driven trajectories of urbanization. This gave rise to separate systems of urban public finance, which enhanced possibilities for funding a debt serviced by indirect urban taxes, the root of later state debts. In Ottoman cities, systems of urban public finance managed by urban governments did not develop, thus precluding a similar development.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 405 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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32 In contrast to western European tax farms, the profits of the tax farmers were known exactly and were part of the information supplied to bidders in the auctions: see Genç, ‘A study’.

33 Cizakça, Comparative evolution, p. 160.

34 This was confirmed to me by I. Hakkı Kadı (e-mail communication, 19 June 2009), based on information supplied to him by Erol Özvar, one of the editors of Osmanlı maliyesi: kurumlar ve bütçeler.

35 For 1696/7: 15,180,900 akçe from a total revenue of 818,188,665 akçe, which would mean 1.8% (Genç and Özvar, Osmanlı maliyesi, vol. 1, p. 194); for 1747: about 400,000 gurush from a total revenue of 13,767,695 gurush, which would mean 2.9% (ibid., vol. 2, p. 324); for 1761: 393,566.5 gurush from a total revenue of 14,514,288.5 gurush, which would mean 2.7% (ibid., vol. 2, p. 370).

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49 The provisional results of this research on population can be found in M. Bosker, E. Buringh, and J. L. van Zanden, ‘From Baghdad to London: the dynamics of urban growth in Europe and the Arab world, 800–1800’, http://www.iisg.nl/research/baghdadtolondon.pdf (consulted 12 August 2009); I am indebted to Jan Luiten van Zanden for informing me of its availability on the internet.

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81 Ibid., p. 775.

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87 The high percentage of direct taxes in 1747 had been due to widespread tax revolts and the temporary replacement of most of the indirect taxes by a direct tax during that year. The high percentages in 1788 and 1793/4 were the results of forced loans in Holland; a large part of the first was used to save the Dutch East India Company after extensive losses during the Fourth English Naval War.

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89 Ibid., p. 38.

90 Inalcik, Economic and social history, p. 202.

91 Fritschy, ‘Indirect taxes’, p. 74.

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