The Business of State : : Ottoman Finance Administration and Ruling Elites in Transition (1580s –1615) / / Pál Fodor.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2020
• VerfasserIn: Fodor, Pál,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Studien zur Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur der Turkvölker ; 28
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (402 p.)

Based on original Ottoman sources, the author traces the transformation of the financial and administrative system of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 17th century. The changes were made necessary by the burgeoning budget deficit, a consequence of overspending by the oversized Ottoman state. The author proves that the phenomena previously thought to be signs of decline were in fact aspects of a well-considered reform program, dismantling step by step the centralized redistributive system. As part of this process, most of the state functions were privatised, and the officials were forced to undertake their jobs as private entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, a radical overhaul of the taxation system provided the extra resources needed for the maintenance of the system, with the reforms being largely financed by the working and tax-paying population. An important conclusion of the book, with relevance beyond Ottoman history, is that while a state can be modernised without modernising society, such a course will diminish the capacity for renewal in the long run. The volume provides useful information and insights not only for specialists in Ottoman history but also for those who are interested in the Islamic world, the state and modernisation.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Abbreviations -- Note on transliteration and usage -- PART ONE -- I. About the theme -- II. Outlines of the Ottoman system in the sixteenth century -- III. The crisis of the system in the second half of the sixteenth century -- PART TWO -- I. The disruption of the Ottoman monetary system and attempts to manage the crisis -- II. Venality and tax-farming -- III. Confiscation -- IV. “Fixed-amount has” (icmallü has) and “annual salary” (salyane) -- V. Private and forced loans to the treasury -- VI. Taxing the middle and lower ranks of the army: The “substitute money” paid by timar-holders, fortress garrisons, volunteers, and those waiting for a post -- VII. The regularisation of extraordinary war taxes (avarız-i divaniye) -- VIII. An increase in the poll-tax (cizye) and levying supplemental taxes -- IX. The last major land/tax surveys of the empire— Farewell to the tahrir system -- X. Compensation for the decrease in income: “fodder money” (arpalık), “service” (hizmet) and “employment” (istihdam) -- XI. Settling the matter of the fortress garrison troops and the provincial kuls: transition to the ocaklık system -- PART THREE -- In conclusion: Some major consequences of the crisis and of the transformation -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index