GÁBOR DEMETER Essays on Ottoman Modernization Industrialization, Welfare, Military Reforms
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GÁBOR DEMETER Essays on Ottoman Modernization Industrialization, Welfare, Military Reforms PUBLICATIONS OF THE BULGARIAN-HUNGARIAN HISTORY COMMISSION 2. A MAGYAR-BOLGÁR TÖRTÉNÉSZ VEGYES BIZOTTSÁG KIADVÁNYAI ИЗДАНИЯ НА БЪЛГАРО-УНГАРСКАТА ИСТОРИЧЕСКА КОМИСИЯ 2 PUBLICATIONS OF THE BULGARIAN-HUNGARIAN HISTORY COMMISSION 2. GÁBOR DEMETER Essays on Ottoman Modernization Industrialization, Welfare, Military Reforms Institute for Historical Studies, BAS Institute of History, RCH, HAS Sofia 2017 3 The research has been supported by the Bolyai János Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences This volume was realised within the framework of the Bulgarian–Hungarian joint academic project entitled “Connected Histories: Sources for Building History in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th – 21st Centuries” © Gabor Demeter © Institute for Historical Studies, BAS © Institute of History, RCH, HAS Responsible Editor: Penka Peykovska Published by the Institute for Historical Studies, BAS ISBN 978-954-2903-30-7 (Institute for Historical Studies, BAS) ISBN 978-963-416-068-7 (Institute of History, RCH, HAS) ISSN 2535-0757 Front and back cover: Kanitz. Gabrovo 4 Dedicated to György Kövér _______________________ 5 6 Contents Preface (by Daniel Vachkov) .......................................................................... 9 Introduction .................................................................................................... 11 Why Did Initial Industrialization Fail? Measuring Profit Rates, Productivity of Different Activities and the Change in Purchase Power in the Ottoman Empire in Regional Comparison .................................. 13 Prosperity and Ethnic Differences in Urban Spaces during the Tanzimat (1840–70s): A Comparative Analysis of Priština, Vučitrn, Some Rumelian and Anatolian Urban Communities ....................................... 53 From Spahis to Modern Army: Military Reform without Money ............... 77 The Economic Background of Ottoman Reforms: Tracing the Effects of Grain Prosperity Based on Commercial Registers ............................ 91 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 131 7 8 Preface The reforms initiated by the Ottoman Empire in the 1820–30s and the changes it triggered in the political-administrative and social sphere and economic system are topics that deserve special attention of both Balkan and foreign scholars. The comparison of numerous researches shows, that social-economic processes induced in this period in the Empire offered opportunity for interpretations and analyses on broadened, deepened basis, which can lead even to new theses sometimes. This opens new fields and aspects securing new arguments to answer important questions – namely, to what level the modernization of the Empire advanced, how efficient the reforms of institutions and administrative system were, how the reforms changed the living standard of different layers, whether the economic development decreased the distance between the Empire and the West, what perspectives these changes offered to the local population and how these triggered new social movements leading to the further transformation of the Empire. And these are only some of the numerous questions, which broaden the topic of modernization in the Ottoman Empire. Among the numerous relevant literature dealing with such questions, we have to mention the book of the young Hungarian scholar Gábor Demeter. The booklet contains 4 studies already published in different scientific journals and all investigate different aspects of the Ottoman Empire’s socio-economic development from the Tanzimat to the last decades of the 19th century. Using a quantitative approach this work analyses the cost-efficiency and long term socio-economic consequences of the Ottoman Tanzimat. Instead of focusing on bureaucratic and financial questions providing a macro-level approach, the essays focus on the local-regional level of socio-economic phenomena induced by the changes between the 1840–70s. Among these one can find the problem of industrialization, the costs and social consequences of military reforms, the change in welfare of different urban layers, the analysis of the economic driving force of the changes – the grain prosperity – and 9 its contribution to the temporal mitigation of socio-economic tensions in different regions of the peninsula. Using a wide range of statistical material derived partly from published sources while comparing the views and data of leading historians, the author sketches up a quite broad picture of the socio- economic life in the Ottoman Empire during the investigated period. Good research methodology proper selectionand deep analysis of facts offers a possibility for Gábor Demeter to reach important results and make significant statements, generalizations. Especially successful and valid parts of the work are those where the author compares the results of reforms between different regions or investigates the effect of modernization on social and ethno-religious classes, thus where regional or comparative approach dominates. In this respect both comparisons applying temporal and spatial approach of modernization processes in the Empire as well as the structure is worth appreciation. Although the 19th-century results look impressive compared to the previous historical period, this is not the case when they are compared to the achievements of the developed European nations. The comparative approach also makes it possible for the author to draw a picture on micro-level: how modernization influenced the general situation of the population, who were the winners and losers during the transformation processes in the Empire. When analyzing the historical materials and especially defining the conclusions the distanced view of one researcher - though perfectly familiar, but still external to the Balkan region – turns to be very useful. With this book the Hungarian historian Gabor Demeter proves to be a thorough researcher of the socio-economic history of 19th century Southeastern Europe. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniel Vachkov Sofia June 2017 10 Introduction This volume contains several essays highlighting the crucial economic questions of the Ottoman modernization. (1) The integration of the Ottoman economy into the international division of labour during and after the great grain prosperity and the impact of these global processes on local industrialization is a key process in understanding the sustainability of the Ottoman state. The effect of the ’first globalization’, the development of the ’wheat for artifacts’ system hindered local industrialization, thus the central budget (and modernization efforts) had to be financed from the agriculture, which created discontent among the overloaded producers and made economy vulnerable to external processes. (2) The increase of welfare (like social stability) can be a good indicator of reforms and it can provide legitimative power for the state as well. The Balkan historiography traditionally claims that the reforms were unsuccessful regarding social aspects, as many strata did not profit from the changes. But it is undeniable that there was some – although regionally and socially uneven – economic progress, thus the strata benefiting from the reforms (fuelled by the grain prosperity induced by external processes) can be identified and their welfare can be compared to the living standards of the pre-Tanzimat era. Nonetheless, if growing welfare generates growing inequalities, it also increases social tensions instead of eliminating them. (3); Finally, creating a modern army without substantial financial resources to defend the state is a great challenge to cope with. The first study aims at investigating the reasons why industrialization in the Ottoman Balkans – contrary to the upswing in Bulgarian lands – failed in the mid-19th century. Compared to general interpretations focusing on global, transnational processes and relations we used a different approach. By analyzing the profit rates, capital demand, wages, living standards and retail prices of semi-processed and processed materials in the case of different agricultural and industrial activities we try to highlight – using local-scale data – how the often generally interpreted international division of labour really 11 took place in the peninsula (thus testing the thesis of ’first globalization’), and what effects it had on the local economies. In order to trace the general or specific character of the circumstances and consequences we traced both the regional differences (between Syria and the Balkans) and also applied a temporal comparative approach (for Bulgaria and Macedonia before and after 1878). The second study deals with the social transformations among the landlords, producers and other strata comparing pre-Tanzimat landlocked urban communities with rural communities of the Anatolian countryside and with urban communities in the 30-year later Balkans, analyzing intra- and interregional differences and changes in welfare. Our hypothesis is that increasing welfare – owing to the external factors – could prolong the existence of the Ottoman Empire even when it lacked any ideological cohesive forces. The third study investigates the social and economic consequences of the spahis’ pensioning and traces the utilization of the new financial resources stemming from pensioning and the sale of spahi estates after 1858. The key question is whether these resources were substantial