The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

160 ~ THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WORLD AROUND IT ~
Thus the local notables who so often made fortunes from tax farming developed
vested interests in the continuance of foreign trade. Moreover, pious foundations
profited from the khans they rented out, and in which foreign traders, especially
the unmarried ones, were supposed to reside. In some places, both local dignitaries
and the pious foundations they established built special housing to be rented
out to foreign merchants. Last but not least, trade with the outside world provided
work to numerous commercial agents, guides, owners of boats and camels,
workmen in the ports and even state officials. All this employment was of some
importance to the Ottoman administration as well, for any sultan could expect to
gain legitimacy if a means of livelihood was made available to his ‘poor subjects’.
For most of the time, Ottoman rulers may not have made any special
efforts to open up new routes of world trade. But they certainly were much concerned
with the benefits to be derived from those already in existence.
This said, the Ottoman authorities do not seem to have worried over-much
about the problems that might be generated by resident foreigners, at least as
long as they were not at war with the relevant sovereigns, and/or the people in
question were not sixteenth-century subjects of the shah of Iran. And even in
times of war, there was no great official correspondence about the necessity of
having the resident subjects of the adversary of the moment leave the realm as
quickly as possible, even though these men were well advised to depart. In the
period under discussion, the sultans were never at war with the rulers of England,
France or the Netherlands, and this was doubtless a crucial factor in determining
Ottoman attitudes; on the other hand, Austrian traders were not as yet of any special
importance. We are entitled to think that the silence of Ottoman officials on
this issue also indicates their conviction that they had the situation well in hand.
Had matters been different, they probably would not have failed to write about
the problem.
On the other hand, merchants were by no means the only foreigners who travelled
the highways and byways of the Empire: after all, pilgrimage functioned as
a third channel through which a denizen of the early modern age typically came
into contact with the outside world. More specifically, how were foreign Muslim,
Christian and Jewish pilgrims received on Ottoman territory? What kinds of relationships
did missionaries and other non-trading strangers establish with
Ottoman Muslims and non-Muslims? These matters will be discussed in the following
chapter.