The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

16 ~ THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WORLD AROUND IT ~
~ The abiding centrality of Istanbul
Braudel’s world economies are supposed to possess but one capital and central
region; whenever there are two rival centres, the world economy in question is
emerging, decaying or else in the process of transition. 55 It is of some interest to
try to fit the Ottoman world into this scheme of things. In the 1540s/947–56,
when our story begins, Istanbul was doubtless the centre of the Ottoman world
economy, and not just the administrative capital from which the Empire was governed.
All sectors of economic life under government control were firmly based
in this city, where the court resided. Furthermore, the elite corps of the army were
stationed in Istanbul, even though a considerable number of the men who fought
the Empire’s wars in south-eastern Europe came from remote border provinces
such as Bosnia. 56 As the Istanbul arsenal easily outclassed all other such establishments
on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts Ottoman sea power also
was centred here. In addition, the capital itself probably was the major conurbation
of both Europe and the Middle East. Istanbul derived a consumer’s privilege
from the fact that, in order to reacquire the gold and silver paid to the central
government every year as taxes, the inhabitants of the provinces were obliged to
sell their textiles, leathers and copperwares in the markets of the capital. 57
Moreover, at the end of the period, in the crisis-ridden 1770s/1184–93, Istanbul
was still solidly placed at the centre of the Ottoman world economy. Unlike
Europe or China, where the central city had moved several times, the Ottoman
world economy thus possessed a stable focus. After all, the principal factors
making for Istanbul’s centrality all remained in place in the second half of the
eighteenth century. Even though the army now largely consisted of mercenaries
hired for single campaigns and of garrisons stationed in the more important provincial
centres, the janissaries and other military corps continued to be present in
the capital. The same thing applied to the arsenals, even though the ships manufactured
there no longer won major sea battles. The sultan’s court continued in
residence, and was perhaps more present than ever, as the rulers no longer spent
long periods in Edirne, and married princesses were now installed in widely visible
palaces along the Bosphorus. The population had not shrunk, and outsiders to
the realm continued to find work in the sultan’s capital, even if the latter was no
longer the wellspring of golden opportunities that it had appeared to be even to
many Europeans during the sixteenth century. But the insistence with which Russian
tsars and tsarinas aimed at a conquest of Istanbul can be explained, at least
in part, by the attraction of the great city even beyond the Empire’s borders.
But ever since the conquest of Egypt in 1517/923, Istanbul had acquired a
counterweight in the city of Cairo. While a smaller urban centre such as Bursa
was one of those ‘brilliant seconds’ in Braudel’s parlance, condemned by its geographic
position permanently to serve the needs of the Ottoman capital, Cairo
fell into a different category. 58 Certainly, the Egyptian metropolis does not ever
seem to have made a bid to take over the leadership of the Ottoman world economy,
but researchers have shown that the city more or less monopolized the