The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

~ ON SOVEREIGNTY AND SUBJECTS ~ 53
Yahya’s activity was ebbing, and he finally entered Venetian service, dying in
1648/1057–8. 102
Early links to the seventeenth-century European world
economy?
Perhaps to its disadvantage, Venice constituted a highly visible ‘player’ in the
Mediterranean power game of the times. But structural changes in certain Ottoman
territories, which had been brought about by some less obvious participants
in the politico-economic contest, were more important in the long run. While our
discussion of the limits of Ottoman control in the 1560s/967–77 has revolved
entirely around politcal questions, by the 1630s/1039–49 and 1640s/1049–59,
changes in the international ‘economic balance of power’ entered the picture as
well. However, these latter mutations presumably were not as apparent to contemporaries
as they are to us, arguing on the basis of the always ambiguous
benefits of hindsight.
To mention but one example, by the 1630s/1039–49 and 1640s/1049–59,
Izmir had become a significant mart for foreign trade; this had not been true in
the 1560s/967–77, when the Ottoman tax registers show us a minute settlement
which could barely claim urban status. 103 Sixteenth-century Izmir had formed
part of the extensive coastlands that, in the calculations of Ottoman officials,
were intended to supply the capital with foodstuffs and raw materials. 104 With its
Mediterranean climate, the western coast of Anatolia constituted a significant
source of raisins – that sixteenth-century equivalent of sugar – and also of cotton,
essential for the sails of the sultan’s navy. Beyond the subsistence needs of the
local inhabitants, other uses for grains, cotton and fruit from the Izmir region
were but rarely envisaged. Export of these goods was either forbidden or at the
very least closely controlled. Moreover local urban development in Izmir or Ayasoluğ
(Selçuk, Efes), which could only have created competitors for Istanbul’s
food supply, was probably discouraged by the Ottoman authorities for just that
reason. 105
However, by the 1630s/1039–49 and 1640s/1049–59, this situation was beginning
to change. Apparently foreign merchants, Venetians, Englishmen,
Frenchmen and some traders from the newly established Dutch republic, were at
first attracted to the region by its local resources and, stringent Ottoman prohibitions
notwithstanding, in some cases the foreigners also smuggled out some
grain. Yet the authorities in Istanbul never attempted to remove all foreign traders
from the Aegean; to the contrary, around 1600/1008–9 the export of cotton
was permitted at least during certain years. 106 In all likelihood this willingness to
allow long-established rules to be occasionally broken was motivated by the
pressing need for silver, which European merchants regularly supplied because
the Ottoman balance of trade at this time was positive. In spite of mercantilist
pressures to keep precious metals at home, European traders could continue to
supply bullion to the lands of the eastern Mediterranean because by indirect