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THE COMPLEX NATURE OF AN OTTOMAN COMMERCIAL NETWORK<br />
major figures engaged in these trades in the provinces and provincial towns covered.<br />
In collection of the data, the district is used as the main unit of administration.<br />
Professions searched under each district mainly consist of the prominent ones<br />
within the brothers’ network, namely ‘traders’, ‘traders of textiles and manufactured<br />
goods’ and ‘commission agents’. Nevertheless, they may vary according to the<br />
areas of specialization of collaborator(s) in a particular district. Names listed under<br />
related professions in each district where business partners of the Mataracızâde<br />
brothers were located are listed 11 and the category of ethno-religious character,<br />
which is absent from the original data, is introduced to understand the ethnoreligious<br />
profile of the current business environment of the brothers and their partners<br />
in the provinces. Although the data under scrutiny is quite limited for the purposes<br />
of generalization, it still displays a number of tendencies.<br />
Table 4 shows the distribution of districts according to the ethno-religious identity<br />
of collaborators and the dominant ethno-religious identity within their areas of<br />
specialization in a particular district. According to areas of specialization under<br />
scrutiny, six of the nineteen districts –Adana, Adapazarı, Bafra, Erzurum, Gürün<br />
and İzmit– appear as Armenian-dominated and Ünye as both Armenian- and Muslim-dominated.<br />
Among the districts on the Black Sea, Giresun, Samsun and Trabzon<br />
appear as Greek-dominated, whereas Rize appears as Muslim-dominated and Atina<br />
12 as both Muslim- and Greek-dominated. Three districts, Aleppo, Alexandretta<br />
and Tripoli, appear as Christian-Arab-dominated. Meanwhile, Jaffa and Smyrna<br />
were dominated by foreigners, Baghdad appears as the only district dominated by<br />
Jews and Malatya as the only one by Muslims. The overall dominant ethno-religious<br />
categories among the districts within the brothers’ provincial branch are Armenian<br />
followed by Greek.<br />
Table 4<br />
Distribution of districts according to the ethno-religious identity of collaborators<br />
and the dominant ethno-religious identity within their areas of specialization<br />
District<br />
Ethno-religious identity<br />
of collaborator(s)<br />
Dominant ethno-religious identity<br />
within the specialization<br />
areas of collaborators<br />
Adana Muslim Armenian<br />
Adapazarı Muslim Armenian<br />
Bafra Muslim Armenian<br />
Erzurum Muslim Armenian<br />
Gürün Muslim Armenian<br />
11 Companies are excluded.<br />
12 Atina is the former name of the Pazar district of Rize.<br />
~ 433 ~
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