Wealth and Inequality in 18th-Century Kastamonu: Estimations for The Muslim Majority

Abstract

This paper introduces methods to estimate wealth levels and disparities among Muslim inhabitants of 18th-century Ottoman Kastamonu. Our sources in this pursuit are estate inventories of the deceased (sing. tereke) as recorded in Kastamonu court records (sicils), mainly in the first half of the 18th century (1712-60). By analyzing information provided by these sources through a variety of quantitative techniques, we measure levels of inequality among Muslims of Kastamonu and describe the relationship between economic privilege and social, political, religious, and occupational status as well as gender identity. Our work outlines the contours of economic stratification in 18thcentury Kastamonu and reveals the relative positions of various social groups within this hierarchy.Kastamonu was a middle-to small-sized town in north-central Anatolia. By the mid-18th century, Kastamonu subprovince (sancak), located on the Black Sea coast and part of the province (eyalet) of Anatolia, probably had a population of about 30,000 households. The town of Kastamonu-the legal and administrative center of the subprovincehad a population of about 4,000 households, including the inhabitants of its forty-one quarters and the villages located nearby. 1 Little information exists about the town's demographic composition during the period we are discussing, although we assume that its population was primarily Muslim and Turkish. 2 Heywood claims that the town remained relatively isolated during Ottoman times due to its distance from the military and courier road network. 3 Even though court records indicate local and regional trade networks in the area that involved wool, cotton cloth, and copperware, it is not clear to what extent these networks contributed to the town's economic welfare. Compared to other Anatolian urban centers such as Ankara, Bursa, and Kayseri, Kastamonu has not received much attention in modern scholarship. However, because the town's court records are quite complete relative to its size, they are well suited to the type of analysis presented here.Like many subthemes of economic history, inequality and wealth distribution have not received much attention in Ottoman historiography. In this article, we propose different procedures to measure wealth and inequality levels in a particular historical setting.

Loglinear Analysis of Intergenerational Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Anatolia

“…Although this may be obvious in economic terms (Ergene and Berker 2008), since we do not posses any direct evidence for non-economic status differ ences among elite and non-elite title-holders associated with different estab lishments, the assumption is based on the supposition that elite title-holders held higher economic and social status than non-elite title-holders, regardless of their establishment affiliations. The model also supposes status differences between non-elite title-holders, regardless of establishment affiliation, and the title-less.…”

“…14 Unfortunately, it is far from clear, not only in the context of Kastamonu but also for most other settings, how each and every title was acquired. It might be safe to assume that the elite titles, aga and efendi, are indicative of training/education and experience in admin- Ergene and Berker's (2008) findings also indicate that the wealth levels of the lower-level title-holders (both military and religious) and title-less men were not significantly different. However, since one's relative position in the social hierarchy was probably not determined solely by economic factors, we surmise that titles, even lower-level and economically insignificant ones, indi cate a relatively elevated status.…”

“…However, recent research on eighteenth-century Kastamonu has dem onstrated that it is possible to make even finer distinctions among title-holders. According to Ergene and Berker (2008), agas were significantly more prosper ous than other military title-holders. The same research also revealed that efendis were considerably wealthier than the rest of the religious title-holders.13 Given that agas and efendis also occupied the most prestigious provincial posi tions relative to other military and religious title-holders, we may regard them as the highest-ranking members of the military and religious establishments, respectively.14 12…”

“…Furthermore, recent studies on long-term economic trends in Kastamonu (see below) and the socioeconomic charac teristics of individual groups that comprised the town's population provide us with a valuable context in which to interpret our findings (Ergene and Berker 2008;2012;Ergene, Kaygun, and Co §gel 2013).…”

“…Individuals who won the right to tax these sources in public auctions paid the state a lump sum and fixed installments for the duration of their contracts. 7 For a representative sample of studies based on Ottoman estate inventories, see Barkan (1968), Faroqhi (1984), Jean-Paul Pascual and Colette Establet (1994 and, Gradeva (2005), and Ergene and Berker (2008). we are not interested in the present study in the assets listed and appraised in estate inventories.…”