Tereke Kayıtları Işığında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Servet Dağılımına Bir Bakış, 1650-1914
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Date
2020-12-16
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Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi, Nevşehir, 2021
Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to execute a long-term analysis of the wealth distribution in the Ottoman Empire. This analysis is based on the data called inheritance records (tereke) within the records of the Ottoman Kadi Courts (Sharia Registers). This study employs court records belonging to 36 different provinces in Ottoman Anatolia. These provinces include large cities such as Istanbul, as well as small settlements of Anatolia such as Seydişehir or Bor. Including cities with different sizes in the analysis provides more accurate results for the regional distribution of wealth. This study also carries out a comparative analysis of wealth distribution by region. These regions are classified as the Western Region, which includes Kütahya and its west, the Central Region that includes Ankara and the surrounding provinces, and the Eastern Region that includes Sivas and the provinces to the east. The main basis of this classification is the need to use similar sample size for each region. After regional decomposition, 3 different data sets are used for comparative analysis of wealth. These data sets include the average wealth of the richest 10 percent and 25 percent, together with the GINI coefficients showing the wealth distribution. The results obtained in the light of the data sets created from the inheritance records point to two different results. The close relationship of wealth inequality with slow economic growth, one of the long-term assumptions in the Economic History literature, is consistent with the results of this study. It is observed that the growth rate of the Ottoman economy increased in the sub-periods when wealth inequality decreased. Another important result is that the distribution of wealth in the Western Region of Ottoman Anatolia is more equal than in the other two regions. In this sense, the results of this study overlap with the assumption that economic efficiency and productivity increase in provinces close to the center, another important assumption of the economic history literature. As a result, this study is the first to conduct a systematic and quantitative analysis of the long-term course of wealth in the Ottoman Empire for wider geography and period.
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Keywords
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu; Servet Dağılımı; GİNİ; Karşılaştırmalı Analiz; Yakınsama; : The Ottoman Empire; Wealth Distribution; GINI; Comparative Analysis; Convergence