The imdâdiyye taxes in the Ottoman finance

Abstract

In the course of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire struggled at maintaining its traditional structures due to the many wars, the financial problems, demographic changes, budgetary deficits, and the political and social rivalries between different Ottoman groups vying for power. Indeed, the seventeenth century was a period that saw the state face numerous financial crises throughout the entire span of that century. The government and financial officials conducted some fiscal measures to find remedies for the constant budgetary deficits of the Central Treasury, and as a result, it led to the introduction of new economic policies, like the imdâdiyye. The initial usage of the imdâdiyye levies in the seventeenth century emerged as an extraordinary wartime financial aid taken from the wealthiest groups within Ottoman society and the high-ranking members of the state rather than ordinary taxpayers, the re’âyâ. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the imdâdiyye taxes were re-arranged and levied as an ordinary tax and became a continuous source of income to the state and some state members, like governors and administrators of the provinces. This thesis examines the imdâdiyye taxes in the Ottoman Finance along with the many changes that it underwent as a tax from the beginning of the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The consequences of the regulation of the imdâdiyye and its relations with other new economic policies are also discussed in the chapters.