An early monetization?: tracing the mukâta‘a system back to the reign of Mehmed II

This thesis examines the extent of monetization of the Ottoman economy during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. At the core of the research lies the mukâta‘a system since it served as the primary mechanism for providing cash flow into the Ottoman treasury and, therefore, it was a key indicator of monetization. The archival data used in the thesis demonstrate that the mukâta‘a system, along with tax farming, was empire-wide established and functional in receiving revenue from many production sectors and tax items such as mining, rice plantation, salt marsh, sheep tax, poll tax, market tax, and more during this period. These data also reveal the high amount of precious metals in circulation in the Ottoman market throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Thus, the thesis argues that the Ottoman economy monetized in certain sectors a century earlier than current scholarship suggests. Furthermore, the thesis also argues that the capital accumulation resulting from this monetization might be mainly limited to the Ottoman central treasury, and tax farmers might not be capable of accumulating capital due to the strict bureaucratic control and sanctions imposed by the Ottoman central administration during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. To understand this relationship between the state and tax farmers, the thesis also examines the roles of central and local imperial agents within the mukâta‘a system alongside the identities and social networks of the tax farmers.