Major trends in agricultural development of the Ottoman Empire in the late third of the 19th – early 20th centuries

Abstract

Introduction. The issue of agricultural development in the Ottoman Empire has not been widely reflected in domestic and partly in foreign historiography. Most of the studies focus on the development of the agrarian sector in the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula as a manifestation of the growing crisis phenomena in the economy of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, the 19th century was marked by the inclusion of the empire agriculture in global economic relations and slow development of modernization processes. The article attempts to analyze the main trends and contradictions in the development of the agrarian sector and the role of its individual sectors in the national economy of the Ottoman Empire. Materials and Methods. The main historical sources for the study of the problem are the reports of diplomats working in the Ottoman Empire and the works of contemporaries, economists and publicists who sought to assess the prospects of economic development of the Ottoman Empire. In theoretical and methodological terms, the study is based on the principles of economic history, which implies the study of the national economy under the influence of certain social and state institutions. In its turn, economic institutions in many respects lay the foundations for the domestic and foreign policy development of the country. Analysis. Ottoman agriculture was largely under the influence of patriarchal forms of production organization and income distribution. However, the growing inclusion of the empire's agrarian sector in global economic relations made adjustments in the development of its individual sectors and favoured the growth of commodity production. The expansion of exports, construction of railways, penetration of new technologies lead to the first positive breakthroughs in the agrarian sector of the country. Results. The world economic crisis in the last third of the 19th century and the dominance of pre-capitalist forms of economic management significantly hampered the development of agriculture in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, the emergence of new technologies and forms of production organization had a positive impact on the situation in the agricultural sector of the empire.