Capitalism in the Ottoman Balkans

Costas Lapavitsas is Professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London, UK. He has worked at SOAS since 1991, and his main area of specialization is political economy of money and finance. He has published dozens of books and articles in several languages. He also writes frequently for the international press. His most recent books are Profiting Without Producing (2013), Marxist Monetary Theory (2016), and The Left Case Against the EU (2018).Pinar Cakiroglu is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Crete, Greece. She received her PhD in Economics in 2015 from SOAS, University of London, UK. Her main area of research is the political economy and economic history of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey and Greece.

Finally, a specific tale is told to complement the general history of Ottoman industrialization and economic development in the nineteenth century. Lapavitzas and Cakiroglu bring earlier theoretical debates on the transition to capitalism back in and blend them with extensive empirical evidence from distinct sources to shed light on the experience of a region in its path to capitalist development. Naoussa stands out as a centre of Ottoman industrial capitalism with the dynamic participation of local families in textile manufacturing and commercial activity throughout this period. This small town and its surrounding region, namely, Mount Vermion, encapsulate prime features of Ottoman modernization, namely, Tanzimat, and demonstrate at its best the characteristics of late Ottoman capitalism. Although “the region amounted to little more than a small pocket of industrial capitalism,” the authors argue, its experience offers some fresh insights into the study of Ottoman economic history and European economic development in the age of the Industrial Revolution.

• Ch. 1 The emergence of industrial capitalism in Ottoman Macedonia Ch. 2 Analysing Ottoman capitalism: Theoretical and empirical resources Ch. 3 Administrative mechanisms and population changes in the vilayet of ThessalonikiCh. 4 The straightjacket of çiftlik agriculture in MacedoniaCh. 5 The commercial roots of Ottoman textile capitalism Ch 6. Private industrial capitalism in Ottoman MacedoniaCh. 7 The Ottoman state creates a framework for industrialisation Ch. 8 Ascendant industrialists, emerging working class, turbulent communities Ch. 9 Precarious capitalism