1XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki 2006 Session 106: State and Finance in the Early Modern Times in the Eurasian Continuum

The course of the 16th and 17th centuries, which is recently called the “transformation period ” in the Ottoman historiography, was a crucial period of changes, economic crises and social turmoil.1 The Ottoman fiscal system witnessed significant changes in the same period. The Ottoman finance department experienced structural reorganization, fiscal practices and the taxation system underwent several changes.2 Some changes in the fiscal sphere were fundamental and long lasting whereas some financial measures were rather temporary and developed as relatively prompt respond to meet urgent fiscal needs. To mention a few of these changes during the 17th century, the taxation burden laid on large masses of the population increased as some customary and extraordinary taxes were combined and regularly levied, as well as new taxes were assessed. Some methods supplying cash to the treasury for its immediate needs were applied more largely in tax collection. These changes and several other fiscal arrangements of the 17th century such as debasements and tax reforms were mainly connected with the crucial matter of war finance. However, the central administration was in 1 It has been a commonly held argument in the contemporary historiography that the Ottoman Empire passed through a period of transformation, and experienced an economic and fiscal crisis, as well as social disturbance