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Reforms in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat are usually described by both contemporaries and modern researchers as a ‘top-down’ and ‘outside-in’ enterprise lacking popular support, i.e. measures conceived by the Ottoman bureaucratic elite (often under foreign diplomatic pressure) and forced upon a rather conservative society that actively or passively opposed their application. This chapter investigates these assumptions in the case of the early Tanzimat reforms on commercial litigation and the establishment of the commercial courts in the Ottoman Balkans in the 1840s and 1850s. While not denying the crucial role of the Ottoman central government and its key reformist figures, as well as that of Western diplomatic pressure, the chapter reassesses their exclusivity by taking into account the role of the Ottoman merchants, community leaders, and provincial authorities. Such an inclusive approach allows for a more faithful reflection of the complexities of Ottoman reality, especially in the sphere of economy and commerce, where actions and interactions on local, imperial, and international level have always been deeply entangled.
AMAE – Archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes de la République française, France.
CADN Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes.
166PO Constantinople (ambassade)
НБКМ – Национална библиотека “Св. св. Кирил и Методий” [National Library ‘St. St. Cyril and Methodius’], Bulgaria
БИА – Български исторически архив [Bulgarian Historical Archive]
Фонд [Fond] 6 Търговска къща „Хр. П. Тъпчилещов“ в Цариград [Merchant House ‘Hr. P. Tăpchileshtov’ in Constantinople] (1851–1891)
BOA – T. C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı, Osmanlı Arşivi, Turkey
A.МКТ.MVL Sadaret Mektubi Kalemi Evrakı
A.MKT.MHM Sadaret Mektubi Mühimme Kalemi Evrakı
A.MKT.NZD Sadaret Mektubi Kalemi Nezaret ve Deva’ir Evrakı
A.MKT.UM Sadaret Mektubi Kalemi Umum Vilayat Evrakı
İ.MVL İrade Meclis-i Vala
MVL Meclis-i Vala Evrakı
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