Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
The chapter focuses on a relatively well-researched topic – the ‘public benefit’ funds founded by the Ottoman reformer Midhat Pasha in the 1860s in order to offer cheap credit to the agricultural producers. The institution has often been compared to the Western cooperatives created at the same time. The Ottoman version of the funds has many features that make it different from its counterpart institutions in Western Europe. In the Ottoman Empire they were established by the initiative of an administrator and implemented through tools available only to the state – taxes, administratively imposed regulations and control, etc. In this sense, I believe that it is highly possible that these were the first state credit cooperatives in the world.
The ‘public benefit’ funds were not only established by the state, but they were also used to exert a policy of modernization of agriculture. Their capital was used by the Ottoman administration to buy agricultural machines, cover infrastructural expenses, etc. The funds were a state tool that the Ottomans used (whether to actually implement an idea or only plan for it) as a model for carrying out other initiatives as well, such as accumulation of capital for the construction of the harbour in Varna and for the construction of modern schools.
Dunav/Tuna /
Săvetnik /
Stupan /
Tsarigradski vestnik /
Ali Haydar Midhat, The Life of Midhat Pasha: A Record of His Services, Political Reforms, Banishment, and Judicial Murder: Derived from Private Documents and Reminiscences (London: J. Murray, 1903).
Ali Haydar Midhat, Midhat Paşa’nın Hatıraları, vol. 1 Hayatım ibret olsun (Tabsıra-i ibret), edited by Osman Selim Kocahanoğlu (İstanbul: Temel Yayınları, 1997).
Albrecht, Catherine, ‘Rural Banks and Czech Nationalism in Bohemia, 1848–1914’, Agricultural History 78, no. 3 (2004): pp. 317–345.
Anniversary Book [Юбилейна книга], Юбилейна книга на Българската земеделска банка. 1864–1879 – 1904–1928: Принос към Българското народно съкровище [Anniversary Book of the Bulgarian Agricultural Bank: 1864–1879 – 1904–1928. Contribution to the Bulgarian National Treasure] (Sofia: Dărzhavna pechatnitsa, 1931).
Antonova, Boriana [Антонова, Боряна], ‘Организация на османските железници на Балканите (1856–1878) – от теория в практика’ [‘Organisation of the Ottoman Railways in the Balkans (1856–1878): From Theory into Practice’], in Модернизационни процеси на Балканите под османска власт през 19 и в началото на 20 век [Processes of Modernization in the Balkans under Ottoman Rule during the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries], edited by Iliya Todev [Илия Тодев] and Dragi Georgiev [Драги Георгиев] (Sofia: n.p., 2017), pp. 12–32.
Atanasov, Hristiyan [Атанасов, Християн], Развитие на земеделското кредитиране в Дунавския вилает: “общополезните каси” през 60-те и 70-те години на XIX век [Development of the Agricultural Credit in the Danube Vilayet: The ‘Public Benefit’ Funds during the 1860s and the 1870s] (Sofia: Faber, 2017).
Atanasov, Hristiyan [Атанасов, Християн], ‘Околийските градски съветници като кредитори: по повод на една публикация от вестник “Дунав” от 1872 г.’ [‘Regional Municipality Councilors as Creditors: Concerning a Publication in the Dunav Newspaper of 1872’], Izvestiya na centăra za stopansko-istoricheski izsledvaniya 5 (2020): pp. 135–149.
Avramov, Roumen [Аврамов, Румен], ‘Неосъщественият консервативен манифест в България’ [‘The Unrealized Conservative Manifesto in Bulgaria’], in Stoyan Bochev [Стоян Бочев], Капитализмът в България. Икономически текстове (1911–1935) и лични спомени [Capitalism in Bulgaria: Economic Texts (1911–1935) and Personal Memories], edited by Roumen Avramov [Румен Аврамов] Veneta Domuschieva [Венета Домусчиева], and Dimităr Stoimenov [Димитър Стоименов] (Sofia: Fondatsia ‘Bălgarska nauka i kultura’ 1998), pp. 11–90.
Bakărdzhieva, Teodora [Бакърджиева, Теодора], На крачка пред времето: държавникът реформатор Мидхат паша (1822–1884) [One Step Ahead of Time: The Reformer and Statesman Midhat Pasha (1822–1884)] (Ruse: Avangard print, 2009).
Baker, B. Anita, ‘Community and Growth: Muddling Through with Russian Credit Cooperatives’, The Journal of Economic History 37, no. 1 (1977): pp. 139–160.
Colvin, L. Christopher and Eoin McLaughlin, ‘Raiffeisenism Abroad: Why Did German Cooperative Banking Fail in Ireland but Prosper in the Netherlands?’, Economic History Review 67, no. 2 (2014): pp. 492–516.
Çelik, Mehmet, ‘Empire and Nation in the City: Christians, Muslims and Jews in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Ruse, 1864–1885’ (PhD Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 2015).
Chilingirov, Stilyan [Чилингиров, Стилян], Мидхат паша и общополезните каси. С предговор от Ст. Фетваджиев [Midhat Pasha and the Public Benefit Funds. With a Preface by St. Fetvadjiev] (Sofia: Naroden pechat, 1942).
Daskalov, Angel [Даскалов, Ангел], Земледелческия кредит в България от 1864 до 1913 г. [The Rural Credit in Bulgaria from 1864 until 1913], vol. 1 1864–1902 (Sofia: P. Glushkov, 1912).
Davison, H. Roderic, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963).
Devereux, Robert, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1963).
Doğan, Cabir and Ferhat Güngör, ‘Midilli Homeland Coffers (Under the Rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Island of Lesbos: The First Attempt for an Agricultural Credit Organization)’, Electronic Journal of Social Sciences 14, no. 53 (2015): pp. 298–309.
Dokuzlu, Sertaç, ‘The Agricultural Credit System in the Ottoman Empire between 1863 and 1888’, Rural History 28, no. 2 (2017): pp. 177–188.
Draganova, Slavka [Драганова, Славка], Материали за Дунавския вилает: Русенска, Силистренска, Шуменска и Тутраканска каза през 50-те и 70-те г. на XIX в. [Materials for the Danube Vilayet: Ruse, Silistra, Shumen and Tutrakan Kazas in the 1850s and the 1870s] (Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata academia na naukite, 1980).
Draganova, Slavka [Драганова, Славка], Селското население на Дунавски вилает [The Rural Population of the Danube Vilayet] (Sofia: Avangard prima, 2005).
Dobreva, Margarita [Добрева, Маргарита], ‘Пътища и мостове в Северозападна България през 60-те–70-те години на XIX век’ [‘Roads and Bridges in North-West Bulgaria in the 1860 and 1870s’], in Българският Северозапад: транспорт, комуникации и хора (от древността до наши дни) [The Bulgarian Northwest: Transport, Communications and People (from Antiquity to the Present Day)], edited by Alexandre Kostov [Александър Костов] (Sofia: Izdatelska Kăshta ‘Tendril’, 2020), pp. 53–97.
Ecevit, Bülent, Mithat Paşa ve Türk Ekonomisinin Tarihsel Süreci (Ankara: Demokratik Sol Parti, 1990).
Eldem, Edhem, A History of the Ottoman Bank (Istanbul: Ottoman Bank Historical Research Center, 1999).
Eldem, Edhem, ‘The Imperial Ottoman Bank: Actor or Instrument of Ottoman Modernization?’, in Modern Banking in the Balkans and West-European Capital in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, edited by Kostas P. Kostis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 50–60.
Ermiş, Fatih, A History of Ottoman Economic Thought: Developments Before the Nineteenth Century (London: Routledge, 2014).
Fadeeva, Irina [Фадеева, Ирина], Мидхат-Паша: жизнь и деятельность (Moskva: Nauka, 1977).
Fairbairn, Brett, The Meaning of Rochdale: The Rochdale Pioneers and the Co-operative Principles (Saskatoon, Sask., Canada: Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan, 1994).
Farr, Ian, ‘Farmers’ Cooperatives in Bavaria, 1880–1914: “State-Help” and “Self-Help” in Imperial Germany’, Rural History 18, no. 2 (2007): pp. 163–182.
Gandev, Hristo [Гандев, Христо], ‘Зараждане на капиталистически отношения в чифлишкото стопанство на Северозападна България през ХVIII век’ [‘Origin of Capitalist Relations in the Chifliks of Northwestern Bulgaria in the Eighteenth Century’], in Проблеми на Българското възраждане [Problems of the Bulgarian National Revival], edited by Hristo Gandev [Христо Гандев] and Krumka Sharova [Крумка Шарова] (Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1976), pp. 271–394.
Garrido, Samuel, ‘Why Did Most Cooperatives Fail? Spanish Agricultural Cooperation in the Early Twentieth Century’, Rural History 18, no. 2 (2007): pp. 183–200.
Garrido, Samuel, ‘Plenty of Trust, Not Much Cooperation: Social Capital and Collective Action in Early Twentieth Century Eastern Spain’, European Review of Economic History 18, no. 4 (2014): pp. 413–432.
Gnjatović, Dragana, Tsvetelina Marinova, and Nikolay Nenovsky, ‘Agricultural Cooperative Credit in Bulgaria and Serbia from the Ottoman Period to WWI: Institutional and Comparative History’, The Journal of European Economic History 48, no. 3 (2019): pp. 45–73.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘A Failed Institutional Transplant: Raiffeisen’s Credit Cooperatives in Ireland, 1894–1914’, Explorations in Economic History 31, no. 1 (1994): pp. 38–61.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘Regional Organizations in the German Cooperative Banking System in the Late 19th Century’, Research in Economics 51, no. 3 (1997): pp. 251–274.
Guinnane, W. Timothy and Ingrid Henriksen, ‘Why Danish Credit Co-operatives Were so Unimportant’, Scandinavian Economic History Review 46, no. 2 (1998): pp. 32–54.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘Cooperatives as Information Machines: German Rural Credit Cooperatives, 1883–1914’, The Journal of Economic History 61, no. 2 (2001): pp. 366–389.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘A “Friend and Advisor”: Management, Auditors, and Confidence in Germany’s Credit Cooperatives, 1889–1914’ (Center Discussion Paper, No. 824, Yale University, Economic Growth Center, New Haven, CT, May 2001), pp. 1–40.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘Association Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: Germany’s Banking System, 1800–1914’, Journal of Economic Literature 40, no. 1 (2002): pp. 73–124.
Guinnane, W. Timothy, ‘State Support for the German Cooperative Movement, 1860–1914’, Central European History 45, no. 2 (2012): pp. 208–232.
Guinnane, W. Timothy and Susana Martinez-Rodriguez, ‘Cooperatives before Cooperative Law: Business Law and Cooperatives in Spain, 1869–1931’, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economic History 29, no. 1 (2011): pp. 67–93.
Güran, Tevfik, ‘Zirai Politika ve Ziraatte Gelişmeler, 1839–1876’, in 150. Yılında Tanzimat, edited by Hakkı Dursun Yıldız (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1992), pp. 219–233.
Güran, Tevfik, ‘Tanzimat Döneminde Tarım Politikası’, in Tanzimat: Değişim Sürecinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, edited by Halil İnalcık and Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu (İstanbul: Turkiye Iş Bankası. Kultur Yayınları, 2012), pp. 775–784.
Jeffers, Esther, Tsvetelina Marinova, and Maya Jandah, ‘Naissance et évolution des institutions coopératives financières en France, Allemagne, Bulgarie et Serbie: une approche institutionnaliste’ (Unpublished Working paper, 2020)’, pp. 1–15.
Kenderova, Stoyanka [Кендерова, Стоянка], ‘Османо-турски документи за “Нумуне Чифлик” край Русе (днес Образцов Чифлик)’ [‘Ottoman-Turkish Documents about “Numune Chiflik” near Ruse (nowadays “Obraztsov Chiflik”)’], Izvestiya na Dărzhavnite arhivi 40 (1980): pp. 159–170.
Kılınçoğlu, Deniz, Economics and Capitalism in the Ottoman Empire (London: Routledge, 2015).
Krasavac, Chroneos, Biljana and Goran Petković, ‘Cooperatives in Serbia: Evolution and Current Issues’, Economics of Agriculture 63, no. 3 (2015): pp. 723–735.
Lyberatos, Andreas, ‘The Usury Cases of the Black Sea Region: State Legitimation and Bourgeois Rule of Law in 19th Century Dobrudzha’, Études balkaniques 49, no. 3–4 (2013): pp. 59–94.
Manolova-Nikolova, Nadya [Манолова-Николова, Надя] and Hristiyan, Atanasov [Атанасов, Християн], ‘Taking Care of Orphans’ Properties: The Funds for Orphans in the Danube Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (1864–78)’, Turkish Historical Review 13, no. 3 (2022): pp. 372–398.
Masheva, Ivelina [Машева, Ивелина], ‘Гражданско и наказателно правораздаване във Видин през епохата на Танзимата (1839–1877)’ [‘Civil and Punishment Legislation in Vidin in the Tanzimat Period (1839–1877)’], in Българският ΧΙΧ век: Нови архиви и прочити [The Bulgarian Nineteenth Century: New Sources and Readings], edited by Orlin Sabev [Орлин Събев] and Hristiyan Atanasov [Християн Атанасов] (Sofia: ‘Za bukvite: O pismeneh’, 2019), pp. 83–110.
Masheva, Ivelina, ‘From Islamic Commercial Law to the French Code de Commerce – Oral and Written Evidences in Commercial Trials in Ottoman Bulgaria during the Tanzimat’, Rechtskultur 4 (2015): pp. 33–40.
Özdeğer, Mehtap and Emine Zeytinli, ‘Ottoman Credit System and Usurers in Agriculture in the Nineteenth Century: Practices of Usury Contracts (Selem)’, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 21, no. 5 (2018): pp. 1–19.
Pamuk, Şevket, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Peal, David, ‘Self-Help and the State: Rural Cooperatives in Imperial Germany’, Central European History 21, no. 3 (1988): pp. 244–266.
Penchev, Pencho [Пенчев, Пенчо], ‘Стопанско развитие на българските земи в епохата на Възраждането’ [‘Economic Development of the Bulgarian Lands During the Bulgarian National Revival Period’], in Материали за самоподготовка по стопанска история [Materials for Self-Learning in Economic History], edited by Evgeni Kostov [Евгени Костов], Marko Dimitrov [Марко Димитров], Lilyana Veleva [Лиляна Велева], Pencho Penchev [Пенчо Пенчев], and Petăr Stoyanov [Петър Стоянов] (Sofia: Krisan-S, 2012), pp. 223–248.
Petrov, Milen V., ‘Tanzimat for the Countryside: Midhat Paşa and the Vilayet of Danube, 1864–1868’ (PhD Dissertation, Princeton University, 2006).
Pletnyov, Georgi [Плетньов, Георги], Мидхат паша и управлението на Дунавския вилает [Midhat Pasha and the Government of the Danube Vilayet] (Veliko Tărnovo: Vital, 1994).
Prinz, Michael, ‘German Rural Cooperatives, Friedrich-Wilhelm Raiffeisen and the Organization of Trust 1850–1914’ (Paper delivered to the XIII IEHA Congress Buenos Aires, July 2002), pp. 1–28.
Quataert, Donald, The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Roussev, Ivan [Русев, Иван], Фирми и манифактури в Сливенско-Котленския регион през Възраждането [Companies and Μanufactories in the Sliven-Kotel Region during the Bulgarian National Revival Period] (Veliko Tărnovo: Faber, 1996).
Shaw, Stanford J., ‘The Nineteenth-century Ottoman Tax Reforms and Revenue System’, IJMES 6, no. 4 (1975): pp. 421–459.
Soydemir, Cemil and Mehmet Erçek, ‘State and Transforming Institutional Logics: The Emergence and Demise of Ottoman Cooperatives as Hybrid Organizational Forms, 1861–1888’, Business History (2020): pp. 1–31.
Todorov, Nikolay [Тодоров, Николай], Балканският град XV–XIX век: Социално- икономическо и демографско развитие [The Balkan City Fifteenth – Nineteenth Century: Socio-economic and Demographic Development] (Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1972).
Todorova, Maria [Тодорова, Мария], ‘“Общополезните каси” на Мидхат паша’ [‘The Public Benefit Funds’ of Midhat Pasha], Istoricheski pregled, no. 5 (1972): pp. 56–76.
Vitoshanska, Mariya [Витошанска, Мария], Мидхат паша и българите: Митове и реалност [Midhat Pasha and the Bulgarians: Myths and Reality] (Sofia: Tangra Tanakra, 2012).
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 58 | 58 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Cookie Settings | Accessibility | Legal Notice | Sitemap | Copyright © 2016-2025