European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State: The Merchants of Genoa and Turkey

by Kate Fleet

• ISBN13: 9780521642217
• ISBN10: 0521642213
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

International trade was of great importance for the Ottomans in the construction of their empire. Kate Fleet's book examines the trade links which existed between European merchants and their Muslim counterparts from the beginnings of the Ottoman empire in 1300 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. By using previously unexploited Latin and Turkish sources, and by focusing on the trading partnership between the Genoese and the Turks, she demonstrates how this interaction contributed to the economic development of the early Ottoman state and, indeed, to Ottoman territorial expansion. Where other studies have emphasized the military prowess of the early Ottoman state and its role as 'the infidel enemy', the book offers an insight into its economic aspirations and eventual integration into the economy of the Mediterranean basin. This is a readable, authoritative and innovative study which illuminates our understanding of an obscure period in early Ottoman history.

Table of Contents

List of tables	viii	(1)
Acknowledgements	ix	(1)
List of abbreviations	x
Introduction	1	(3)
1 Historical outline	4	(9)
2 Money	13	(9)
3 Commodities	22	(15)
4 Slaves	37	(22)
5 Grain	59	(15)
6 Wine	74	(6)
7 Alum	80	(15)
8 Cloth	95	(17)
9 Metals	112	(10)
10 The fall of Constantinople and Ottoman-Genoese relations after 1453	122	(12)
Conclusion The Latin contribution to the early Ottoman economy	134	(8)
Appendices	142	(33)
1 Exchange rates	142	(5)
2 The price of slaves in Constantinople in the late 1430s	147	(3)
3 Alum prices	150	(3)
4 Imported cloth prices	153	(3)
5 Documents	156	(19)
Glossary	175	(4)
Place names	179	(2)
Select bibliography	181	(17)
Index	198