EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Drivers and constraints of state confiscation of elite property in the Ottoman Empire, 1750-1839

Yasin Arslantas

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This paper examines the motives, timing and informal constraints of state confiscation in the Ottoman Empire, focusing on one of its most turbulent and confiscatory periods, 1750-1839. Utilizing a new dataset uncovered from confiscation inventories, I first demonstrate that confiscations were practiced on a selective basis, targeting some office-holders and tax farmers. Second, employing a two-step econometric framework inspired by the gradual nature of Ottoman confiscations, I argue that the initial decision whether to send an agent to confiscate one’s wealth was driven mainly by severity of war and expected costs of confiscation, while attributes of wealth and bargaining power of families vis-à-vis the central administration shaped the outcome of the second step.

Keywords: Ottoman Empire; Confiscation; State Predation; Institutions; State Capacity; Property Rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H1 N25 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/88096/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:88096

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History LSE, Dept. of Economic History Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:88096