Shipbuilding and early forms of modern management. Six months to rebuild the Ottoman fleet after the defeat at Lepanto

Bulent Ari and Luca Zan

Business History, 2024, vol. 66, issue 6, 1345-1372

Abstract: This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the Ottoman fleet following the naval defeat at Lepanto (1571). It examines the event from the perspective of management studies. Drawing on extensive archival research, we reconstruct the Ottoman Empire’s decision-making processes, looking at the main organisational conditions that made this remarkable feat possible. This allows us to make a preliminary comparison with the management of the Venice Arsenal in the same period, as an example of an early form of modern management. To what extent this extraordinary effort was—at the same time—a consequence and a driver of a different pattern of organising economic activities on two sides of Mediterranean Sea? Differences between the two contexts are discussed, while addressing the importance of shipbuilding in the development of early forms of management and the invention of the factory system in preindustrial, state run manufacturing, with particular reference to shipyards.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2022.2117799

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