Ozbaran 2006 Ottomans and the India Trade in the Sixteenth Century

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OTTOMANS AND THE INDIA TRADE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: SOME NEW DATA AND RECONSIDERATIONS Author(s): SALH ZBARAN and Salih zbaran Source: Oriente Moderno, Nuova serie, Anno 25 (86), Nr. 1, THE OTTOMANS AND TRADE (2006),

pp. 173-179Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. NallinoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25818053Accessed: 02-08-2015 20:32 UTC

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SAL H ZBARAN (IZMIR)

OTTOMANS AND THE INDIA TRADE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: SOME NEW DATA AND RECONSIDERATIONS

While various scholars have published on various aspects of the Ottomans and the India trade,1 much more research is needed in this field. The

aspect I shall consider here concerns registrations of customs income collected

by officials and recorded in daily registers (riiznam es) at the ports and landing places (mahsul-i iskele) in the provinces of Yemen, Basra and Lahsa.

Although the Ottomans seem to have established their power in certain parts of Yemen immediately after their siege of Diu in India in 1538, the first extant

governor's (beylerbeyi) budget only dates from 961/1560-61 and is thus the earliest balance sheet we have which gives figures concerning revenues from the India trade.2 Another budget for Yemen, dated 1600 and published by Halil

Sahillioglu, provides some quantitative evidence for the customs duties obtained at Mocha, Aden, Hudaydah, Luhayyah, Jizan and other landing places.3 Unfor

tunately we do not have any further statistical data concerning the trade between the Ottoman provinces around the Red Sea and the world of the Indian Ocean,

apart from the budget of Egypt which was studied and published by Stanford Shaw in 1968, and provided some quantitative data on the customs tax revenues

1 - Halil nalcik, "The India trade" in Halil Inalcik, and Donald Quataert, An Economic and

Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1600, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994,

p. 315-363; Suraiya Faroqhi, Pilgrims and Sultans: The Hajj under the Ottomans, London, I.B.

Tauris, 1994, p. 162-163; Robert Mantran, "R glements fiscaux ottomans: la province de Bassora

(2e moiti du XVIe s.)", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, X/2-3 (1967), p. 224-277; Mehdi Ilhan, "The Katif district (Liva) during the first few years of Ottoman rule: a

study of the 1551 Ottoman cadastral survey", Belleten, LI/100 (1987), p. 781-800; Dejanirah Potache, "The commercial relations between Basrah and Goa in the 16th century", Studia, XXXXVIII (1989), p. 151-161; Cengiz Orhonlu, Osmanli Imparatorluguhun Giiney Siyaseti: Habes Eyaleti, Istanbul, Istanbul niversitesi Edebiyat Fakiiltesi, 1974; Charles R. Boxer, "A note

on Portuguese reactions to the revival of the Red Sea spice trade and the rise of Acheh, 1540

\6W, Journal of Southeast Asian History, X (1969), p. 417; Salih zbaran, The Ottoman Response to European Expansion, Istanbul, Isis, 1994.

2- Salih zbaran, "The Ottoman budgets of the Yemen in the 16th century", in zbaran,

The Ottoman Response to European Expansion, p. 30.

3- Halil Sahillioglu, "Yemen'in 1599-1600 Yih Biit esi", in Ord. Prof. Yusuf Hikmet Bayur

Armagani, Ankara, Turk Tarin Kurumu, 1985, p. 287-319.

OM, XXV n.s. (LXXXVI), 1, 2006, p. 173-179 Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino - Roma


'74 SALM ZBARAN

concerning the period towards the end of the 16th century.4 No cadastral survey nor any customs registers of the province of Habe (i.e. of Ethiopia) have so far been found.

However, a cadastral survey (ional and mufassal) together with a kanunname

prepared after the conquest of Basra in 1546 reflects what kind of goods came from the Indian Ocean, what the Ottoman customs regulations were, and, per haps most important here, how much income was collected from ocean-going trade for the years 1551 and 1575.5

Apart from this published material, there is also some archival material in the Ba bakanhk Osmanli Arsivi in Istanbul as yet unused by historians, which may throw some light on the Ottomans' India trade in the second half of the 16th

century. The data that I will use here is derived from certain Ottoman budgets, namely for the revenues and expenditures of the Imperial Treasury of the Province of Yemen (muhasebe-i varidat ve ihracat-i hizane-i amire-i vilayet-i Yemen), cov

ering the years 969/1561-62, 984/1576-77 and the years between 1004/1595 96 and 1008/1599-1600, a ruznam e (a daily register of revenues and expendi tures) of Yemen, dated 1005/1596-97; one mukataat (revenues) register of Yemen

covering the years 1006-1008/1597-1600; and two mukataat of the Province of Basra: the first one dating from 959/1551-52 and the other 1009/1600-01.

The Province of Basra

The revenues (mukataa and mahsul) obtained in the iskeleha of the province of Basra (including the district of Lahsa/el-Hasa) in 959/1551-1552 were recorded in the summary (icmal) register6 reflecting some of the data in the mufassal as shown below in Table 1.

Table 1 Iskele or bender Revenues in ak e

Shatt al-Arab (various iskeles) 8,573

Shatt al-Arab-Basra passages 547,269 Basra (from large vessels) 1,394,799

Sadr-i Sevib 60,000

Kuma 120,000 Katif 35,000 Tarut 52,000

Total 2,010,641

Considering that the total amount of income obtained (or supposed to have been obtained) in the whole province may be calculated as 6,943,021 ak e, the customs dues or the calculated revenues gathered from trade were then about 35

4 - S. Shaw, The Budget of Ottoman Egypt 1005-1006/1596-1597, The Hague-Paris, Mouton, 1968.

5 - Mantran, "R glements fiscaux ottomans: la province de Bassora", p. 227 ff.

6 - Ba bakanhk Osmanli Arsjvi, istanbul (hereafter BOA), Tapu-tahrir no. 282, p. 12-35.


THE OTTOMANS AND THE INDIA TRADE '75

per cent, which can perhaps be considered a rather satisfactory amount. We must bear in mind that this income was obtained not many years after the estab lishment of the province. We must not forget here that this province of Basra

was of the salyane status in which emins and miiltezims (agents or salaried offi cers in charge of tax collection) played a vital role in collecting revenues.7

A short passage from the customs regulations (kanunname) concerning Katif in 959/1552 may shed some light on the Ottoman interest in the India trade, since we have so far not found any other kanunname prepared for those southern frontier provinces, namely Lahsa (as an independent province), Yemen and Ha

bes, (Ethiopia). The merchandise coming from Hormuz, Basra, Ebu ehir, Bah

reyn and other ports (into Katif) was taxed at six percent. Turbans, kiindeki, cloth, garments, wheat, rice and other cereals were also taxed at six percent. Sixteen ak es was taken from each kilo of indigo. Dates loaded on boats and destined for trade from Katif or the environs of Katif were taxed at 16 ak es per eight baskets. Traditionally oil had never been taxed, and this old tradition

appears to have been preserved, with no tax being imposed on oil in keeping with this custom. Linen cloth, striped stuff, muslin and flaxen fabric or any other material passing through or woven and sold in Katif was taxed at two ak es

per 100. Merchant ships coming from Hormuz, India or any other distant or

neighbouring ports and anchoring in Katif had an anchorage tax imposed of three muhammedis per ship: of this one muhammedi, equal to 16 ak es, which

was levied by the agents of ah-bender (a provost of the seaport) was to be main

tained, but nothing more was to be taken from the labourers. In accordance with this ancient regulation two muhammedis were to be taken for the treasury (miri) and one muhammedi to be taken by the agents.8

Half a century later, we have a mukataat register for the province of Basra9

prepared on 10 Ramazan 1009/15 March 1601 and reflecting the iskele and bender revenues of the previous year, i.e. 1600, in which the figures and places appear as follows (Table 2):

Table 2

Iskele or bender Revenues in ak e

Bender of Niksar (!) Iskele of/in Basra

Iskele of Kuma

Iskele of Shatt al-Arab passage

2,100,000

960,000 480,000 101,000

3,641,000 Total

7 - See my "Notes on the Ottoman practice of iltizam in the Arab lands in the 16th century", in zbaran, The Ottoman Response to European Expansion, p. 39-48.

8 - BOA, Tapu-tahrir, no. 282, p. 292 (See ilhan, "The Katif District (Liva)", p. 95).

9 - BOA, Maliyeden M dewer, 7541, p. 174-183.


ne SA H ZBARAN

The whole income of the province for that year appears to have been 13,179,875 ak es, so that the percentage of the commercial income stands as 36 per cent which almost equals the figure which appeared 50 years earlier.

The Province of Yemen

Figures for revenues obtained in the landing places of the province of Yemen based on an Ottoman budget of Yemen dated 7 Muharrem 971/27 August 1563 for the year 969/11 September 1561

- 30 August 1562 are given in Table 3.10

Table 3

Iskeles Revenues in pare Mocha (with its dependencies) 2,080,480 Hudaida 104,245 Hud (!) 47,000 Salif with Kamaran 100,501

Jazan 168,331 Aden (with other revenues)* 1,555,000

Total 4,255,557 *Aden is given seperately and not included in the iskeleha.

Considering that the total in that year was 31,730,951 pare (or 1263 surre), only 13 per cent of it seems to have been collected from customs charges. This is indeed a very small percentage among the entries of revenues, particularly when

compared with the land tax (harac-i arazi), which is 67 per cent of the total. In the year 984/1576, covering revenues from 1 Zilkade 983

- 30 Zilhicce 984/1

February 1576 to 20 March 1577 2,909,654 pare was collected from the trade, i.e. 16 per cent of the total income, or 17,896,318 pare. There is an increase of about three per cent compared with the year 969/1562, and again the largets amount (63 per cent) comes from land tax.11

As we come to the last years of the 16th century we encounter balance sheets in sequence and increased amount of money in revenue accounts. The following table (Table 4) shows the revenues collected in various iskeles in the years 1004/

1595-96,12 1005/1596-9713 and 1008/1599-1600.14

10 - Topkapi Sarayi M zesi Arsivi, Istanbul, Defter 314, fol. 10b-20b.

11 - Topkapi Sarayi M zesi Arsivi, Istanbul, Defter 314, fol. 3b-6b.

12 - BOA, Maliyeden M dewer, no. 7092.

13 - BOA, Maliyeden M dewer, no. 1382.

14 - BOA, Maliyeden M dewer, no. 7555 published in H. Sahillioglu, "Yemen'in 1599-1600 Yih But esi", p. 287-319.


THE OTTOMANS AND THE INDIA TRADE

Iskeles

Aden

Lahej

Mocha

Salif and Kamaran

Hudaida

Luhaiya and Is

Ferasan

Jazan Shihr and Had ramawt

Ahwar (!) Hud (!) Total**

Table 4

Years and revenues in sikke*

1004/1595-96 1005*/1596-97 14,506 7,509

62,704 3,000 10,187 4,209

3,600 1,500

2,700 109,915

13,120 11,000

53,532 1,312

10,442 4,038

1,600 500

1,500 600

97,644

1008/1599-1600 17,130

(included with Aden) 87,057 1,080 6,500 3,609

2,600 630

846 106,457

*A sikke, i.e., gold coin, represented 41 pares at the end of the century. ** The figures given here are my totals rather than the amounts recorded, some what carelessly, in the defiers.

Conclusion

By using the figures from the above tables, it is possible to arrive at various ra tios.

Table 5

Province Year Total income Percentage Basra 959/1551-52 6,943,021 (ak e) 35 Yemen 968/1561-62 31,730,951 (pare) 13

Yemen 984/1576 17,896,318 (pare) 16 Yemen 1004/1595-96 668,479 (sikke) 19

Yemen 1005/1596-97 502,328 (toto; 19 Yemen 1008/1599-00 400,542 (sikke) 21 Basra 1009/1600-01 13,179,875 (ak e) 36

How, then, can we evaluate these? From these percentages, it appears that the income for the district of Basra in the middle of the 16th century and in the last

years of the century was very similar. About one third of the provincal revenues seem to have been collected at customs by emins or miiltezims, as recorded in the

middle years and the last years of the 16th century. We also know from other sources, particularly travel accounts, official letters and chronicles, that commer cial traffic through the Gulf was active in the second half of the century. At that


i78 SA H ZBARAN

time quite a number of big ships (nzos) went to Katif, Bahrain and Basra and did not even stop in Hormuz, as reflected in Portuguese sources.15

In Yemen, on the other hand, the figures that I have given allow us to state that the India trade in the second half of the 16th century brought in about 15 20 per cent of the income of the provincial budget of Ottoman Yemen, i.e. not a

large sum when compared with the expenditure on the huge military campaigns undertaken earlier in the century, and on the maintenance of the land forces, in

particular on the southern frontier. We know also that the total income from these southern provinces, especially land taxes, was often insufficient to maintain

imperial control.

We have not greatly advanced the study of the history of the southern Ot toman expansion since the days of Fernand Braudel, Magalhzes Godinho and

Cengiz Orhonlu, and further studies on the 16th and 17th centuries are needed to place the Ottoman commercial presence in the southern waters in historical context. We need both to develop a greater understanding of the history of the Ottoman southern expansion, and to see Ottoman history within a wider per spective. Recent debates on the early imperial expansion of the Europeans and the Asian potential have presented the Dutch in their expansionist era, for in stance, as truely rational profit-maximizers, whereas the Portuguese were essen

tially medieval seekers after power. Can we reject this approach, put forward for

example by Niels Steensgaard, as Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Luis Filipe Thomaz do;16 and can we adopt the latters' arguments on Ottoman expansion?

Subrahmanyam and Thomaz ask whether the Portuguese Asian empire was

profitable or not... [and] profitable for whom? . Using Magalhaes Godinho's studies they point out that the trade in Asiatic spices accounted for 27 per cent

of Crown revenues in 1506 and 39 per cent in 1518-19.17

Considering that a surplus (irsaliye) which occurred from time to time in the

province of Yemen was a very small percentage in the balance sheets, and con

sidering also that the Ottoman merchant marine beyond the limits of Basra, Lahsa and Yemen hardly existed,18 I would argue that the figures given above, even though not covering a longer period and or wider geographical area, allow me to state that the limits of the Ottoman economy in the Indian Ocean were indeed apparent.

15-Potache, "The commercial relations between Basrah and Goa in the 16th century", p. 159-161.

16 - Niels Steensgaard, Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Luis Filipe Thomaz, "Evolution of empire: the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean during the 16th century", in J.D. Tracy (ed.), The Politi cal Economy of Merchant Empires, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 298-331.

M -Ibid, p. 328.

18 - Svat Soucek, "The Ottoman merchant marine", in C. Hillenbrand (ed.), Studies in Hon our of Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Leiden, Brill, 2000, Vol. II, p. 386-396.


THE OTTOMANSAND THE INDIA TRADE 179

/X fl ^N^AShatr al-Arab

\\ K BasraV-'*' \

\-j \ \ V/Tarut --

\ \ \ Katif\ /( -

\ \ Feras n \ _/ \ \ o \ Jazan

-

) amaran I *u,!We J 1 v-^ ov>Saht Hadramawt ^_^C-^\ A joHudaida X' Shihr

\ ^ \ 1 Mocha

x J Aden

I_I

Map of the provinces of Basra and Yemen


Article Contentsp. [173]p. 174p. 175p. 176p. 177p. 178p. 179

Issue Table of ContentsOriente Moderno, Vol. 25 (86), No. 1 (2006) pp. I-IV, 1-200Front MatterEDITORS' PREFACE [pp. I-IV]VILLAGERS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE: THE CASE OF CHERVENA VODA, SEVENTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES [pp. 1-20]THE INFLUENCE OF THE MARKET ON THE URBAN AGRARIAN SPACE: THE CASE OF THE TOWN OF ARCADIA IN 1716 [pp. 21-49]COMMERCE AND MERCHANTS UNDER AMR BAR II: FROM MARKET TOWN TO COMMERCIAL CENTRE [pp. 51-63]BUILDING ALLIANCES: A CHRISTIAN MERCHANT IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY KARAFERYE [pp. 65-75]THE COMMERCIAL PRACTICES AND PROTOINDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES OF HACI HRISTO RACHKOV, A BULGARIAN TRADER AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [pp. 77-91]WHEN COFFEE BROUGHT ABOUT WEALTH AND PRESTIGE: THE IMPACT OF EGYPTIAN TRADE ON SALONICA [pp. 93-107]MARKET NETWORKS AND OTTOMAN-EUROPEAN COMMERCE, C. 1700-1825 [pp. 109-128]OTTOMAN GREEKS IN THE DUTCH LEVANT TRADE: COLLECTIVE STRATEGY AND INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE (C. 1750-1821) [pp. 129-147]SLAVE HUNTING AND SLAVE REDEMPTION AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE: THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION IN THE SIXTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES [pp. 149-159]THE OTTOMANS AND THE YEMENI COFFEE TRADE [pp. 161-171]OTTOMANS AND THE INDIA TRADE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: SOME NEW DATA AND RECONSIDERATIONS [pp. 173-179]HAMZA EFEND'S TREATISE ON BUYING AND SELLING OF 1678 [pp. 181-186]LAW AND TRADE IN THE EARLY FIFTEENTH-CENTURY THE CASE OF CAGI SATI OGLU [pp. 187-191]PUBLIC GOOD AND PRIVATE EXPLOITATION: CRITICISM OF THE TOBACCO RGIE IN 1909 [pp. 193-200]Back Matter

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Ozbaran 2006 Ottomans and the India Trade in the Sixteenth Century