The Problem of Institutionalization of Capital in the Ottoman Manufacturing Industry: An Evaluation on Bursa Silk Sector

The debate on transition to capitalism in the Ottoman Empire continues. In this study, the role of capital in the development of capitalist relations in the Ottoman Empire in the absence of an institutional credit mechanism was investigated through the incorporation practice. For this purpose, the XIXth century Bursa silk sector case was analysed. This is because it is the most integrated among the Ottoman Empire sectors with the European markets. This quality of the sector has enabled the comparison of Western Europe with the Ottoman Empire in terms of industrial capitalism. For making the comparison, Western European company history, secondary sources and studies on the subject were examined. In this context, the political, religious, and socioeconomic features that were effective on the emergence and development of institutional organizations in the Ottoman Empire were taken into consideration. Depending on the characteristics in question, it was understood that the capitalist transformation was realized through formal and tacit agreements of usurer-foreign/minority merchant-bureaucrat cooperation in Bursa silk sector, differently from the corporation in Western Europe, even at the point of raw material-intermediate production. However, the capitalist transformation was not observed in the manufacture of final products and other textiles, and that then loss of employment and production appeared in these branches of activity as a result of the complete incorporation of the Empire into the center-periphery relationship with the Act of Port of Treaty of 1838 signed with Britain.