Agrarian relations and estate (Çiftlik) agriculture in Ottoman Thessaly (c. 1780 – 1880)

Abstract

This dissertation analyses agrarian relations and çiftlik agriculture in Thessaly from c. 1780 to c. 1880. It explains the dynamics of the rural economy in a Balkan region during a lengthy and critical epoch from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century by focusing on agrarian relations and institutions. This research proposes a methodological contribution to the history of the Ottoman rural economy by utilising different fiscal, judicial and administrative archival sources as a means of analysing the continuities and changes in the countryside. Specifically, it addresses the transformation of Ottoman land, labour and taxation institutions. Law, taxation regimes, land tenure organisations, imperial and provincial governments, and pious foundations (vakıf) are the main institutions focused on in this research. Tax farming, being a high-ranking official and dynastic titles are among the major features of the çiftlik ownership in the region throughout the century. This research also offers an in-depth examination of Thessalian çiftlik economy. The different types and the amount of crops are analysed in a comparative approach regarding both regional variations and the change over this period. Labour agreements between landlords and different classes of peasantry are analysed. This dissertation makes a chronological analysis of the continuities and changes in agrarian relations and çiftlik agriculture in Thessaly. It is mainly argued that the continuity of the absentee mode of landownership was the hallmark of the region from c. 1780 to c. 1880. Yet, the changing characteristics of absenteeism created new property relations in rural Thessaly.