Debt and Patronage

Financialization in the Ottoman Balkans during the Long Depression

This presentation examines the transformation of economic institutions in the Ottoman Balkans from the late 19th to early 20th century, beginning with the region’s financial decline caused by falling commodity prices and imperial debt crises. It explores how merchants and agricultural producers responded to liquidity shortages by diversifying entrepreneurial strategies and forming alliances with the Ottoman government. The study highlights Ottoman financialization as a process that secured rents for established actors by granting them exclusive control over a scarce credit market. It also analyzes the debt-driven economy of the Hamidian era, which tied both the state and labor to entrepreneurs providing military supplies and agricultural capital. Finally, it investigates how blocked social mobility and resulting discontent contributed to internal tensions that hastened the collapse of Ottoman rule.

The lecture will be given by Andrea Umberto Gritti (EHESS Paris).

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This lecture is part of the Colloquium in Central and East European History