FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO INTERNAZIONALE DI STORIA ECONOMICA “F. DATINI”

PRATO

Serie II – Atti delle “Settimane di Studi” e altri Convegni 38

RELAZIONI ECONOMICHE TRA EUROPA E MONDO ISLAMICO

SECC. XIII-XVIII * *

EUROPE’S ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE ISLAMIC WORLD

13TH - 18TH CENTURIES * *

Atti della “Trentottesima Settimana di Studi”

1-5 maggio 2006

a cura di Simonetta Cavaciocchi

ESTRATTO

Le Monnier

La Settimana di Studi è stata realizzata con il contributo di:

Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca

Nell’ambito delle Manifestazioni in occasione degli 80 anni della Facoltà di Economia di Firenze

Socio benemerito:

L’EDIZIONE DEL VOLUME È REALIZZATA CON IL PATROCINIO E IL CONTRIBUTO DI:

Per le illustrazioni, la redazione si è curata della relativa autorizzazione degli aventi diritti. L’Istituto resta comunque a disposizione per regolare eventuali spettanze che non fossero state individuate in sede di redazione degli Atti.

ISBN 88-00-72239-3

La Tipografica Varese S.p.A.– Aprile 2007

Presidente della Fondazione: Pietro Vestri Vice Presidente: Irene Sanesi

Segretario generale: Giampiero Nigro

Comitato scientifico:

Presidente: Wim Blockmans

Vicepresidenti:

Michele Cassandro, Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada

Direttore scientifico: Giampiero Nigro

Giunta esecutiva:

Giorgio Borelli, Bruce M.S. Campbell, Murat Çizakça, Antonio Di Vittorio, Laurence Fontaine, Alberto Grohmann, Adam Manikowski, Paola Massa,

John Munro, Michael North

Altri membri del Comitato scientifico: Erik Aerts, Michel Balard, Maxine Berg, Marco Cattini, Giovanni Cherubini, Markus A. Denzel, Stephan Epstein†, Tommaso Fanfani, Gerhard Fouquet,

Antonia Ida Fontana, Luciana Frangioni, Alberto Guenzi, Paulino Iradiel Murugarren, Sergej Pavlovič Karpov, Paul Klep, Chryssa Maltezou, Anthony Molho, W. Mark Ormrod, Paola Pierucci, Claudio Rotelli, Diana Toccafondi,

Michael Toch, François Walter, Giovanni Zalin

Comitato d’Onore

Maurice Aymard, Jean-François Bergier, Philippe Contamine, Mario Del Treppo, Aldo De Maddalena, Domenico Demarco, Arnold Esch, Jean Favier,

Richard Goldthwaite, Elio Lodolini, Rosalia Manno Tolu, Peter Mathias, Giorgio Mori, Giuseppe Pansini, Hans Pohl, Carlo Poni, Henryk

Samsonowicz, Christopher Smout, Jean-Pierre Sosson, Rolf Sprandel, Ugo Tucci, Herman van der Wee, Valentín Vázquez De Prada, Immanuel

Wallerstein.

Bogdan Murgescu

Balances of Trade and Payments between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe (16th-18th Centuries)

Abstract This paper aims to evaluate the balances of both trade and political pay-

ments between the Ottoman Empire and its major Central European part-ners, Poland-Lithuania and the German Empire (including in the discussion the Habsburg territories in East-Central Europe). The investigation focuses on the land routes between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe, while the maritime connection via Ragusa and Triest will be only mentioned. Fi-nally, I attempt to integrate the information on these trade and monetary bal-ances into the more general framework of early modern world bullion flows.

Preliminary remarks

The general overviews of the early modern economy provide a rather desolated picture of the relations between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe. Ward Barrett starts by stating that “in spite of the nearness of the Levant to Europe and its great cultural and economic importance, the magni-tude of its trade with Europe is the most difficult to document or to esti-mate”1 and then focuses only on the French, Dutch and English trade deficits via the maritime connection to the Ottoman Empire. Similar opinions had been previously expressed by Arthur Attman2, while Bruce McGowan also acknowledges that the available sources for determining the level of Ottoman trade with Europe on land and on sea fall “short of the desired degree of

1 W. BARRETT, World bullion flows, 1450-1800, in The Rise of Merchant Empires. Long-Distance

Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350-1750. ed. J.D. TRACY, Cambridge 1990, p. 252. 2 “Broadly speaking, it is impossible to establish any of the invoice values in the Levantine

trade […] The figures which are available in the literature are in the main only estimates” (A. ATTMAN, Dutch Enterprise in the World Bullion Trade 1550-1800, Göteborg 1983, p. 92).

BOGDAN MURGESCU 962

certainty”3. Nevertheless, the situation is not that desolate, and both Attman and McGowan have managed to draw at least sketches of the trade between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe4, using for this purpose a lot of the existing secondary literature written mostly by historians from South-Eastern and East-Central Europe.

When discussing the balances of payments, we have to take into consid-eration not only trade, but also the political flows of money. In fact, one of the theses of this paper is that in the early modern relations between the Ot-toman Empire and Central Europe, politics and military expenditures some-times outweighed ‘normal’ trade and shaped to a large extent the economies of the border regions between the Ottoman Empire, Poland-Lithuania and the Habsburg Empire.

Political flows of money

The economic significance of political flows of money depends on the ability of political actors to appropriate and (re)distribute part of the eco-nomic output of the societies they control. It is generally accepted that this ability was limited in pre-industrial societies. Nevertheless, most of this limi-tation was determined by the fact that a very large part of the economic out-put was used for the self-consumption of producers, and did not enter the market. Therefore, in many pre-industrial societies politics mobilized eco-nomic resources which sometimes outweighed the quantities and value of commodities traded on the market.

One of the concrete situations when political payments have been ex-tremely significant for a long period of time is the relation between the Ot-toman Empire and the Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia5. Both these principalities became vassal-states of the Ottoman Empire in the

3 B. MCGOWAN, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe. Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land,

1600-1800, Cambridge-Paris 1981, p. 16, note 4. 4 A. ATTMAN, The Bullion Flow between Europe and the East 1000-1750, Göteborg 1981, pp.

92-103; B. MCGOWAN, Economic Life, cit., p.1-44. 5 The pioneer of the quantitative studies of the Romanian political payments to the Ot-

toman Empire has been Mihai Berza in the 1950s (M. BERZA, Haraciul Moldovei şi al Ţării Româneşti în sec.XV-XIX, in “Studii şi materiale de istorie medie”, II, 1957, pp. 7-47; IDEM, Die Schwankungen in der Ausbeutung der Walachei durch die türkische Pforte im XVI.-XVIII. Jh., in "Nouvelles études d'histoire", II, 1960, pp. 253-269). His studies have been continued by Romanian Otto-manists like Mihai Maxim (M. MAXIM, Regimul economic al dominaţiei otomane în Moldova şi Ţara Românească în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVI-lea, in “Revista de istorie”, 32, 1979, 9, pp. 1735-1742) and Tahsin Gemil (T GEMIL, Date noi privind haraciul ţărilor române în secolul al XVII-lea, in “Revista de istorie”, 30, 1977, 8, pp. 1433-1438), and by myself (B. MURGESCU, Circulaţia monetară în Ţările Române în secolul al XVI-lea, Bucureşti 1996, pp. 210-222).

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 963

15th century, and had to pay a tribute to the Ottomans. To the regular tribute were added official gifts (peshkesh) made to the Ottoman dignitaries and espe-cially large sums paid for obtaining and maintaining the throne of the Principali-ties, sums which often exceeded the official payments. Due to the tightening of the Ottoman political control over the Romanian Principalities in the 16th cen-tury, the total amounts of political payments increased significantly, from an equivalent of less than 30,000 gold coins in the early 16th century to an yearly average of almost 600,000 gold coins in 1581-1594 in the case of Wallachia, and from less than 10,000 gold coins to more than 300,000 gold coins in the case of Moldavia. For comparison, Transylvania paid to the Ottoman Empire in the 1580s only an official tribute of 15,000 gold coins and negligible other sums as official gifts or bribes. After the anti-Ottoman uprising of 1594 and the complicated political events of the so-called Fifteen Year War between the Ottomans and a Habsburg-lead Holy League, the Ottoman dominion over the Romanian Principalities was restored in the early 17th century, but the level of political payments was significantly reduced, amounting to yearly averages of about 100,000 gold coins for Wallachia and around 50,000-60,000 gold coins for Moldavia. The level of political payments gradually more than doubled for Wallachia during the 17th century, and fluctuated for Moldavia, being practically at the same level at the end of the 17th century. During the 18the century the political payments grew significantly from about 1730 to the 1760s, then fluctuated, nominal increases being annihilated by the de-basement of the Ottoman moneys of account. If we summarize the findings and convert the various denominations into tons of silver, we arrive at the following orders of magnitude:

Political payments of Wallachia and Moldavia to the Ottoman Empire

(equivalent tons of silver / year) Wallachia Moldavia

Early 16th century 1 0.3 1581-1594 (average) 21-22 12 1604-1613 (average) 4 2 1694-1703 (average) 10 2 1761-1764 (average) 27 10 1820 28 10

These significant political payments shaped to a large extent the eco-

nomic and social structures of Moldavia and Wallachia. Taxation increased to unprecedented levels, and the Principalities turned into export economies.

A different situation emerged in Hungary. The medieval kingdom of Hungary was crushed militarily at Mohacs and subsequently disintegrated

BOGDAN MURGESCU 964

into three parts, Upper Hungary controlled by the Habsburgs, Ottoman ruled Central Hungary and the principality of Transylvania. More important, Hun-gary became the main confrontation area between the Habsburgs and the Ot-tomans from the late 1520s to the end of the 17th century, and according to the arguments brought by Pal Fodor, one of the most important military are-nas of the period worldwide6. Both parts concentrated large numbers of sol-diers and fortified the border, spending thus huge amounts of money and other resources7.

On the Habsburg side, historians have calculated that even in the 1570s-1580s, i.e. a period of armed peace, the costs of a military border with about 21,000-22,500 soldiers and more than 120 fortifications amounted to 1.7-2.1 million florins8. These costs could not be met only with the resources of the Habsburg dominions in Central Europe, and the Habsburgs had to ask for the financial help of estates of the German Empire. The Reichstürkenhilfen in-creased from around 2.5 million florins in 1548-1564 (about 140,000 florins in yearly average) to 3.5 million florins during the reign of Maximilian II (1564-1576, i.e an yearly average of about 290,000 florins) and 3.6 million florins in 1576-1582 (about 600,000 florins yearly), diminishing then during the 1580s and early 1590s to about 400,000 florins yearly9. During periods of open war, the numbers of military and total costs more than doubled, and the need for external subsidies increased even more. It has been estimated that during the war of 1593-1606 the Habsburgs received subsidies amounting to about 27.5 million florins, the main contributors being the German Empire (about 20 million), Spain (3.75 million) and the Pope (2.85 million), which would lead to an yearly average of about 2 million florins10. We can safely state that total military expenditures of the Habsburgs during this war

6 P. FODOR, Introduction, in Ottomans, Hungarians and Habsburgs in Central Europe. The Military

Confines in the Era of Ottoman Conquest, G. DAVID, P. FODOR eds., Leiden-Boston-Köln 2000, p. XVIII.

7 See especially the contributions gathered in the volume Die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Türkenkriege, ed. O. PICKL, Graz 1971.

8 G. PALFFY, Der Preis für die Verteidigung der Habsburgermonarchie: Die Kosten der Türkenabwehr in der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, in Finanzen und Herrschaft. Materielle Grundlagen fürstlicher Politik in den habsburgischen Ländern und im Heiligen Römischen Reich im 16. Jahrhundert, ed. F. EDEL-MEYER, M. LANZINNER, P. RAUSCHER, München 2003, pp. 20-44.

9 P. RAUSCHER, Kaiser und Reich. Die Reichstürkenhilfen von Ferdinand I. bis zum Beginn des “Lan-gen Türkenkriegs” (1548-1593), in Finanzen und Herrschaft. Materielle Grundlagen fürstlicher Politik in den habsburgischen Ländern und im Heiligen Römischen Reich im 16. Jahrhundert, ed. F. EDELMEYER, M. LANZINNER, P.RAUSCHER, München 2003, pp. 45-83.

10 J.P. NIEDERKORN, Die europäischen Mächte und der “Lange Türkenkrieg Kaiser Rudolfs II. (1593-1606), Wien 1993, p. 499.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 965

amounted to about 4 million florins in yearly average, the rest being covered by the revenues of the Habsburg dominions and by credit. During the 17th century the peace period allowed first to keep the military border at lower cost, but the wars of 1663-1664 and especially 1683-1699 determined a sig-nificant increase in military expenditures. Thus, according to the data ana-lyzed by Jean Bérenger, the Austrian military expenditures increased from less than 1.5 million florins yearly in the peace period 1665-1670 to almost 5 mil-lion florins in 1683 (year when the Ottomans attacked Vienna), 7.9 million in 1684, 12.6 million in 1685, and fluctuated afterwards between 8 and 22 mil-lion florins yearly until the end of the war11. Obviously, not all these sums were spent on the Hungarian front (from 1688 to 1697 the Habsburgs had to wage war also against France), but nevertheless we can safely state that the war with the Ottomans cost the Habsburgs in the 1680s-1690s more than 6 million florins as yearly average; yet, due to the fact that the florin had lost about a third of its value during the 17th century, the cost of the war of 1683-1699 was in fact in the same order of magnitude with that of 1593-1606. During the 18th century Habsburg military expenditures surged, reflecting both the geographical overstretching of the Habsburg dominions and the in-crease in the number of troops12. The financial burden of the wars with the Ottomans is less well documented than that of the Seven Years War, and in the literature we can find various and contradictory data. For example, for the first year of the war of 1716-1718 the Habsburg military demanded first 15.8 million florins, but actual expenses were somewhere between 6.8 and 9 mil-lion florins13. For the next years and for the war of 1737-1739 we are even less well informed. Yet, we know positively that there was a lasting trend to-wards rising military expenditures, and that especially the war of 1787-1791 was extremely expensive: total military costs of the Empire more than dou-bled in 1787-1790 compared with the years 1780-1783 – from about 100 mil-lion in 4 years to 244 million in 4 years14 - so, considering that about 2/3 of the total sums were used for the army fighting against the Ottomans, it is safe to state that the war cost more than 160 million florins in 4 years, i.e. more

11 J. BÉRENGER, Finances et absolutisme autrichien dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, Paris

1975, p. 359. 12 P.G.M. DICKSON, Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740-1780, Oxford 1987

(for the number of troops see Appendix A, II, pp. 341-357) 13 F. V. MENSI, Die Finanzen Österreichs von 1701-1740. Nach archivalischen Quellen dargestellt,

Wien, 1890, pp. 521-524. 14 A. BEER, Die Finanzen Österreichs im XIX. Jahrhundert. Nach archivalischen Quellen, Prag, 1877,

pp. 389-390. See also C. CAPRA, The Eighteenth Century. I. The Finances of the Austrian Monarchy and the Italian States, in Economic Systems and State Finance, ed. R. BONNEY, Oxford 1995, pp. 307-309.

BOGDAN MURGESCU 966

than 40 million florins per year; even if we take into account the gradual de-valuation of the florin, calculated in silver equivalent the average yearly Habsburg expenditure on the war with the Ottomans in 1787-1791 was about 4 times bigger than that on the wars of the late 16th and late 17th centuries. Of course, if we would compute these costs not in silver equivalents, but in real prices (e.g. grain prices), then the rise in military expenditures would have been more gradual during the 16th-18th centuries.

The Hungarian front has been a financial burden also for the Ottomans. The Ottoman account books show that in 1552-1553 about 22 million akçe were sent from the Ottoman central treasury to the Buda treasury in order to cover the costs of the Buda province, and in 1558-1560 the support from Is-tanbul amounted to an yearly average of more than 17.5 million akçe. Yet, as indicated by Gabor Agoston, the situation improved during the peace period of the 1570s and 1580s, due to better administration, to increased export revenues and to transfers from the neighboring Timişvar province (almost 6 million akçe in yearly average in the 1570s)15. As in the Habsburg case, the war of 1593-1606 brought a dramatic increase of military expenditures, which were covered mainly by significant shipments of (mostly gold) coins from Istanbul and even from Ottoman Egypt16. For the 17th century we have less data than for the 16th century, but even in peace time the Ottoman central treasury still had to send some money for the wages of the garrisons in Hun-gary (e.g. 40,000 gold coins in 1612)17. According to the analysis undertaken recently by Mehmed Inbaşi, the Ottoman campaign expenditures against Aus-tria in 1683 amounted to about 677 million akçe18, which, even if ve take into consideration inflation, is significantly more than the normal expenses of the previous wars. We have serious reasons to doubt that this level of expendi-tures could be maintained during the rest of the war. We have some data

15 G. AGOSTON, The Costs of the Ottoman Fortress-System in Hungary in the Sixteenth and Seven-

teenth Centuries, in Ottomans, Hungarians and Habsburgs in Central Europe, cit., pp. 195-228. 16 Caroline Finkel has documented the expenditures of the Ottoman Campaign Treasury

for almost 5 years of the war, and also those of the Buda Treasury for a part of this time. Al-though she avoids firm quantifications of the Ottoman war effort, we can notice that the Campaign Treasury was used for most of the war expenditures – for example, in 8 months in 1602-1603 the Campaign Treasury spent 190 million akçe and the Buda Treasury (in 11 months) just 12.8 million akçe – and that the expenditures fluctuated from one year to another, somewhere between a range of 140 million akçe per year and 280 million akçe per year (C. FINKEL, The Administration of Warfare: the Ottoman Military Campaigns in Hungary, 1593-1606, Wien, 1988, pp. 269-283 and appendixes 6-10, 14-16).

17 G. AGOSTON, The Costs, cit., p.224. 18 M. INBAŞI, II. Viyana seferi’nde Edirne’den Viyana’ya kadar menziller ve yapιlan masraflar, in

Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa paşa uluslararasι sempozyomu. Merzifon Vakfι Yayιnlarι, 1, 2000, pp.171-182.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 967

about the total expenditures of the Ottoman state in 1690/1691, which amounted to 812 million akçe, which, due to the devaluation of the akçe, val-ued less in silver equivalent than the 677 million akçe of 168319; taking into consideration that from 1683 to 1699 the Ottoman Empire had to fight a coalition formed by the Habsburg Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Venice and from 1686 Russia, we can safely assume that the average yearly Ottoman mili-tary expenditures on the front against the Habsburgs could not exceed half of the exceptional financial effort made in 1683. We do not have accurate ac-counts of the Ottoman military expenditures during the wars of 1716-1718, 1737-1739 and 1787-1791, but taking into consideration the fluctuations of the general Ottoman budgets, we can safely state that the Ottoman military expenditures could not possibly match those of the Habsburgs in the late 17th and even less in the 18th century. For example, in 1785 the total expenditures of the Ottoman Empire were 18.69 million gurush in 178520, while in the same year those of the Habsburg Empire exceeded 80 million florins, i.e. (at the exchange rate of 0,9 florins for 1 gurush21) 5 times more. Our assump-tion, that during the 18th century the Ottoman military expenditures were sig-nificantly smaller than those of the Habsburgs, is consistent with the observation of Gabor Agoston regarding the 16th-17th centuries: “it is quite clear from the above that, however much it cost the imperial central treasury to secure the Hungarian frontier and to maintain the Ottoman border for-tresses in this region, the burden placed on the Porte was smaller than that placed on the Habsburgs, who were struggling to finance their own border defence system opposing the Ottoman fortresses”22.

Summing up, we arrive at following gross estimates of the Ottoman and Habsburg military expenditures:

Military expenditures at the Ottoman-Habsburg border (estimates of yearly averages, equivalent tons of silver / year)

Habsburgs Ottomans1548-1593 40 15-20 1593-1606 75-80 60-65 1606-1683 18-20 15-20 1683-1699 80-90 70-80 1787-1791 455 ?

19 R. MANTRAN, Istanbul dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle: essai d'histoire institutionnelle, éco-

nomique et sociale, Paris, 1962, pp.284-285. 20 M. GENÇ, L’économie ottomane et la guerre au XVIIIe siècle, in “Turcica”, 27, 1995, p. 190. 21 M. POPA, La circulation monétaire et l’évolution des prix en Valachie (1774-1831), Bucarest

1978, p. 48. 22 G. AGOSTON, The Costs, cit., p. 228.

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Obviously, these sums do not represent net cash flows. Both the Otto-mans and the Habsburgs tried to use for as many local resources as possible and therefore struggled to mobilize also resources in kind and manpower from the border regions. Nevertheless, it is obvious that both empires needed to supplement the local resources with significant amounts of cash shipped into the border regions from more distant parts of their dominions, or (in the case of the Habsburgs) even from abroad. These cash flows fluctuated sig-nificantly in time, with maximums during the wars of 1593-1606, 1683-1699 and 1787-1791.

The available information on the financing of the Ottoman-Polish wars of the 17th century (1620-1634, 1672-1676, 1683-1699) is so scarce, that we are forced to very general assumptions. Nevertheless, it seems that the mone-tary costs of these campaigns remained modest. For the Polish side this is obvious, if we consider the rather small size of the royal budgets23. Yet, this is true also for the Ottomans. We are informed about the Campaign Treasury of Osman II in 1621, when the sultan commanded personally the expedition against Poland, and gathered for this scope only about 150 million akçe (mostly in gold)24, which is significantly less than the sums spent during the major campaigns of the previous war against the Habsburgs25. The reasons for the smaller financial costs of the Ottoman-Polish wars are multiple. The border regions were more open, had less fortresses and less garrison troops than the Ottoman-Habsburg border in Hungary. Even the biggest campaigns mobilized smaller numbers of troops than those in Hungary, and only a smaller part of these troops were paid in cash. Thus, the Ottoman-Polish border had only a negligible significance in the political bullion flows between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe.

Trade balances

Around 1500 the continental trade between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe continued a pattern established already in the 14th century, before the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe. The most important

23 See for example the data provided in J. RUTKOWSKI, Histoire économique de la Pologne avant

les partages, Paris, 1927, pp.225-227, 236-237. 24 R. MURPHEY, Ottoman Warfare, 1500-1700, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press,

1999, pp. 59-60. 25 According to the research of Mehmet Inbaşi, an exception was the Ottoman campaign

of 1672, which succeeded to conquer Kamenice and Podolia, and which costed around 400-500 million akçe (M. INBAŞI, Ukrayna’da Osmanlιlar. Kamaniçe Seferi ve Organizasyonu (1672), Istanbul 2004 (Yeditepe), p. 301), i.e. 92-115 tons silver.

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trade routes linked the Ottoman Balkans through Wallachia and the Transyl-vanian Saxon towns Braşov (Kronstadt) and Sibiu (Hermannstadt) with Hun-gary, and the Black Sea ports Chilia and Cetatea Albă (Akkerman; Maurocastro) through Moldavia with Poland26. Its main staples were Oriental spices and silk and Western cloth and metalware. The volume of trade was significant for the region, and in fact experienced a maximum in the first years of the 16th century. Thus, the customs registers of Sibiu (1500)27 and Braşov (1503)28 display an overall volume of trade of almost 200,000 florins, with an active balance for Oriental goods. Yet, this exceptional prosperity was shortlived, and already in 1507 we have information that the continental trade connection through Wallachia and Transylvania experienced difficulties, due apparently to the Portuguese interference with the spice trade in the Indian Ocean after 150029. After a terrible decline, especially visible at Braşov, which counted for about 80% of the total trade in 1500/1503, in the 1540s the overall trade between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe through Wal-lachia and Transylvania stabilized at around 100,000 florins yearly. For the Ot-toman-Polish trade through Moldavia30 we have no customs registers from

26 Ş. PAPACOSTEA, Începuturile politicii comerciale a Ţării Româneşti şi Moldovei (secolele XIV-XVI).

Drum şi stat, in “Studii şi materiale de istorie medie”, 10, 1983, pp. 9-56. 27 R. MANOLESCU, Relaţiile comerciale ale Ţării Româneşti cu Sibiul la începutul veacului al XVI-lea, in

“Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Istorie”, 5, 1956, pp. 207-260; S. GOLDENBERG, Der Südhandel in den Zollrechnungen von Sibiu (Hermannstadt) im 16. Jahrhundert, in “Revue des études sud-est européennes”, II, 1964, nr. 3-4, p. 385-421; M. PAKUCS, The Trade of Sibiu in the Sixteenth Century: the Evidence of the Town’s Customs Registers, Ph.D. thesis defended at the History Department of the Central European University in May 2004 (in print).

28 R. MANOLESCU, Comerţul Ţării Româneşti şi Moldovei cu Braşovul (Secolele XIV-XVI), Bucureşti 1965; IDEM, Le rôle commercial de la ville de Braşov dans le sud-est de l'Europe au XVIe siècle, in “Nouvelles études d'histoire”, II, 1960, pp. 207-220.

29 The knife merchants from Speyr (Austria) noticed “daß nunmehr solche Pfeffer Hand-lung aus der Wallachey und Siebenbürgen hier sowohl als zu Venedig gantz erlegen“ (apud I. HACK, Der Messerhandel der Stadt Steyr bis zum Ausgang des 17. Jahrhunderts, in “Oberösterreichische Heimat-blätter”, 6, 1952, H.1, p. 15, note 59; I am grateful to Erich Landsteiner for drawing my attention on this information).

30 L. CHAREWICZOWA, Handel sredniowiecznego Lwowa, Lwow 1925; P.P. PANAITESCU, La route commerciale de Pologne à la mer Noire au Moyen Âge, in “Revista istorică română”, III, 1933, pp. 191-192; M. MALOWIST, Le commerce du Levant avec l'Europe de l'Est au XVIe siècle. Quelques problèmes, in Mélanges en l'honneur de Fernand Braudel, I, Toulouse 1973, pp. 349-357; CV. GEORGIEVA, Les rapports de commerce entre l'Empire ottoman et la Pologne et les terres bulgares au XVIe siècle, in “Bulgarian Historical Review”, 1978, 3, pp. 38-49; E. NADEL-GOLUBIÇ, Armenians and Jews in Medieval Lvov. Their Role in Oriental Trade 1400-1600, in “Cahiers du monde russe et sovietique”, 10, 1979, pp. 345-371; M. BERINDEI, L'Empire ottoman et la "route moldave" avant la conquęte de Chilia et de Cetatea-Albă (1484), in “Journal of Turkish Studies”, 10, 1986, pp. 47-71; A. DZIUBIŃSKI, Na szlakach Orientu. Handel między Polska a Imperium Osmańskim w XVI-XVIII wieku, Wroclaw 1997.

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the early 16th century. Dariusz Kolodziejczyk has estimated the overall value of Ottoman-Moldavian-Polish trade at about 200,000 florins yearly in the mid-16th century31. I have argued that a large part of this amount was due to the Moldavian cattle exports, which increased in the first half of the 16th cen-tury; due to this rising trend, we can assume that around 1500 the overall value was somehow smaller, but it is difficult to state where exactly it would be between 100,000 and 2000,000 florins (gold coins)32.

The 16th century brought several changes, both economically and politi-cally. The share of luxuries declined, but this was due less to a reduction in absolute quantities (although for pepper this reduction is beyond doubt) and more to the upsurge of other staples, especially cattle and metals. In fact, long-distance continental cattle trade was one of the most dynamic features of the European economy in the 16th century. In the 1570s at least 250,000 live oxen were handled from various parts of Europe to a consumer zone in-cluding the Low Countries, Germany and northern Italy, and the value of this trade amounted to about 150 tons of silver, outclassing thus significantly the grain trade of the Baltic33. More than half of these cattle originated from Hungary and the Romanian Principalities, i.e. from territories which were un-der direct or indirect Ottoman rule during most of the 16th-17th centuries34. Live oxen remained the most important staple of Ottoman exports to Central Europe until after 1800, and had a crucial role in shaping the trade balances, which were active for the Ottoman Empire. Of course, trade balances were influenced heavily by border changes. For example, after the Ottoman con-quest of central Hungary in the mid-16th century a part of the already signifi-

31 D. KOLODZIEJCZYK, The Export of Silver Coin through the Polish-Ottoman Border and the Prob-

lem of the Balance of Trade, in “Turcica”, 28, 1996, pp. 106-107. 32 B. MURGESCU, Circulaţia monetară în Ţările Române în secolul al XVI-lea, Bucureşti 1996,

p.244-245. 33 I. BLANCHARD, The Continental European Cattle Trades, 1400-1600, in “Economic History Re-

view”, XXXIX, 1986, 3, p. 428. Blanchard’s estimates are some of the most conservative, Othmar Pickl arguing that in the last decades the continental cattle trade amounted to about 350,000 oxen, with a value of 6 million thalers in 1600 (O. PICKL, Routen, Umfang und Organisation des innereu-ropäischen Handels mit Schlachtvieh im 16. Jahrhundert, in Festschrift Hermann Wiesflecker zum sechzigsten Ge-burtstag, ed. A. NOVOTNY, O. PICKL, Graz 1973, pp. 143-166.

34 Besides the various contributions gathered in Internationaler Ochsenhandel (1350-1750). Ak-ten des 7th International Economic History Congress Edinburgh 1978, ed. E. WESTERMANN, Stuttgart 1979, see also: L. MAKKAI, Der ungarische Viehhandel 1550-1650, in Der Aussenhandel Ostmitteleuropas 1450-1650. Die ostmitteleuropäischen Volkswirtschaften in ihren Beziehungen zu Mitteleuropa, ed. I. BOG, Köln-Wien 1971, pp. 483-506; J. BASZANOWSKI, Z dziejów handlu polskiego w XVI-XVIII w. Handel wolami, Gdansk 1977; B. MURGESCU, Der Anteil der rumänischen Fürstentümer am europäischen Viehhandel vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert. Regelmäßigkeiten und konjunkturelle Schwankungen, in “Scripta Mercaturae”, 33, 1999, 2, pp. 61-91.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 971

cant Hungarian cattle exports became Ottoman exports, while the Habsburg conquest of Hungary and Transylvania in the late 17th century turned them into trade between the various dominions of the Habsburgs.

Cattle were only part of the trade between Central Europe and the Ot-toman Empire during the 16th-17th centuries. Other significant staples were textiles, metals, manufactured metal products and wine, and with a more modest role silk, spices, cotton etc35.

We are better informed on the Ottoman-Habsburg trade in Hungary than on the Ottoman-Polish trade. Based on the customs registrations of Habs-burg Upper Hungary, and warning on the disparate character of the registra-tions and on the difficulties in assessing the information, Harald Prickler estimated the overall trade through Western Hungary at a minimum of about 0.5 million florins in 1542, postulated a steep increase in the mid-16th century and for most of the second half of the 16th century (with a maximum of 4.5-5.5 million florins in the mid-1570s), and assessed a significant decline due to the war of 1593-1606, which was not recovered in the 17th century, when the level fluctuated at around one third to one half of the maximum of the 16th century36. This dynamic was caused mainly by the cattle trade from Hungary (and to a certain extent also from Transylvania and Wallachia) to Central Europe, which increased to an average of more than 100,000 oxen per year in the second half of the 16th century; taking into consideration also the rise of Central European prices for cattle37, it is not surprising that cattle made up 80-90% of the value of Hungarian exports and that these exports outclassed the value of Central European merchandise in the customs registers. The de-cline of the 17th century was caused in the short run by the disruption of massive trade due to the war of 1593-1606, but also by the increased compe-

35 See also the general picture in ZS.P. PACH, The Role of East-Central Europe in International

Trade (16th and 17th Centuries), in “Études historiques”, 1970, pp. 217-264, the various contributions gathered in Der Aussenhandel Ostmitteleuropas 1450-1650. Die ostmitteleuropäischen Volkswirtschaften in ihren Beziehungen zu Mitteleuropa, ed. I. BOG, Köln-Wien 1971, and O. PICKL, Österreichisch-ungarische Handelsbeziehungen entlang der Donau vom 15. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, „Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz“, 1987, pp.11-40. I have not included among the staples copper, which was an important Hungarian export to Central Europe during this period, because the most important copper mines were located in the Habsburg-ruled Upper Hungary, and therefore this copper did not pass through Ottoman territory.

36 H. PRICKLER, Das Volumen des westlichen Außenhandels vom 16. Jahrhundert bis 1700, in Die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Türkenkriege, ed. O. PICKL, Graz 1971, pp. 131-137.

37 I.N. KISS, Money, Prices, Values and Purchasing Power from the XVIth to the XVIIIth Century, in “Journal of European Economic History”, 9, 1980, 2, pp. 459-490.

BOGDAN MURGESCU 972

tition from cattle coming from/through Poland on German markets38 and in the longer run by the decline of Central European demand and prices.

The Ottoman trade with Poland-Lithuania was similar in structure, but less unbalanced and somehow smaller in value. The share of spices and other Oriental goods declined gradually, and that of Moldavian cattle (about 20,000 yearly from the 1530s to the mid-17th century) and Greek wines (more than the equivalent of 1,000 tons yearly in most years between 1570 and 159039) increased. As indicated above, the overall value of this trade has been esti-mated at about 200,000 florins yearly, with a deficit of about 40,000 silver tal-ers for Poland-Lithuania40.

The economic slowdown of the 17th century caused a decline of Central European demand and prices, which was extremely visible for cattle. This de-cline was earlier in Austria and Southern Germany, but after 1630 affected also Central and Northern Germany. Gradually the profits of cattle trade dwindled, determining a dramatic downturn in both quantities and value. Several other merchandise flows were affected by the crisis of cattle trade, including here also the trade in Western and Central European cloth, which was often sold in exchange for oxen. Therefore, we can state that second half of the 17th century was a period of severe reduction of the trade between the Ottoman Empire (including here also its vassal states, i.e. the principalities of Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia) and Central Europe41. This downturn does not mean that trade was completely blocked. There were even attempts to revitalize this trade, as for example the Oriental Company established in Vienna in 1667, which tried to organize regular shipments on the Danube up to Istanbul, and even further in the Ottoman Empire. These attempts met with only partial success (the yearly turnover did not exceed 200,000 florins), and the Oriental Company soon focused less on trade with the core regions of the Ottoman Empire and more on the provisioning of Austria with oxen from Ottoman Hungary42.

38 E. WESTERMANN, Zur Erforschung des nordmitteleuropäischen Ochsenhandels der frühen Neuzeit

(1480-1620) aus hessischer Sicht, in “Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie”, 23, 1975, 1, pp. 10-16.

39 A. DZIUBIŃSKI, Na szlakach Orientu, cit., p. 192. 40 D. KOLODZIEJCZYK, The Export of Silver Coin, cit., p.108. 41 ZS.P. PACH, The Shifting of International Trade Routes in the 15th–17th Centuries, in “Acta

Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae”, XIV, 1968, 3-4, pp. 315-320; B. MURGESCU, Impactul conjuncturii europene asupra comerţului românesc în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVII-lea, in “Revista de istorie”, 41, 1988, 5, pp. 518-523 and 6, p. 587 ss..

42 H. HASSINGER, Die erste Wiener orientalische Handelskompagnie 1667-1683, in “Viertel-jarhshrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte”, XXXV, 1942, pp.1-53.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 973

During the 18th century, trade between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe expanded again. This was nevertheless only a gradual process, fa-vored by the improvement of political relations between the Ottomans and both Poland-Lithuania and the Habsburg Empire. Most of the existing litera-ture focuses on the attempts of the Habsburgs to open the Ottoman market, to organize and foster their exports through Triest and along the Danube43. In spite of all these attempts, Habsburg exports into the Wallachia, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire increased only moderately until 1780, and although the increased dynamic of the last decades of the 18th century, Habsburg trade balances with the Romanian Principalities and with the Ottoman Empire re-mained passive throughout the whole 18th century. This was due to the fact that the merchants coming from the Ottoman territories44 were able to take more advantage than their Habsburg counterparts of the favorable stipula-tions of the Habsburg-Ottoman treaties and of the gradual recovery of Cen-tral European demand for Ottoman (and Romanian) products, especially for cattle. The number of oxen imported into Austria and Germany did not equal the maxima of the second half of the 16th century; yet, due to the di-minishing share of the Hungarian plain, where rural colonization and the de-velopment of agriculture reduced the areas for cattle-breeding, actually the exports of Transylvanian, Wallachian and Moldavian oxen were higher than during the 16th-17th centuries45. Besides oxen, Wallachia and Moldavia ex-ported into the Habsburg Empire pigs, sometimes horses, wool, wax and

43 A. BEER, Die österreichische Handelspolitik unter Maria Theresia und Josef II.,in “Archiv für

österreichische Geschichte”, LXXXVI, 1899, especially pp. 79-90; M. V. HERZFELD, Zur Orienthandelspolitik Österreichs unter Maria Theresia in der Zeit von 1740-1771, in “Archiv für österreichische Geschichte”, 108, 1919, pp. 1-129; H. HALM, Habsburgischer Osthandel im 18. Jahrrhundert. Österreich und Neurußland (II): Donauhandel und –schiffahrt 1781-1787. Mit einer Karte, München 1954.

44 T. STOIANOVICH, The Conquering Balkan Orthodox Merchant, in “The Journal of Economic History”, 1960, 2, pp. 234-313; F. TREMEL, Die Griechenkolonie in Wien im Zeitalter Maria Theresias. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der österreichisch-türkischen Handelsbeziehungen, in “Vierteljahresschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte”, 51, 1, 1964, pp. 108-115; O. CICANCI, Companiile greceşti din Transilvania şi comerţul european în anii 1635-1746, Bucureşti 1981. Ottoman merchants traded not only in the Habsburg Empire, but also in Germany, especially at the fairs in Leipzig (see GH. NETTA, Die Handelsbeziehungen zwischen Leipzig und Ost- und Südosteuropa bis zum Verfall der Warenmessen, Zürich 1920; the significance of Southeastern Europe for the Leipzig fairs is mentioned also by H. EIDEN, The Fairs of Leipzig and the Eastern European Economies (15th-18th Centuries), in Fiere e mercati nella integrazione delle economie europee secc. XIII-XVIII. Atti della “Trentaduesima Settimana di Studi” 8-12 maggio 2000. ed. S. CAVACIOCCHI, Firenze 2001, p. 724).

45 B. MURGESCU, Der Anteil, cit., pp. 68, 76-80.

BOGDAN MURGESCU 974

hides46. As for the Ottoman exports into the Habsburg Empire, besides cattle and pigs (especially from Serbia), wool, hides and tobacco, the most dynamic staple was cotton (mainly from Ottoman Macedonia)47. We have some quanti-tative data for the overall trade in the 18th century. For example, in 1701 (Habsburg) Transylvania imported merchandise in value of about 700,000 florins and exported only about 422,000 florins48. These figures include the trade registered in all Transylvanian customs, including those connecting the principality with other Habsburg dominions; taking into account that the trade with Wallachia, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire was about ¾ of the total, we can estimate the Habsburg trade with the Ottoman Empire and its vassal-states through Transylvania at about 0.8 million florins, with a deficit of about 0,2 million florins. In the 1760s-1770s Transylvanian trade had in-creased to totals of more than 2.1 million florins in yearly average, with ex-ports of almost 0.8 million florins and imports of more than 1.3 million florins, and most of this trade continued to be with Wallachia, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire49. If we try to estimate the total Habsburg-Ottoman trade (including on the Ottoman side also the vassal-states of Wallachia and Moldavia), we can start from the assumption that direct Habsburg-Ottoman trade through Croatia, Slavonia and Hungary amounted to about the same value with that through Transylvania around 1700, and exceeded this value increasingly from the 1720s. Thus, I would guesstimate that in the first years of the 18th century overall Habsburg-Ottoman trade amounted to about 1.5-2 million florins, with a deficit of around 0.5 million florins for the Habsburgs. For the mid-18th century we are better informed, Marianne v. Herzfeld esti-mating the Habsburg-Ottoman trade (including the Romanian Principalities) for the years 1747-1771 at an yearly average of 4.6 million florins, with 1.6 million florins Habsburg exports and 3 million florins Ottoman exports50. At the end of the 18th century, Felix Beaujour estimated the yearly trade of the Ottoman Balkans (Grèce) with the Habsburg Empire at 6.2 million Ottoman

46 A. OŢETEA, Pătrunderea comerţului româneasc în circuitul internaţional (în perioada de trecere de la

feudalism la capitalism), Bucureşti 1977, pp. 39-61. 47 MCGOWAN, Economic Life, cit., p. 26. 48 A. RĂDUŢIU, L. GYÉMANT, Repertoriul izvoarelor statistice privind Transilvania 1690-1847,

Bucureşti f.a., p. 740. For the geographical orientation of the Transylvanian trade, see also L.A. DEMÉNY, Relaţiile comerciale ale Transilvaniei în lumina veniturilor vamale din anii 1717-1724, in “Studii. Revistă de istorie”, 23, 1970, 5, pp. 992-998.

49 Istoria românilor, VI, Românii între Europa clasică şi Europa luminilor (1711-1821), P.CERNOVODEANU, N. EDROIU (coord.), Bucureşti 2002, p. 287 (chapter by N. EDROIU).

50 M. V. HERZFELD, Zur Orienthandelspolitik Österreichs, cit., pp. 75-76.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 975

gurush51, with 4.66 million Ottoman exports and 1.54 million Habsburg ex-ports. Beaujour’s estimates, based on his experience in Thessaloniki, insist on the significance of Ottoman cotton, but do not include the exports of ani-mals and animal products from the Romanian Principalities and probably nei-ther from the northern Ottoman Balkans. Yet, we know that in 1789 the Habsburg Empire imported – although at war with the Ottomans – animals in value of almost 3.9 million florins, and furs and hides in value of almost 1.7 million florins52, while in 1807 these imports amounted to 6.2 and respec-tively 3.6 million florins53. While both animals (among which oxen made up more than 45%, cows and calves other 16.7 %, swine 17.1%, horses 14.5% and sheep 6.5%54), furs and hides were imported also from Russia, it is obvi-ous that at least during the peace years most of the animals and hides were imported from the Ottoman Empire and the Romanian Principalities. Ac-cordingly, Beaujour’s estimates are definitely too low55. We can check the overall value also considering the total foreign trade of the Habsburg Empire. According to Hassinger, in 1800 the combined foreign trade of Hungary, Transylvania and Galicia amounted to a total of 23.5 million florins, with 11.3 million florins imports and 12.2 million florins imports56. Besides the trade with the Ottoman Empire, these figures include the trade with the other Habsburg dominions and with Russia. Yet, until a new check of the original registration will allow to break the totals according to customs points and merchandise, I think that we can safely estimate that the total Ottoman-Habsburg trade around 1800 valued at least 10-12 million florins, with a mas-sive passive for the Habsburgs.

The Polish-Moldavian trade had reached an absolute minimum in the last years of the 17th century, when the depression of oxen trade combined with the effects of the Polish-Ottoman wars of 1672-1676 and 1683-1699. Start-ing with the second decade of the 18th century, the upsurge of Central Euro-

51 F. BEAUJOUR, Tableau du commerce de la Grèce, II, Paris 1800, p. 163. 52 G. OTRUBA, Der Außenhandel Österreichs unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Niederösterreichs nach

der älteren amtlichen Handelsstatistik, Wien, 1950, p.14. 53 J. ZIZIUS, Oeconomisch-politische Betrachtungen über die Handels-Bilanz, Wien und Triest,

1811, p. 175. 54 Ibid., p. 178. 55 The same goes, but for different reasons, for Bruce McGowan, who has used in his es-

timates for Ottoman exports in 1784 Herzfeld’s data for 1747-1771, not taking into account the dynamic of Ottoman exports after 1770, and arriving thus at a guesstimate of 50 million tons of silver for 1784 (MCGOWAN, Economic Life, cit., pp. 17-18).

56 H. HASSINGER, Der Außenhandel der Habsburgermonarchie in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in Die wirtschaftliche Situation in Deutschland und Österreich um die Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert, ed. F. LÜTGE, Stuttgart 1964, p. 95.

BOGDAN MURGESCU 976

pean demand for cattle began to attract increased numbers of Moldavian oxen through Poland to Germany57. Besides cattle, trade included Moldavian horses, hides and wine, Ottoman silk, cotton, textiles, coffee, tobacco and leather products, as well as Polish spirits (horilka) and a great variety of tex-tiles and manufactures which mainly transited Poland from Germany or Western Europe. The overall value of this trade is difficult to assess, but ap-parently in the mid-18th century it exceeded the values reached during the 16th century or those of the first half of the 17th century. In 1772 Galicia was in-cluded in the Habsburg Empire, and therefore the Ottoman and Moldavian trade with Poland was included in the estimates of the trade with the Habs-burg Empire. In 1787 Habsburg Galicia (including Moldavian Bukovina, in-cluded into the Habsburg Empire in 1775) imported from Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire around goods in total value of almost 1.44 million florins (mainly cattle) and exported only about 0.22 million florins58.

If we are to summarize and to convert all figures into tons of silver, we

arrive at following orders of magnitude: Overall value and trade balances of on land trade between the Ottoman Empire

(including its Christian vassal-states) and Central Europe (tons silver) Year Overall value of trade Trade balances (Ottoman excedents) 1500 15 5 1550 55 30 1580 120 90 1600 55 5 1650 40 5 1700 25 5 1750 65 20 1800 120 60

Bullion flows and monetary relations

To a large extent, the huge deficits of Central Europe were met with cash. We have information that in the 16th century German thalers came in-creasingly into the Ottoman Empire through Hungary and the Romanian Principalities59. Besides, during the last decades of the 16th century and the

57 B. MURGESCU, Der Anteil, cit., pp. 76-80. 58 H. HASSINGER, Der Außenhandel, cit., p. 91. 59 German thalers are documented in Ottoman sources beginning with 1554 in the Buda

province H. SAHILLIOGLU, The Role of International Monetary and Metal Movements in Ottoman Monetary History 1300-1750, in Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern World, ed. J.F. RICHARDS, Durham 1983, pp. 281-284; in the Romanian Principalities thalers also penetrated in the 1550s (B.

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 977

first half of the 17th century Polish coins (especially pieces of three groats) penetrated deeply into the Ottoman dominions, especially into the Balkans but also into the Asian provinces60. Poland conveyed to the Romanian Princi-palities and to the Ottoman Empire also significant quantities of Dutch thal-ers (especially, but not exclusively leuwendaalders)61. If we compare the Ottoman trade balances with Central Europe with the European bullion ex-ports in the Levant, estimated by Attman at around 1 million rix-dollars (i.e. about 25 tons of silver)62 in 1600, then we can safely assume that at least dur-ing the second half of the 16th century, and especially during the 1570s-1580s the continental routes were more important than the sea in supplying silver coins to the Ottoman Empire. Around 1600, the decline in Ottoman-Habsburg trade was temporarily and only partially compensated by the influx of political money, especially of the Habsburg military expenditures into Hungary and the Romanian Principalities63. The silver flow from Central Europe to the Ottoman Empire was even strong enough to determine an oppo-site flow of Ottoman gold coins to Poland and to other parts of Central Europe during the late 16th century and early 17th century64.

MURGESCU, Circulaţia monetară, cit., pp. 168-171; see also A.-M. VELTER, C. ŞTIRBU, Circulaţia în Ţările Române a monedelor de argint cu valoare ridicată emise de statele, oraşele şi forurile ecleziastice germane, în perioada secolelor XVI-XVII, in “Cercetări numismatice”, VIII, 2002, pp. 273-308). For the German perspective on the outflow of coins to the Ottoman Empire, see H.-J. GERHARD, Ein schöner Garten ohne Zaun. Die währungspolitische Situation des Deutschen Reiches um 1600, in “Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozi-al- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte”, 81, 1994, 2, p. 170.

60 A. MIKOLAJCZYK, Polish-Ottoman Monetary Relations in the Light of Numismatic Evidence (16th to 18th Century), in “Wiadomosci Numizmatyczne”, XXIX, 1985, 1-2, pp. 87-100; IDEM, Polish Factor in the Balkan Monetary Affairs of the Late 16th and 17th Century, in “Zeitschrift für Balkanologie”, XXII, 1986, pp. 61-75.

61 D. KOLODZIEJCZYK, The export of silver coin, cit., pp. 109-114. For the influx of Dutch coins into Poland, see also M. NORTH, Bullion Transfer from Western Europe to the Baltic and the Problem of Trade Balances, in Precious Metals, Coinage and the Changes of Monetary Structures in Latin America, Europe and Asia: Late Middle Ages – Early Modern Times, ed. E.H.G. VAN CAUWEN-BERGHE, Leuven 1989, pp. 57-63; M. NORTH, Bullion Transfer from Western Europe to the Baltic and to Asia. 1550-1750. A Comparison, ed. E.H.G. VAN CAUWENBERGHE, Leuven 1991, pp. 181-195.

62 A. ATTMAN, Dutch Enterprise, cit., pp. 91-95. 63 For example, I have estimated the Habsburg military expenditures in the Romanian

Principalities at at least 2.5-3 tons of silver yearly during the war of 1593-1606 (B. MURGESCU, Circulaţia monetară, cit., pp. 236-238; B. MURGESCU, Financial Aspects of Walachia's Participation in the Fifteen Years War, in “Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Istorie”, XLIV, 1995, pp. 44-49.

64 A. MIKOLAJCZYK, Polish-Ottoman Monetary Relations, cit., p. 91 ss. Most of the Ottoman expenditures during the war of 1593-1606 were also made in gold (C. FINKEL, The Administration of Warfare, cit., pp. 269-271).

BOGDAN MURGESCU 978

Central Europe contributed thus into shaping the Ottoman Empire from the late 16th to the late 17th century into an economy dominated by foreign currency65. Nevertheless, we have to stress that the importance of Central Europe decreased during the 17th century, while the shipments of European bullion through the ports of the Levant actually doubled in the first decades of the 17th century, and remained at the level of about 50 tons of silver yearly for most of the 17th and 18th centuries66.

During the 18th century, the influx of Central European bullion into the Ottoman Empire became again significant. This happened partially due to ‘normal’ trade, and partially due to a conscious Habsburg policy, which aimed at compensating the deficit by minting for the Ottoman market special (de-valued) coins. In this respect, the Habsburgs were hardly innovative: already during the 17th century French, Dutch and Italians had supplied the Ottoman market with large quantities of specially minted debased silver coins67. In 1752 the Habsburg authorities decided to finance a part of the substantial trade deficit with the Ottoman Empire by minting special thalers for the Ot-toman market, and commissioned the export of these coins to a company lead by Johann Fries. According to official reports, from 1752 to 1763 there were minted 8 million thalers, with a total profit of more than 1.2 million flo-rins68. The Austrians also attempted to export other silver and copper coins, and even promised bonuses for merchants who took larger quantities69. Al-though in time profits and quantities declined, shipments of Maria-Theresien-Taler continued not only during her reign, but also for a long period after the death of the empress. The on land trade routes conveyed the larger part of these Habsburg exports70, but in time some of the Habsburg coins were also used for financing silk imports from France and then sent by the French to

65 Ş. PAMUK, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge 2000, pp. 147-158. 66 W. BARRETT, World bullion flows, cit., p. 251. 67 R. MANTRAN, Istanbul dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Essai d’histoire intitutionnelle,

économique et sociale, Paris 1962, pp. 233-271; Ş. PAMUK, A Monetary History, cit., pp. 149-154. While most of the debased European coinage arrived into the Ottoman Empire through the ports of the Levant, some French pieces of cinq sols arrived in Hungary also with the French troops sent to help the Habsburgs during the war of 1663/1664 against the Ottomans (for this episode, see J. BUZA, Egy Francia váltópénz Levantei sikere és Magyarországi szepere a 17. század második felében, in Gazdaság, társadalom történetirás. Emlékkönyv Pach Zsigmond Pál 70. születésnapjára, ed. F. GLATZ, Budapest 1989, pp. 127-137).

68 G. PROBSZT, Österreichische Münz- und Geldgeschichte: von den Anfängen bis 1918, I-III, Wien 1973, 2, pp. 508-509.

69 M. V. HERZFELD, Zur Orienthandelspolitik Österreichs, cit., p. 37. 70 For example, in 1772-1773 there were exported 108,411 thalers through Belgrade and

only 81,600 through Trieste (Ibid., p .39).

BALANCES OF TRADE AND PAYMENTS 979

the Ottoman territories, where they benefited a significant agio. Besides the Maria-Theresien-Taler, other coins were also speculated in the contacts between the Ottoman and Central European markets, especially in the last decade of 18th century and in the first decade of the 19th century, when both the Otto-mans and the Habsburgs experienced serious financial difficulties and de-based their currency.

If we are to summarize the data from an Ottoman point of view, at least during the second half of the 16th century, and to a certain extent during the second half of the 18th century the land connection to Central Europe was more important than the maritime connection to Italy and Western Europe through the Levantine ports.

Ottoman trade excedents (tons silver)

Continental connection to Central Europe Levant 1550 30 25 1580 90 25 1600 5 25 1650 5 50 1700 5 50 1750 20 50 1800 60 50

Of course, the trade and monetary flows between the Ottoman Empire

and Central Europe are less impressive when compared with other regions in Western Europe, with the shipments of American precious metals to Europe or with the connection between Europe and the Far East71. To a certain ex-tent, Bruce McGowan has a point when he describes the region of the Mid-dle Danube as a cul-de-sac, deprived of cheap maritime connections with the most dynamic parts of the early modern world72. Yet, as I have argued also elsewhere, the border regions between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe specialized more in animal breeding than in grain production and also provided for the military on both sides of the Ottoman-Habsburg border73. And if we look at per capita figures, things are far from being modest. For

71 W. BARRETT, World bullion flows, cit., pp. 242-243. 72 B. MCGOWAN, The Middle Danube Cul-de-sac, in The Ottoman Empire and the world-economy,

d. H. ISLAMOĞLU-INAN, Cambridge-Paris 1987, pp. 170-177. 73 B. MURGESCU, Early Modern Economies of South Eastern Europe: between Istanbul and the West,

in Zones of Fracture in Modern Europe: the Baltic Countries, the Balkans, and Northern Italy. Wies-baden, 2005 (Ed. Almut Bues), pp. 191-192.

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example, in the case of Wallachia the per capita value of exports can show the following orders of magnitude74:

Estimates of Wallachian per capita exports (grams of silver)

1500 8 1590 50 1700 20 1800 30

Certainly, Wallachia is somehow an extreme case, because, due to the po-

litical payments to the Ottoman Empire, it became in the 16th century a typi-cal export economy. Therefore, exports had a very large part in the overall foreign trade, and also in the total commercialization. Nevertheless, by their sheer magnitude, these figures indicate the economic dynamism of the con-tact areas between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe75. The structure of trade supports this idea: most of the commodities either originated from the border areas or were sold in not too remote regions of the Ottoman Em-pire or of Central Europe, being thus more the object of regional trading networks than of (very) long-distance trade.

Besides trade, human contacts across the political borders between the

Ottoman Empire, its vassal-states, the Habsburg Empire and Poland-Lithuania were also significant. It is noteworthy that in their connection with Central Europe the Ottomans were often more active and perhaps even more successful than with Western Europe in the Levant. The Ottomans exported not only goods, but also plants, techniques and people. Often of mercantile origin, these Southeast European diaspora networks established in the Roma-nian Principalities and in the Habsburg Empire contributed to the economic and cultural progress of the region and to the emergence of a modern bour-geoisie, which took over also political roles in the 19th century.

74 My preliminary estimates based on B. MURGESCU, Circulaţia, cit., pp. 241-258 and A.

OŢETEA, Pătrunderea, cit., pp. 66-67. 75 Cf. also the estimates of Herbert Hassinger for the foreign trade quotas of the various

parts of the Habsburg empire during the late 18th century (H. HASSINGER, Der Außenhandel, cit., pp. 80-96).

INDICE

Lunedì 1 maggio– APERTURA DEI LAVORI HANS POHL, Presidente uscente del Comitato scientifico ...................... pag. 7 MIGUEL ÁNGEL LADERO QUESADA, Relazioni economiche tra Europa e mondo islamico. Secc. XIII-XVIII. Prolusione . ................................... » 13 Lunedì 1 maggio – MUSULMANI IN EUROPA Relazioni NENAD MOAČANIN, Demographical Trends in the Ottoman Empire in Europe and their Impact on Economy: neither the West, nor the East .................................................................................................. pag. 55 GIUSEPPE COSSUTO, Affinità e divergenze nel sistema di tassazione ottomano applicato agli stati vassalli di Moldavia, Valacchia e Crimea nei secoli XV-XVII ....................................................................................... » 75 Comunicazioni: CONCEPCIÓN VILLANUEVA MORTE, El mundo mudéjar y el comercio terrestre entre los reinos de Aragón y Valencia en el siglo XV............... » 97 CARMEN TRILLO SAN JOSÉ, Organización del espacio agrícolo y del agua en la Granada nazarí (siglos XIII-XV)..................................... » 121 ROSER SALICRÚ I LLUCH , ¿Repensando Granada? Presencia y penetración diferenzial cristiana en el sultanato nazarí en la Baja Edad Media.................................................................................................... » 135

Dibattito (AERTS, CAMPBELL, CIARAMITARO, ÇIZAKÇA, CLARENCE SMITH, KLEP, KOLODZIEJCYZ, MOAČANIN, MUNRO, MURGESCU, NORTH, TRILLO SAN JOSÉ, VILLANUEVA MORTE, WATSON)..................... pag. 147 Martedì 2 maggio – EUROPEI NEL MONDO ISLAMICO: XIII-XVIII SECOLO Relazioni DAVID JACOBY, The Economic Function of the Crusader States of the Levant: a New Approach ................................................................................ pag. 159

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MICHEL BALARD, Les relations économiques entre l’Occident et le Monde islamique à la fin du Moyen Age. Quelques remarques ............. pag. 193 BENJAMIN BRAUDE, Christians, Jews, and the Myth of Turkish Commercial Incompetence.......................................................................... » 219 ANDREW M. WATSON, A Case of Non-diffusion. The Non-Adoption by Muslims Spain od the Open-field System of Christian Europe. Causes and Consequences ........................................................................... » 241 JOSÉ ENRIQUE LÓPEZ DE COCA CASTAÑER, Génova y el Reino de Granada (siglos XIII-XV)............................................................................ » 267 Dibattito (AERTS, BALARD, BIBIKOV, BERG, BORRACELLI, BRAUDE, CAMPBELL, CLARENCE SMITH, DENZEL, JABOBY, KLEP, KOLODZIEJCZYK, LADERO, LOPEZ DE COCA CASTAÑER, MANIKOWSKI, MOACANIN, MUNRO, SHATZMILLER, TYMOWSKI, TOCH, TRILLO SAN JOSE, WATSON) .............. pag. 295 Comunicazioni ENRICO BASSO, La Maona di Chio, Genova e l’Impero Ottomano: relazioni commerciali e intrecci diplomatici fra Tardo Medioevo e prima Età moderna....................................................................................pag. 315 MANUEL RUZAFA GARCÍA, La morería de Valencia: centro económico mudéjar en área de convergencia cristiana y musulmana mediterránea (1370-1500) ............................................................................ » 325 MARIA FILOMENA LÓPES DE BARROS, The Portuguese Muslim Minority and North Africa .......................................................................................... » 339 SVETLANA IVANOVA, Minorities All Around – And Merchants All Around (towards the Social Status of the Merchant Estate in Ottoman Overland Trade in the Balkans, 17th-18th cc.) ....................... » 351 UGO TUCCI, Mercanti veneziani e usi di piazza di Alessandria alla fine del Quattrocento ................................................................................... » 365 Dibattito (BALARD, BAROUTSOS, BASSO, BRAUDE, CLARENCE SMITH, DENZEL, GONZALES AREVALO, GROHMANN, IVANOVA, LÓPES DE BARROS, NORTH, TOCH)............................................................................................... pag. 375 Mercoledì 3 maggio – POLITICHE E RIVALITÀ IN EUROPA PER LA SUPREMAZIA ECONOMICA NEL MONDO ISLAMICO (AFRICA E MEDIO ORIENTE) E REAZIONI ISLAMICHE / NATURA E VOLUME DELLE RELAZIONI COMMERCIALI TRA EUROPA E MONDO ISLAMICO Relazioni MAYA SHATZMILLER, A Misconstrued Link: Europe and the Economic History of Islamic Trade ..........................................................pag 387

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MARÍA DOLORES LÓPEZ PÉREZ, Política y comercio en el Mediterráneo occidental medieval: la conformación del cuadro diplomático y su repercusión en los intercambios económicos Magreb-Corona de Aragón (ss. XIII-XV) ................................................ pag. 419 IAN BLANCHARD, African Gold and European Specie Markets, ca 1300-1800.................................................................................................. » 451 ELOY MARTÍN CORRALES, El comercio de España con los países musulmanes del Mediterráneo (1492-1782) : “eppur si muove” ............ » 485 BERNARD VINCENT, Captivité, esclavage, emancipation en Espagne et au Portugal (XVIe – XVIIe siècles)......................................................... » 511 MICHEL FONTENAY, Le commerce des Occidentaux dans les échelles du Levant au XVIIe siècle ............................................................................ » 519

Dibattito (AERTS, BERG, BLANCHARD, CAMPBELL, CLARENCE SMITH, CORDOBA, FONTENAY, GONZALEZ AREVALO, HAUPT, LOPEZ NADAL, LOPEZ PEREZ, MASSA, MATHIAS, MUNRO, MURGESCU, SHATZMILLER, TOLEDANO, TYMOWSKI, VINCENT) ................................................. pag. 551 Comunicazioni INGRID HOUSSAYE MICHIENZI, Les efforts des compagnies Datini pour établir des relations avec les pays du Maghreb, fin XIVe- debut XVe siècle............................................................................................pag. 569 PHILIPPE GOURDIN, Les pays du Maghreb et la rivalité entre Catalans et Italiens pour dominer les routes commerciales de Méditarranée occidentale (fin XIVe-début XVe siècle) ........................... » 595 MOMČILO SPREMIĆ, Relazioni economiche fra Dubrovnik (Ragusa) e il mondo islamico dal XIII al XV secolo................................................ » 603 FRANCISCO J. APELLANIZ, Crise financière et rapports internationaux en Méditerranée: La faillite des corporations européennes dans le sultanat mamelouk (1450-1517)................................................................. » 617 PHOTIS BAROUTSOS, Population Mobility in Crete within the Framework of Venetian-Turkish Relations (1470-1645) ......................... » 637 ANNE BROGINI, De l’île corsaire à l’île-rélais . Les échanges entre Malte et la rive musulmane aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles............................. » 651

Dibattito (BROGINI, CLARENCE SMITH, GOURDIN, HOUSSAYE, MARTIN CORRALES, MUNRO, NIGRO, SPREMIĆ, TUCCI) .......................... pag.. 663 Giovedì 4 maggio – TRASMISSIONI ISTITUZIONALI E TECNOLOGICHE / EVOLUZIONE COMPARATIVA DELLE ISTITUZIONI E DELLE TECNICHE: RECIPROCHE INFLUENZE E INTERAZIONI

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Relazioni MURAT ÇIZAKÇA, Cross-cultural Borrowing and Comparative Evolution of Institutions between Islamic World and the West ............pag. 671 EHUD R. TOLEDANO, The Shifting Patterns of Ottoman Enslavement in the Early Modern Period: From European to African-Caucasian .................................................................................... » 699 WILLIAM GERVASE CLARENCE-SMITH, Scientific and Technological Interchanges between the Islamic World and Europe, c. 1450-c. 1800. » 719 RICARDO CORDOBA DE LA LLAVE,Industrial Techniques in al-Andalus: a Long-lasting Legacy .................................................................................. » 739 ROSSITSA GRADEVA, On ‘Frenk’ Objects in Everyday Life in Ottoman Balkans: the Case of Sofia, Mid-17th - mid-18th Centuries..... » 769

Dibattito (BAROUTSOS, BERG, BLOCKMANS, BRAUDE, CAMPBELL, ÇIZAKÇA, CLARENCE SMITH, GRADEVA, GRUDER, KLEP, KOLODZIEJCZYK, MATHIAS, MOAČANIN, MUNRO, MURGESCU, TOCH, TOLEDANO, VAN DER WEE)... pag. 801 Comunicazioni ALBERTO GARCÍA PORRAS, Transmisiones tecnológicas entre el área islámica y cristiana en la Península Ibérica. El caso de la producción cerámica esmaltada de lujo bajomedieval (ss. XIII-XV)..........................pag. 825 SALIM AYDÜZ, Firearm and Munitions Trade between the Ottoman Empire and some European States. 1350-1600........................................ » 843 SADOK BOUBAKER, Usages de la lettre de change à Smyrne dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle : l’exemple de la maison Roux de Marseille, 1759-1789................................................................................ » 863

Dibattito (AYDUZ, BOUBAKER, BORRACELLI, CAROSCIO, CLARENCE SMITH, CORDOBA, COSSUTO, DENZEL, HALIKOWSKI, GARCIA PORRAS, LADERO, MUNRO, SHATZMILLER,) ................... pag. 879 Venerdì 15 aprile – IDEE, REGOLE E PERCEZIONI ECONOMICHE Relazioni ALAN M. STAHL, European Minting and the Balance of Payments with the Islamic World in the Later Middle Ages.....................................pag. 889 JOHN MUNRO, South German Silver, European Textiles, and Venetian Trade with the Levant and Ottoman Empire, c. 1370 to c. 1720: A Non-mercantilist Approach to the Balance of Payments Problem........................................................................................ » 905 BOGDAN MURGESCU, Balances of Trade and Payments between the Ottoman Empire and Central Europe (16th-18th Centuries) ............ » 961

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Comunicazioni ANGELA ORLANDI, Oro e monete da Costantinopoli a Firenze in alcuni documenti toscani (secoli XV-XVI) ...........................................pag. 981 ANDREJ PONOMAREV, Silver In, Silver Out: Principles for Calculating Outflow of a Medieval Currency ........................................... » 1005 MICHAŁ TYMOWSKI, Impact de la révolution des prix en Europe du XVIe s. sur les transformations économiques à Tombouctou et dans le bassin du Niger moyen .............................................................. » 1025

Dibattito (BLOCKMANS, BORRACELLI, BRAUDE, CIRIACONO, ÇIZAKÇA, CLARENCE SMITH, FONTENAY, KOLODIEJCZYK, MOACCANIN, MUNRO, MURGESCU, ORLANDI, POHL, PONOMAREV, STAHL, TYMOWSKI, TOLEDANO, VAN DER WEE) ......................................................................... pag. 1035