Proposal preview

November 29th, 2016

Commerce, Finance and Exchange in Eurasia: Institutions, treaties and contracts, 1500-1900

As home to the rising European merchant empires in the West and central states such as the Ottoman, Mughal, Ming and Qing Empires in the East, Eurasia was a world of booming commerce and exchange in the early modern era. Differences in historical legacies and types of state formation in the both ends of Eurasia led to variation in the institutional environment of commerce and exchange in two ends. With the increasing scholarly interest in the institutional foundations of economic development, the elaboration of different institutional forms governing the commercial life in different parts of the Eurasian world and the effects of these institutional forms on economic development begs an examination of the institutions of different Eurasian empires on a single platform. This panel aims to bring scholars working on the institutional foundations of finance, commerce and exchange in the Ottoman Empire together with scholars dealing with the same subject for the Western Europe, Russia, India, China and Japan.

The session will be build on a number of themes including but not restricted to:

a) Relationship between the legal institutions, finance and commercial Life
b) The state attitudes towards commerce, finance and merchants
c) International treaties governing the commerce and its effects on the commercial life
d) Financial institutions, transactions and the credit world

Organizer(s)

  • Mehmet Bulut, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey

Session members

  • S.Said Kaymakcı, George Town University,
  • Cem Korkut, Yıldırım Beyazıt University,
  • Bora Altay, Yıldırım Beyazıt University,
  • M.Bedrettin Toprak, Istanbul Sabahattain Zaim University,
  • Toshiaki Tamaki, Kyoto Sangyo, Japan
  • Germano Maifreda, University of Milan, Italy
  • Cinzia Lorandini, University of Trento, Italy

Discussant(s)

  • Himmet Taskomur, Harvard University, USA
  • Alam Shahid, Northeastern University, USA

Papers

Panel abstract

1st half

Financing Trade in Early Modern Europe: Looking for Limited Partnerships

Cinzia Lorandini, University of Trento

Coordination, Commitment and Contracts: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on the Case of Ottoman Merchant Guilds

Bora Altay, Yildirim Beyazit University

The Role of Ottoman Cash Waqfs on Capital Accumulation: A Comparative Study from History to Today

Cem Korkut, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University

Commerce: «A Most Powerful Basis of Heresy». Religious Tribunals, Merchants, and the Marginalization of the Italian Economy (1550-1750)

Germano Maifreda, Università degli Studi di Milano

A Comparative Approach on the Economic Mentality and Financial Institutions of the Ottomans and Western Europeans, 1500-1900

Mehmet Bulut, İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University

The Role of the Ottoman Understanding of Institutional Foundations of Economic Development in Policy Making During the Age of Long Divergence

Said Salih Kaymakci, Georgetown University

Why Did Europe Realize Commercial Superiority in Early Modern World: The Emergence of Less Information Society

Toshiaki Tamaki, Kyoto Sangyo

2nd half

Why Did Europe Realize Commercial Superiority in Early Modern World?: The Emergence of Less Information -Asymmetry Society

Toshiaki Tamaki, Kyoto Sangyo University

The Role of Ottoman Cash Waqfs On Capital Accumulation: A Comparative Study From History To Today, v2

Cem Korkut, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University