Izmir and the Ottoman Maritime World of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The sea had always played an important role in the life of the Ottoman empire: in the 18th century, coas al and blue wat r shipping were a vital means of communication for people, ideas and goods as well as a crucial medium for economic development and particularly for trade. It is no accident that the maritime regions of the empire included some of the biggest and most economically developed urban centres, such as Izmir. The sea was essential for the economy of Izmir too: it was one of its life lines and defining characteristics. The other was its immense hinterland spread over a large part of the empire. The sea on the one hand, and the hinterland on the other, were fundamental parts to the equation that re sulted, by the end of the 18th century, in the spectacular growth of the port of Izmir. Multiple maritime contacts with Europe, as well as with the rest of the empire, were vital in securing Izmir's spectacular economic growth. Although Izmir had been participating in the external trade of the em pire since the beginning of the 17th century, it was in the course of the 18th century, following the growth of the European economy and the re vitalization of the Mediterranean basin, that Izmir rose to become both the most important port of the empire, surpassing Alexandria and Istan bul, and one of the major ports of the Mediterranean, handling, both in terms of volume and value, most of the exports to the West and imports, and dominating maritime and shipping routes, both coastal and deep-sea, within the empire.1 While Alexandria initially rivaled Izmir in internal trade, playing a crucial role in key commodities such as rice and wheat, and was also im portant in the export trade with Europe, Izmir was able by the mid-18th century to dominate the commercial routes to Europe, thus overtaking Al exandria in the external trade sector.2 In the second half of the 18th cen tury Izmir surged ahead of Alexandria in all aspects of the empire's trade with Europe. In internal trade too, Izmir, strengthened by her command ing position in the external maritime trade with Europe, and, due in part to her geographical location, came to dominate Ottoman trade overall.