The Changing Nature of the Domestic Service Sector in 19th-Century Istanbul

Abstract

Istanbul, a power nexus in the Ottoman world, witnessed a proliferation of female child labor in domestic service over the course of the 19th century. This study shows that slave ownership and the recruitment of girl domestics were highly class-sensitive phenomena. This means that 19th-century Istanbul groups of middling economic means, who could not easily access the slave market, could recruit girl domestics with lower wages. The study claims that the rising presence of girl child labor in domestic service did not in itself bring about the immediate disappearance of domestic female slaves, as these two types of labor were not substitutes for each other in the labor market. The study also shows that a diversification in the zones supplying girls after the 1840s, as well as the rising demand for girl child labor, affected the wage levels of girls, which, however, does not appear to have had a noticeable impact on the fluctuations of prices for female slaves—both for Africans and Caucasians—and ownership.