The Development of Turkish Agriculture: Debates, Legacies and Dynamics

Abstract

This article introduces three further contributions looking at the Ottoman state, cotton production in Anatolia and Egypt and rural indebtedness in western Anatolia during the nineteenth century. It points to shared concerns – the commercialisation of production, the role of the state in surplus appropriation and geo-political influences over agricultural policy – that link each of the subsequent articles. The latter provides a useful basis on which to consider contemporary debates about agrarian development in Turkey.