The Disintegration of the Ottoman Monetary System During the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

This chapter focuses not on the Price Revolution but on a monetary phenomenon that took place somewhat later. It examines the reasons behind the disappearance of the akçe and the ascent of European coinage. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Balkans, together with western and central Anatolia, remained as the core regions of the akçe/sultani system described earlier. In outlying Wallachia, Moldavia, and Hungary, however, Austrian, Polish, Hungarian, and German coins were used more widely than Ottoman coins. The areas neighboring Iran, from Eastern Anatolia to Iraq, were especially sensitive for the Ottoman government. The monetary history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries raises interesting questions regarding the power of the Ottoman state as well as its policies and attitudes towards money, and, more generally, the economy. The inability of the state to impose a single monetary unit for the empire after the territorial conquests of the sixteenth century provides strong evidence regarding the limitations of its power.