Large estates and commons in the province Aydın in the middle of the XIX th century

Historiography of economic history discusses the development of private large-estates at the expense of commons from the perspective of efficiency and economic growth on the one hand, polarization of capital and labor on the other. The historiography of Ottoman economic history discusses also large-estates but by focusing on the causes behind their development and by bypassing these two points. In this thesis, we will analyze the development of large-estates and its impacts on the commons in the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Empire within the context of debates on commons in the historiography of economic history. Such an analysis will search for economic and social dynamics resulted from the conflicting relationship between large estate formation and commons. We will therefore examine conditions of the commons used by peasants in the nineteenth century by means of an analysis of "income registers" of large estates in the Aydın Province found in the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives. Anahtar kelimeler: XIXth Century, Province of Aydın, Large-estates, Commons, Economic and Social History, Ottoman Empire.