Di̇vi̇dend Book of Karataş Sub-Di̇stri̇ct of Demi̇rci̇ Townshi̇p

Dividend Book has an essential place among archival materials resting from the Ottoman Empire to the present day. These books show us clearly financial, economic and social life of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. The books illuminate generally us about demographic and ethnic composition, personal estate and real estate property, personal annual earnings, size of enterprises, detailed and total tax burden, labor and professions of people, agricultural products they cultivated and animals they fed, commercial and industrial establishments of a district. The Dividend Books has a wide content reflecting social and economic situation of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. The Dividend Books which registered in detailed all assets people had inform about every detail of the Ottoman provincial. The Dividend Books give detailed informations about total amount of land, total amount of cultivated and fallow fields, amount of land allocated to production, amount of land allocated by product type, outputs obtained from these products, number and incomes of animal husbandry, various industries, commercial and work service lines. In this study, The Dividend Books of 47 villages of Karataş sub-district, one of three sub-districts from Manisa city Demirci Township are examined. The study consists of abstract and two other parts. In the abstract, examining in detail of Demirci Township's geography and history, I describe and emphasize The Dividend Books of Demirci Township's Karataş sub-district for socio-economic history of The Ottoman Empire. In the first part, administrative structure and population of the town, sectorial distribution of taxpayers and social status of taxpayers in these books are analyzed. In the second part, economic structure, output of animal husbandry and township taxes are mentioned. The study is ended with a conclusion and bibliography.