The evaluation of Ottoman fishery in the 19th century according to the archival resources

In the period of Byzantium, the fishery in the Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus was the one of the most important sources of income. What about in the Ottoman period? How was the system of fishery in the Ottoman Empire? Was there an organizational structure? What were the rules? Was it possible to fish other sea products? The answers of these questions can be found in the Ottoman archives (Archive of Prime Ministry- BOA.) The first and most significant source of this work is the archival documents. The sources in the Ottoman archives were investigated in order to find a new regulation of fishery made after the Tanzimat period. In this work, the first matter is the history of fishery in Constantinople in the antique age and the effects of Byzantium fishery system on Ottoman system in the 16th and 17th centuries. Moreover the influence of Ottoman Public Debts (Düyun-ı Umumiye) in Ottoman fishery was investigated. There is an evaluation of these regulations in comparison to the archival documents. These archival documents are very essential guides for the research questions of this work. In addition to this the matter of foreign fishermen was searched. According to the archival documents, the foreign fishermen were seen as an important problem in the particular period of the Ottoman Empire. Within the lights of all these sources, the administrative principles and practices of Ottoman fishery system were examined.