A contested commodity: Licorice production and trade in Ottoman Western Anatolia, 1850-1914

This thesis examines the transformation of licorice root production and trade in Ottoman Western Anatolia between 1850 and 1914. Originally regarded as a wild plant with limited economic value, licorice root rapidly became commercialized in the mid-nineteenth century, evolving into a highly demanded agricultural commodity in international markets, especially due to growing industrial needs in Europe and the United States. This study analyzes the multilayered nature of this transformation by focusing on tax policies, land regimes, peasant labor, corporate competition, and diplomatic interventions. The thesis investigates the growing influence of foreign companies such as MacAndrews & Forbes in the Ottoman countryside, their interactions with local administrative structures, and their legal and political disputes with rival firms, based on extensive Ottoman archival documentation. It also examines how the Ottoman state's taxation and licensing policies concerning licorice were shaped by corporate pressures, labor organization practices, and consular-backed demands. Conflicts in regions like Umurlu and Nazilli illustrate how licorice evolved beyond being merely an economic good to becoming a legal and diplomatic issue. By taking licorice root as a focal point, this study aims to demonstrate how rural production relations, commodity economies, and local-international power dynamics took shape in the late Ottoman period. Ultimately, it seeks to build a conceptual bridge between Ottoman economic historiography and the broader literature on global commodity history.