Soap production in the Ottoman State and supply the Istanbul's soap needs (1760-1840).

Soap, as in the present day, was an essential means of cleanliness in the Ottoman period. The reason we have chosen soap as the subject of our research is to demonstrate that behind this seemingly ordinary commodity lay a vast network of production, distribution and trade. Supplying the demand for soap in a densely populated center such as İstanbul provides insight into the commercial networks linking production centers with the capital, the organization of guilds and the state's sensitivity toward regulating the market. In this study, our aim is to shed light on the Ottoman economşc and social order through an examination of soap production centers, taxation and pricing policies, guild-state relations, and the mechanisms of state control over soap. In Ottoman society, as soap constituted a fundamental cleaning material, it was necessary to ensure its continuous production, timely delivery to the required locations, and distribution in a fair and regulated manner. Consequently, the administration meticulously recorded the entire process from production to distribution. As a result, the Ottoman archives contain documents that provide detailed information concerning soap. These valuable records costitute the principal source of our study. The data obtained from the archival materials have been corroborated with both domestic and international scholarly Works in the existing literature. The first section of our study discusses majör centers such as Crete, İzmir, Lesbos, Edremit and Ayvalık, which served as the Ottoman Empire's primary repositories of olive oil and where soap was produced in substantial quantities. Our decision to confine the study to these cities stems from the fact that Istanbul's demand for soap was predominantly supplied from these regions. This section also addresses the guild of soap makers and the dynamics of guild-state relations. The second section, which focuses on the tax regimes and pricing practices applied to soap, draws upon archival sources to elucidate the broader economic conditions of the period through the lens of soap. The final section examines the provision of soap for Istanbul and for the Topkapı Palace.