Hamal organization in the last period of the Ottoman state: The case of Istanbul

This study aims to show the structure of porters, one of the important classes of the Ottoman artisan organization, and the changes in the organization of porters brought about by the socioeconomic and political developments that occurred after the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy II. Within this scope, the reactions of the porters, a marginal community to the technological, economic and political developments that took place in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, with the consciousness and awareness of their positions are discussed. Throughout the Ottoman history, porters played an active role in the economic life. The changes that took place with the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy are analyzed through the porters that was a socioeconomic class. Thus, it has a goal to show how modernization was reflected on different parts of the Ottoman Empire. The documents of the Ottoman Archive of Presidency of Turkish Republic are the main source of reference in every part of the study. The archive contains a large number of documents related to the porters.Documents on the bail for porters, gedik- the system of being an artisan-, the system of narh-price fixing-, porter janissaries, types of porters, conflicts experienced by porters, the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy, porters' strikes, the boycott of Austrian goods, and regulations issued for porters were accessed, read, simplified and used in the study. Istanbul Kadi Registries, observations of travelers to Istanbul, first-hand sources, copyrighted works, dictionaries, articles, master's and doctoral theses on the subject were also used.