The reactions of Ottoman labourer to financial and economic conditions: Employees and subaltern in Beirut (1890-1914)

The field of labor history remained a neglected area for a long time among Ottoman studies. Until the 1990s, there was not any study based on archive documents and the existing ones were generally shaped around trade union activities and labor movements. In this study, by discussing the new labor history approaches, their reflections on Ottoman labor historiography were examined, and in line with these approaches, the reactions of the labor groups against the financial and economic conditions of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century were evaluated. As one of the main hypotheses of the study, the example of the province of Beirut has been chosen to show that labor movements took place not only in the center but also in the countryside. Workers, who constitute one part of the Ottoman working life, expressed their reactions generally by the method of strike, while the civil servants who constitute another part of them expressed their reactions by actions such as leaving their place of duty and work stoppage. Villagers, who constitute the rural part of the working life, reported their poor working conditions to the central administration by their petitions of complaint. It has been observed that while workers who are working under the European capital in Beirut complained about the financial difficulties and working conditions, the civil servants complained about low salaries and high taxes, and the peasants generally were complainants because of excessive taxation. All these findings show the existence of labor movements in the provincial areas, especially in Beirut.