A temporal analysis over the wealth of individuals in the Ottoman Empire, 1710-1919 (With specific references to inheritance record from sharia courts)

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the wealth of individuals and its distribution through inheritance records in the Ottoman Empire. Inheritance records generate one of the oldest traditions of the Ottoman Empire from the middle of the fifteenth century. As a common practice, Ottoman courts contain inheritance records of individuals. An inheritance record provides information on the economic assets of deceased individuals. The aggregate level of these assets generates the wealth of individuals. Furthermore, these primary sources include information such as the socioeconomic status of individuals, types of economic assets, borrowing-lending relationship, costs of courts, and heirs. These characteristics of inheritance records have begun to attract the attention of economic historians in recent years. This thesis, in this sense, focuses on these primary sources to establish a comprehensive analysis, and it has a dual aim. The first is to present a dataset of inheritance records and average wealth levels from different regions, including commercial, agricultural and rural towns located in Anatolia. This aim continues corresponding to one of the primary questions of the thesis that established the dataset, that is, changes in average wealth levels over time. Average wealth levels have a declining pattern, spanning from 1710 to 1900, and a radical increase during the early twentieth century. This trend is compatible with recent historiography in some regards. This aim proceeds with average wealth levels of individuals from different segments of society, including titled and untitled individuals, males and females as well as Muslims and non-Muslims. These estimates include comparative analysis based on the wealthiest one percent, 10 percent as well as four quartiles starting from the wealthiest 25 percent. The first aim also includes the estimation of wealth distribution for the same period. To achieve this goal, this thesis employs Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves in the long-term perspective. The second aim is to test the effects of different variables, including titles, gender, religion, decentralization, tax revenues, consumer prices, wars, and weather, on changing levels of wealth distribution. This aim includes quantitative and systematic analysis through econometric models that allow for a deeper understanding of the relationship between wealth distribution and socioeconomic variables as well as non-economic parameters. To achieve these aims, this thesis uses more than 4.400 inheritance records. Other variables, including tax revenues, decentralization, consumer prices, wars, and weather, are derived from reliable secondary sources. The data limitations in establishing inheritance records entail employing 10-year intervals in time series, starting from 1710. The findings indicate that the distribution of wealth had an approximately inverted U-shaped pattern in the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, wealth distribution is much better for untitled individuals, females, and non-Muslims than those of titled groups, males and Muslims. During the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, however, a convergence in average wealth levels of comparison groups in the Ottoman Empire. Finally, while advantageous groups, including titled individuals, males, Muslims, and wars have a significant effect on wealth distribution, no significant results are obtained for disadvantageous groups, including commoners, females, and non-Muslims, state finance, devaluations, and drought.