ABSTRACT
The Ottoman economic and financial structures became integrated into the European and world economies in the nineteenth century. In this process, the essential factor was the rapid growth in trade between the Ottoman Empire and the leading countries of Europe. During the three-quarters of a century following the free-trade treaties, signed first with Britain in 1838 then with other European countries,1 total Ottoman exports increased more than five times, measured in current prices, from 4.7 million Ottoman liras to 28.4 million Ottoman liras, while imports measured in current prices expanded six and a half times, from 5.2 million Ottoman liras to 39.4 million Ottoman liras.2 The increases in trade volumes were even more spectacular, since, as a result of increases in productivity, the prices of the commodities involved in Ottoman foreign trade were considerably lower on the eve of World War I than in 1840. In fact, trade volumes increased respectively nine and ten fold during 18401913. This was achieved despite the loss of Ottoman territories and was a direct result of European industrialization, pioneered by Britain, and the free trade era that was inaugurated in the nineteenth century.
