ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the demographic character of the district of Tokat in a preliminary way and gauges the participation of local non-Muslim minorities in commerce, governance, and in the community. Tokat's Catholic and Protestant merchants were among its wealthiest and most prominent due in part to the tax concessions they held as members of their respective millets. However, as with other minorities in Tokat linked to regional diasporas, Jewish merchants were able to tap into international diaspora trade networks to make a living. Religious self-identification cemented bonds between the directors of European trade houses and Ottoman Christian merchants despite liturgical differences among them. As Tokat's economy expanded, local Muslim and non-Muslim merchants and notables invested in cooperative lending schemes through the seri court to recapitalize village farmers and herders who might otherwise have been marginalized in the new market conditions. In Tokat, a stratum of non-Muslim commercial and religious leaders seems to have existed parallel to the town's Muslim notables.
