Farklılıkları Bağlamında Osmanlı İstanbulu’nda İthalat: İzmir ile Bir Karşılaştırma (1793-1803)

Abstract

This paper aims to study Istanbul, if it differs in terms of import char- acteristics or not, which differs from big cities of Ottomans like Smyrna, Salonika and  Bursa  socio-economically,  politically  and  geographically.  Main  question  of the research may be formulated as does Ottoman capital Istanbul have a different import characteristic? For this purpose, 170 ships which brought goods to Istan- bul during the period of 1793-1803 were analyzed; in terms of departure harbors, 1835 merchants, their 5321 items of merchandise on ships and then compared with the same period data of Izmir where approximately 45 % of the import of Emperor realized. Results show that Istanbul was similar to a big city like Izmir and did not have a different structure of import from Izmir, despite its different socio-economic, political and geographic structure. However, in order to make generalizations findings mentioned above must be tested by data from different periods, so findings of the research should be verified by different periods and data.