Economics and Capitalism in the Ottoman Empire / Edition 1

by Deniz Kilinçoglu

Overview

Is it possible to generate "capitalist spirit" in a society, where cultural, economic and political conditions did not unfold into an industrial revolution, and consequently into an advanced industrial-capitalist formation? This is exactly what some prominent public intellectuals in the late Ottoman Empire tried to achieve as a developmental strategy; long before Max Weber defined the notion of capitalist spirit as the main motive behind the development of capitalism.

This book demonstrates how and why Ottoman reformists adapted (English and French) economic theory to the Ottoman institutional setting and popularized it to cultivate bourgeois values in the public sphere as a developmental strategy. It also reveals the imminent results of these efforts by presenting examples of how bourgeois values permeated into all spheres of socio-cultural life, from family life to literature, in the late Ottoman Empire.

The text examines how the interplay between Western European economic theories and the traditional Muslim economic cultural setting paved the way for a new synthesis of a Muslim-capitalist value system; shedding light on the emergence of capitalism—as a cultural and an economic system—and the social transformation it created in a non-Western, and more specifically, in the Muslim Middle Eastern institutional setting. This book will be of great interest to scholars of modern Middle Eastern history, economic history, and the history of economic thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138854062
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/22/2015
Series:	Routledge Studies in the History of Economics
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Deniz T. Kılınçoğlu received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2012. He currently teaches economics and history at the Middle East Technical University-Northern Cyprus Campus, Cyprus.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Ottoman Society, Economy, and Economics in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 2. Ottomanization of Economics Chapter 3. The Economic Idea of Society and Social Change for Development Chapter 4. Imperialism, Nationalism, and Economic Development Chapter 5. Changing Hearts and Minds: Economic Thought in Late Ottoman Fiction