Ottoman Era

Ottoman rule starts in 1396 and ends in 1878. The era is long and uneven. The coast keeps a charter. The interior loses its old lords and gains the zadruga.

The charter [edit]

The ports sign a charter with the Ottoman court in 1396. A second charter confirms it in 1475.

The charter gives the ports five rights.

1. The port council collects the pier fee.
2. The port pays its tax in copper, salt, and fish.
3. A Christian bishop keeps his seat.
4. No soldier is housed in a port house.
5. A port ship may trade in Ottoman waters.

The charter is the reason the coast stays rich. The interior has no such charter. The interior pays a land tax and a head tax.

The interior [edit]

The interior changes more than the coast. The old noble families lose their land. Farmers group into large households to survive the tax. This is the birth of the full Zadruga System about 1600.

A zadruga pays one tax for one household. Forty people count as one tax unit. The state rewards the large household with a lower rate. The household grows larger.

The coastal household [edit]

The coast goes the other way. Men go to sea for the Ottoman grain trade and the Ottoman navy. A man can be away for a year. The woman becomes the head of the house in fact, and later in law.

By 1700 the port house passes from mother to daughter. The son takes a share of the boat, not the house. See Coastal Matriarchies.

The border [edit]

The Southern Marches become a border zone. The Ottoman and the Christian worlds meet there. Three groups live on the line.

• Farmers who speak Turkish and hold the low land.
• Herders who move between the two sides.
• Guards and smugglers, who are sometimes the same people.

The border habit survives 1878 and 1976. See The Kray and Regional Divides.

Faith [edit]

The Orthodox church keeps its bishop at Zaligrad. The Ottoman system puts the church in charge of the Christian community. The bishop collects a church tax and keeps the school.

A Muslim minority settles in the Marches in the 1600s. The two groups share the market, the well, and the plague. They do not share a marriage.

The long decline [edit]

Three problems weaken the empire after 1750.

1. The tax farm. A tax farmer pays the treasury in advance and collects more from the people.
2. The bandit bands. A band of 30 men can hold a valley for a season.
3. The trade shift. The sea trade moves to bigger ships and bigger ports.

The coast feels all three. The port councils borrow money and lose part of the pier fee.

The end [edit]

A rising in 1876 fails. Ottoman troops punish the coast. The great powers then impose a settlement. See National Revival.