Tanzimat’tan II. Meşrutiyet’e (1839-1908) Esnaf Hareketliliği, Devlet Kontrolü ve İstanbul
Artisans’ Mobility, State Control and Istanbul from the Tanzimat to the Second Constitution (1839-1908)

Summary/Abstract: Modern states emerged from the 17th century and onwards. Settled in geographically defined spaces, these states directly taxed their subjects/citizens to finance growing bureaucracies and armies. For this, they needed to determine who was a subject/citizen and who was not; they passed various laws, conducted censuses, and issued identity cards, including internal/external passports. The Ottoman Empire, which could not expand anymore since the 17th century, needed to exploit its existing resources effectively as a state with defined borders. It began to control people’s movements under its rule on a more regular basis and to develop surveillance mechanisms. Emphasizing Istanbul, this present article shows artisans' mobility and the state's role from the Tanzimat to the Second Constitutional era (1839-1908). It pays attention to the capital city, Istanbul, the need to determine who was a subject/citizen or not, the economic dimension of state controlling of movements, and thus its interests coinciding with the upper-level artisans and merchants, the changing role of guild warden/kethüda through the Şehremaneti’s newly founded office called Artisan’s Office. Finally, it exemplifies Armenian artisans’ mobility following the Ottoman-Russian war of 1877-1878 and mainly from the 1890s and onwards.

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