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Informal rural credit markets in late Ottoman Palestine: an analysis of bay-wafa, salam and muzaraah contracts in the District of Haifa (1890-1912)

Abstract

The paper examines the role of the informal rural credit markets in the palestinian agricultural development at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The analysis starts from the long term effects of the legal reforms, particularly the Ottoman Land Code, on the performance of these markets. Such effects are evident in the evolution of bay-wafa, salam and muzaraah contracts, typical of the rural credit markets, that are recorded in the acts of the Public Notary of Haifa during the years 1890-1915. These contracts show an emerging network of interlinked credit markets, managed by the local notables, at the core of the agricultural growth of late Ottoman Palestine.Ottoman Palestine; informal rural credit markets; Ottoman Land Code

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