Ankara : Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1997.Thesis(Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1997.Includes bibliographical references leaves 86-91.The study examines bread and the provisioning question in the Ottoman Empire during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Wheat and bread supply of the most important
center of the Empire: Istanbul is focused on. In this context, Ottoman State's
intervention in the economy and its motivation to do so is analyzed. I argue that the
Ottoman government had a pragmatic motivation in interfering with provisioning,
beginning from the cultivation of grain, up to distribution of bread to the consumers.
The analysis is made using archival sources and published primary sources. Kadi court
records, published state records, documents of the Cevdet Belediye and Mühimme
classifications of the Başbakanlık Cumhuriyet archives are among these documents. In
the study it is suggested that production of bread which was the basic source of
nourishment with an additional symbolically 'sacred' character, was subject to close
control of the government. State control is observable in the transportation,
requisition, storage, and the distribution of wheat as welt as in the monopolies of
bakers, and the rules of market regulation imposed by state officialsErefe, İklilM.S
