Tobacco Cultivation and Trade in Kavalla and the Ottoman Financial Policy: A Case of Financial Growth in the Late Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to relate the growth of Kavalla as a region of tobacco cultivation and as an exporting port with the structural reforms in the economy and other fields of social life in the Ottoman Empire. These undertaken reforms are necessitated by empire’s weakness to compete with the increasingly dominant European states and by the spread of nationalism’s destabilizing influence in the Balkans. In this context, I show that the regional growth of Kavalla in 19th century is linked with Ottoman Empire’s incorporation into the global economy of expanding capitalism as a supplier of raw materials for the European industries. The effects of these reforms in the social reality of this provincial city are approached through the changes that occurred in the sphere of economic activities and state policies, the improvement of the transportation network, taxation and landownership and the social structure through the rise of new strata.