Krustyo Yordanov,
Senior Assistant Professor, PhD
Institute for Historical Studies
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
52, Shipchenski prohod Blvd.
1113 Sofia BULGARIA
Е-mail: k.yordanov1975@abv.bg
Web of Science Researcher ID: AAU-8363-2020
https://orcid.org: 0000-0002-8306-4688
Съдържанието е достъпно само за абонирани потребители.
Pages: 369 – 410 | https://doi.org/10.53656/978-619-7667-80-6-v1.09
Abstract. The study examines the participation of different population groups with special duties and status in the economic life of the Ottoman province. Its territorial scope is the territory of present-day Bulgaria. In the early Ottoman centuries, the Bulgarian nation was divided into three main groups – the ordinary reaya and two groups of the population with special duties depending on the degree of tax preferences: On the one hand, some groups of the Christian population outside the timars were owners of service farms (fatherlands) and were exempt from cizie, land and extraordinary taxes, while other groups were included in the timars and were exempt only from extraordinary taxes and obligations. Depending on the tax status come the different possibilities of accumulating financial surpluses in economic activities. The special status population is further divided into three groups according to the nature of their official duties.
The service landholdings of the Voynuks and falconers were strictly regulated and under the full control of the state. However, Voynuks and falconers had the opportunity to expand farming beyond their service lands in exchange for reduced tax obligations. Since the end of the 17th century, when a crisis occurred in the service landholdings, they directed their economic activity outside the service farms. Individual Voynuks from the plain villages established large farms of two or three pairs of land, combining market-oriented agriculture with cattle breeding.
In the mountain and semi-mountainous Voynuk and Derbentci villages, the population eventually turned to large-scale stock breeding and trade in livestock and animal products. Based on the processing of wool, hides and milk, a number of crafts developed. As early as the 16th century, the Voynuks stood out as owners of herds of 200 to 400 sheep and goats, as they were exempt from taxes on up to 100 owned sheep. In the 18th century, farmers with several thousand sheep and dairy owners were already to be found. In the course of time, the cattle industry and trade became a profitable industry.
As early as the 16th century, the population with special duties became involved in the urban economy. Some Voynuks and other categories with special status from the villages gradually came to the cities, where they began to engage in crafts. In Sofia, Voynuks were registered, who included in their service fatherlands even their trade and craft shops. In the large abaci guild in Plovdiv, for example, peasants from the Derbentci and Voynuk mountain villages, where the population had experience in wool processing, were probably also included. Gradually some trading villages also emerged, where part of the population became involved in regional and international trade. Especially those villages where the population was engaged in livestock trade and processing of animal raw materials were flourishing. There were, however, ethnographic specificities of the Balkan Mountain Range region and the Sredna Gora Mountain region that made it the heart of the Bulgarian economic and cultural recovery during the National Revival.
Keywords: Ottoman empire, Rumeli provinces, population with special duties, service landholdings, stock breeding, crafts, trade
