XIX. Yüzyıl Sonu İstanbulu’nda Batılı Tüketici Ürünlerinin Dolaşıma Girdikleri Kanallar ve Yarattıkları Hareketlenmeler: Şark Ticaret Yıllıkları Üzerinden Bir Araştırma

Abstract

This study examines historical cases that illustrate various encounters between Western goods and Istanbulites between 1881-1914. Through the micro-analysis of Oriental Directories, it aims to identify the channels that facilitated circulation of Western goods in the market, and to understand how these goods transformed practices of producers, merchants and store owners. The studied period showcases all the conflicts, negotiations and transformations that were brought by the intensive process of the Ottoman state’s integration with the West and world economy. During this period, as a port city that had been going through economic, social and urban re-configuration, Istanbul, hosted a richness of production, trade and sales activities. In literature, the influx of “Western goods” into the Ottoman market is characterized as “invasion”. The term “Western goods”, which is used in reference to all imaginable Western materials and products that flooded the market, is erosive as much as it is inclusive: Its inclusivity creates a general understanding, yet blurs the singularities that await in the mist to be traced. Oriental Directories offer a vast array of singular stories of manufacture, trade, marketing, display and repair of Western goods. Among thousands of entries in these directories, many lead to cases that suggest how producers, merchants and storeowners configured their professional practices with the influence of Western goods and illustrate counter-scenarios to the mainstream “demise after invasion”.