The Mukataa and the Iltizam System in Vidin during the 16th Century as a Contribution to the Economic History of the Region

The mukata’as were an important part of the productive and fiscal system of the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Ottoman Empire employed the word mukata’a to designate parts of public revenue units (such as mines, rice paddles, salt marshes, workshops for soap making, candles, fishing grounds, etc.) that belonged to the state treasury and were operated by either government officials, called emins, or by granting concessions to private persons, Muslims or non-Muslims, appointed as amils. The difference between the two forms of management is the following: In the first case, the emin operated for the state and received remuneration, whereas in the second, the amil paid a fixed amount to the treasury in order to take over the iltizam (tax farm). During the first centuries of the Ottoman Empire, the management of the mukata’as in the name of the state through emins was more widespread as a mode of exploitation. But the monetary crisis of the second half of the sixteenth century in the Ottoman Empire obliged the state to look for new sources of income (particularly in cash) in order to provide funds for the state treasure. Therefore, the iltizam system gained importance and the role of the m?ltezim as a cash provider to the state treasury increased. In this study, the state incomes obtained by mukataa exploitation in the region of Vidin will be examined. The distribution of iltizams, their process of functioning and the contribution to the state treasury by the revenues of the tax farms and the m?ltezims themselves are among the topics to be explored.