Abstract
In the present paper, the author analyzes the local administrative and tax reforms during the Tanzimat period (1839-1876) in relation to the Land Law Revisions, in order to understand the problems posed for Turkish rural society at the time. In the present paper, the Land Law Revisions means the 1858 Land Law and the process of codifications and revisions.
The aim of the Tanzimat reform movement of the Ottoman Empire was to establish a “modern” state based on the rule of law. Prior to the reform movement, Turkish rural society can be characterized as existing in a state of weakening central control and controlled by local notables (â'yâns) acquiring de facto private ownership of land through tax farming contracts and the management of large scale farms known as çiftliks. Thus the local notables gained control over local political affairs. Therefore, the objective of the Tanzimat reforms was +o regain state control over rural society by rebuilding a centralized state order.
Research concerning the administrative and tax reforms during the Tanzimat period has been dominated by institutional historical approaches, while the perspective of the land problem in relation to the agrarian society has been virtually ignored. On the other hand, studies concerning the Land Law Revisions from the perspective of legal history have been conducted by Ö. L. Barkan and H. Cin. The only research to date concerning the direct effects of the Tanzimat reforms on agrarian society has been conducted by H. Inalcik, who dealt primarily with the early period of the Tanzimat reforms, and thus provides minimal or no analysis of the actual influences of the post-1850 reforms and the Land Law Revisions on the rural society.
Concerning the process of implementation of the Land Law Revisions, Y. Nagata has stressed the necessity of analyzing the political and socio-economic struggles over landownership among the central government, local notables and rural population in relation to the Ottoman Empire opening up to the penetration of the international economy. Thus with consideration to the above mentioned factors, the author focuses, in the present paper, on the interests and roles played by the above three parties in a discussion of the concrete points of dispute: namely, the strengthening of control over state land (mîrî), and a policy to standardize the âsâr tithe and later temporarily increase the rate.
From this perspective, the author is able to show that these two attempts are very closely related not only to the Land Law Revisions, but also to the Tanzimat administrative and tax reforms. In concrete terms, firstly, the government, in order to regain control of rural society and rebuild a centralized state organization, aimed at strengthening its control over mîrî through the regional administrative mechanism. In the Title deed Act of 1859, we find detailed terms concerning the registration of land titles, which clealy illustrates an attempt to legitimize the holdings and the use of mîrî.
Secondly, the author demonstrates that the Tanzimat tax reforms were implemented with the express purpose of guaranteeing land tax revenues as the largest source of funding for the entire reform process. After abolishing most of the traditional taxes, the government standardized the âsâr tithe at a rate of 10% for the whole country. Furthermore in 1867, in return for recognizing an enlarged inheritance rights of personal holding of the mîrî, the government temporarily attempted to increase the âsâr tithe. In other words, the firm establishment of both centralized control over mîrî in rural society and the âsâr tithe as an important source of revenue for impoverished public coff
