Stagnant Wages in the Ottoman State Textile Factories in the Nineteenth Century: Comparison with European Wages

Güven T.

European Review of Economic History, vol.29, no.4, pp.558-578, 2025 (SSCI) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 29 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1093/ereh/heaf005
  • Journal Name: European Review of Economic History
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ABI/INFORM, American History and Life, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, EconLit, Historical Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.558-578
  • Abdullah Gül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This study presents a new wage series for the textile factories established by the Ottoman state between 1848 and 1900. The data reveal that the real wages of Ottoman textile workers remained stagnant over this period compared to workers in other sectors within the Empire and in textile factories in Belgium and England. As the Corden-Neary model predicts, after 1820, the increase in international trade led to deindustrialization, resulting in a negative divergence in textile wages. Additionally, the state's implementation of wage setting as a cost-reducing measure further contributed to the stagnation of wages in the state textile factories.