Mid-nineteenth-century Gemlik and its environs: a survey of a West Anatolian region and its long-term economic and demographic development

Abstract

This paper discusses the interrelations between migration, agricultural production, class, and cultural belonging, focusing on the economic and demographic transformation of Gemlik, an Ottoman district that underwent substantial change over the course of the nineteenth century. Based on the mid-nineteenth-century population and tax registers of the town of Gemlik and of two villages in the district, Kurşunlu and Kumla-i Sagir, we demonstrate that the agricultural economy in the district was heavily shaped by commodity production in the context of the district’s increasing integration into global markets. By tracing specific patterns of mobility and settlement over time, we show that the process of global integration was entangled with class and cultural differentiation in the region.