Istanbul has been a significant seaport and transshipment center since the earliest periods of history, as it is situated on the sea routes connecting the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and is on the juncture point of the highways connecting Europe to Asia. Golden Horn, Bosphorus and Marmara Sea had an important place in the general view of the city and daily lives of people. The port of the city not only constituted the main base of the international naval forces of the empire, but also shaped the economic and social life of the city.
As a historical fact, the states having both sides of the Bosphorus under their control had succeeded in dominating over the Black Sea, and they continued to maintain their positions and welfare as long as they preserved their dominance over it. In relation to this, the Ottoman Empire aimed at both maintaining the security of Istanbul and providing the economic needs of the new developing empire by heading towards the Black Sea, and taking the islands around Çanakkale one by one, following the conquest of Istanbul.1
Istanbul revived in a very short time after becoming the capital city of the Ottoman Empire, and turned into a significant trade center in the region encompassing the area from Anatolia to the Balkans, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Considering the control over the sea routes going through Istanbul, Bayezid I built the Anatolia Fortress in 1395, and Fatih the Conqueror constructed the Rumelia Fortress in 1452, and as a result, these fortresses became frequent stops for merchant ships for centuries. The motive behind the ultimatum, requiring the inspection of the goods and people carried in the ships that were to go through the Black Sea, declared by Mehmed II, the Conqueror after the completion of the construction of the Rumelia Fortress, was to prevent the support from other countries via sea routes to Istanbul, which he blockaded.
As a matter of fact, a Venetian ship ignoring the decision of Fatih the Conqueror in 1452 would pay a severe penalty, and it would sink as a result of a cannonball from the Rumelia Fortress. This decision was the first example of military precautions taken by the Ottoman Empire for Istanbul.2
Istanbul Port as a Naval Base
The Golden Horn and Langa Ports, which were also used by Byzantines before, were important centers for civil and military marine during the Ottoman Empire. With the Golden Horn, which was especially protected against the winds, turning into an important center of military naval base and transportation for marine trade, significant developments affecting the structure of the city began to emerge. The ports of Kasımpaşa, Galata and Eminönü prevailed as sheltered ports in this period. The ships coming to Istanbul would first anchor before the Golden Horn, and they could either come aboard the coast directly or use small vessels for transporting goods. The coastal areas on both sides of the entrance of the Golden Horn served mainly for the port functions.
Though the coasts of Golden Horn were full of wooden houses, waterside mansions or simple ateliers, it was Tersane-i Amire (Imperial Shipyard), which set its seal on the region. The navy ships on the sea, the vessels that were built on the cradles and the ones under maintenance in the parts of the shipyard would constitute a monumental view.3
Despite the fact that the Ottomans had used the Kadırga Port for a while after the conquest of Istanbul, Mehmed II, the Conqueror had developed the Ceneviz (Genoa) Shipyard on the Golden Horn. With the order of the Selim I, a short time after his ascendance, demanding the construction of shipyards with hundreds of docks in Gallipoli and Istanbul, a shipyard began to be built on the bay, where Kasımpaşa Stream flowed in the winter of 1513-1514. This structure became a significant institution after quite a short time. It is known that both building operations and ship constructions continued in the first years of the shipyard. The number of the ship construction docks in the shipyard was around 200 in the sixteenth century. Along with these docks, there were also a divanhane used as the administration center, vaults, ateliers and a dungeon. The density of the operations conducted in the shipyard would directly affect the life in Galata and operations in the port districts. In cases, when the navy would prepare for an important campaign, the number of the ships built would increase, and this would lead to the increase of the number of the craftsmen and workers in the shipyard, as well as the augmentation of the materials with respect to both variety and quantity. Just the provision of the lumber from Kocaeli region and its transfer to Istanbul required complex organizations. When the lumbers were brought, they would be inspected by the carpenters, experts in their areas, and they would be taken under protection in the warehouses called “mahzeni çûb” and were dried there. During the construction of the ships, these lumbers would be prepared according to their places of use, and would be delivered to the naval architects and carpenters. All of these operations would bring considerable dynamism to the region. Thus, it was inevitable to determine new ship construction operations in the shipyard according to the current needs and the military goals of the Ottoman Empire in this period. Nevertheless, the fires in the shipyard region would cause enormous damages and required the reconstruction of the whole construction. Thus, the number of the guardians and wardens responsible for the security of the shipyard area and the ships on the slipways was frequently increased. For instance, the big fire occurring in 1539, had damaged some parts of the shipyard and the famous dungeon, and they were to be rebuilt. In 1547, during the period, when Sokollu Mehmed Pasha was the Kaptan-ı Derya (Chief Commander of Naval Forces), the land side of the Shipyard was surrounded with walls, and thus, it would not be seen from outside and the Shipyard would be safer. It was possible to reach the districts, where the workers of the shipyard stayed, and to the shops belonging to the craftsmen, providing simple needs of the Shipyard, through six doors within these walls. The number of the workers of the shipyard was around 2,500 in the sixteenth century, and in case of need qualified craftsmen were provided from the outside.4
When the naval structures of the empire were required to be reconstructed after their destruction in the Battle of Leponto (1571), the number of the docks was increased as the current shipyard would not meet the requirements. Though the number of the ship construction docks in the Shipyard is stated as 200 5 by Fresne-Canaye, coming to Istanbul in 1573, this number is claimed to be 135 in 1579 in the travel book by Carlier de Pinon.6 There are other resources justifying his claim. According to the information provided by Evliya Çelebi, there were a gunpowder mill tower, seventy captain vaults, seven leaded vaults, an oar store, a new divanhane, a dungeon, and a javelin pavilion, Şahkulu Gate and Meyyit Dock in the middle of the sixteenth century. That was mostly transportation ships, which were constructed in the Shipyard for members of the palace, and statesmen of high ranks rather than battle ship might refer to the increased interest in the civil trade. These ships would go to Alexandria on the account of their owners and would carry goods and passengers.7
Towards the midst of the seventeenth century, the number of the shipyard docks had reached 157. It is understood that during the preparations for the military campaign against Crete the shipyard docks were repaired and their numbers increased, whereas with the decrease in the interest for the campaign preparations, the unused docks were ruined.8 The most important change resulting from the Crete campaign with respect to the Ottoman navy and Istanbul port was in the field of ship construction technology. The construction of ships with high broadsides and with multi lockers and sails rather than galiots, moving with oars and with a low structure, increased the variety of operations in the shipyard.9 For instance, the galley of 47 meters consisting of three lockers with 130 cannonballs was unique in 1715 with respect to its features among other ships.10 Especially after the eighteenth century, facilities like sail production shops, spinning shops, anchor production shops were brought to the Shipyard. As the galiot cradles were not suitable for galley constructions, new places were opened for them.11 Scaffold and derring crane systems began to be applied in the Shipyard.12 It is seen that the fires in the Shipyard had caused considerable damage from time to time and with the repair works and additional buildings, the structure of the Shipyard had changed. With the construction of the first dry dock between 1797-1800 and two new docks in the nineteenth century, new techniques of docking began to be applied so as to produce more durable galleys.13
The Kaptan-ı Derya was the chief executive of the shipyard and the naval forces in the classical period administration structure. Nevertheless, it was the Tersane Emini (Supervisor of the Shipyard), who conducted the Shipyard functions and ship construction operations, arranging the work distribution. There were a number of administrative officials, working under his charge. Liman reisi (chief of the port) was responsible for the Shipyard, where liman nazırı (minister of the port) was responsible for the order in the port.14
The materials required for the construction of the ships were provided mainly from their places of production, mostly in return for taxes and/or via purchase in cases when the need was higher. The materials and the places where they were provided might be listed as follows: any type of lumber from the vicinities of Kocaeli and Bolu; rope from Samsun and Aegean region; iron and nail from Samakovcuk and Samakov in Bulgaria; lead from Bosnia, Serbia, Skopje; pitch from Lesbos islands, Avlonia, Gallipoli; tar from Albania and Wallachia; and in the periods of galley construction the sail clothes were mostly taken from Gallipoli, Euboea and Egypt. From time to time, in cases of high amounts of demand for these materials or emergent needs, goods might also be bought from the foreign merchants. Thus, the empire did not have any problems with the provision of materials, it had a self-sufficient structure.15 The shipyard administration also functioned as the employer for small scale enterprises and artisans ensuring the storing and processing of these materials, and played crucial role in general port operations. Nevertheless, it should be noted that civil marine trade was not directly related to the shipyard.
Istanbul Seaport Trade and Transportation
During the Ottoman period, the transportation of the goods, purveyance in particular, was done with the use of sea lanes and rivers, as the land routes were quite expensive. The biggest places of production and markets of the empire were settled around the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and Mediterranean, and in the vicinities of big rivers such as the Danube, Tigris, Euphrates, Nile as well as small streams. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that despite its convenience and cheapness, marine trade, especially Istanbul centered trade on the sea routes, had some obstacles and dangers. The sea was not always eligible for transport for the vessels of the time. Not only the ships of trade but also ships of the naval forces had to anchor at the harbors in winter days and wait for the “derya mevsimi (sea season)”. This period would last from the “rûz-ı Hızır” (first day of the spring) to the “rûz-ı Kasım” (first day of November).
Within this period, the delivery of the provisions, required for the use of the people in Istanbul, from other ports to Istanbul port was one of the crucial subjects that the state would keep track of. The ships, sailing at times other than the period specified above, would sometimes get through great dangers. Some of the ships might break into pieces after hitting rocks in the storms, some might sink in the waves and some might be caught by the pirates. For transportation, mostly sailing ships such as galley, barça and pulaka were used. These ships would not move without wind, and in cases of no wind they would get to a port and wait for the wind. These delays would sometimes cause delays in the suspension of the provisions of Istanbul. As a matter of fact, when the ships coming from Egypt could not move because of the lack of wind, the Kaptan-ı Derya was asked to pull these ships with galiots or transport the goods inside these ships with galiots, and deliver them to Istanbul in 1584.
That the daily services of the port and the operations of the navy and trade were conducted together resulted in some problems. It is without doubts that the port of Istanbul, as a metropolis at this time too, was quite dynamic, and it had the most suitable facilities for a variety of vessels and ships. The ships of naval forces at the one side of the shipyard, and trade ships with their colorful flags anchored at the shores of the Golden Horn on the other side, would form a whole. The traveler Lubenau state that 800 ships would get in and out of the port.16 It would be wrong to regard this number as an exaggeration because the number of big and small Ottoman vessels operating in the field of trade on the Black Sea and the Mediterranean was quite high. According to Evliya Çelebi, the trade ships on the Mediterranean consisted of 600 galiots and 2,000 karamürsel and şayka type ships. This trade fleet operating on the Mediterranean included 3,000 captains and 27,000 crews. The number of the mariners registered to the Black Sea shipmen was around 9,000.17 In the end of the sixteenth century, 20 big galiots, constructed for the member of the palace at the Tersane-i Âmire, would make cruises between Istanbul and Alexandria.18
Ottoman Empire, becoming more and more influential in the Mediterranean, would entitle foreign states, with which it had good relations, with the right to trade on its waters within the framework of conditions stated in the agreements. Despite this, the sea routes in the Mediterranean were under the threat of Muslim and Christian pirates. Muslim pirates would mostly attack the ships of the European states, whereas the Christian pirates would mostly attack Ottoman ships. Christian pirates would sometimes get even through the Aegean Sea. Thus, it was preferable for the Ottoman trade ships to travel as convoys. Within this framework, some of the rulers of the provinces by the seas such as the bey (ruler) of the Rhodes, Chios, and Lesbos islands were assigned for the provision of the security of the sea. Bigger ships of galiot type equipped with sufficient weapons could sail on the sea on their own. Ships of European states would sail as convoys by taking required precautions. For instance, Venice had been sailing as convoys since the sixteenth century. France, on the other hand, was mostly trying to make deals with the Northern African pirates.
As Black Sea was closed to foreign trade until the end of the eighteenth century, foreign ships coming from the Mediterranean to Istanbul could reach Istanbul after passing through the fortresses in the Dardanelles Straits and paying the passage fee called “selamiyye akçesi”. Though small ships (up to 16 tons) could come aboard the coasts of Galata, bigger ships could anchor close to the coasts Galata. The loads on the big ships were generally carried with boats and vessels strolling on the Golden Horn.19
Foreign merchants would pay the customs tariffs of the goods they brought either at the customs in Eminönü or at the Kurşunlu Mahzen (Leaded Vault) at Galata. The amount of the tariff was stated in the official pacts. Along with the customs tariff, port dues were to be paid. The role of the Jews in the mediation of the transactions with the foreign merchants was quite important.20
Along both lines of trade port on the Golden Horn, there were quays along Karaköy and Tophane on the northern side, where Europeans would come over, and there were quays along Bahçekapı and Balat on the southern side, where mostly Ottoman ships would stop by.
The ships would unload their goods in different places according to the types of loads they delivered. The grain and other provisions, most important needs of the city, were discharged on the coastline between Eminönü and Unkapanı.
The lumber would be stored at the warehouse in Odunkapı, and grain would be kept in the storehouses in Unkapanı. Nevertheless, private warehouses belonging to big scale merchants would also serve from time to time. With the increase in the population of Istanbul in the seventeenth century, new provision warehouses were needed. Ahmed III constructed a number of grain warehouses in the Shipyard, and Mustafa III added three more warehouses to them. Some of them were demolished during the construction of dry docks in the period of Selim III, and two grain warehouses were built at the Üsküdar-Paşa Port. The lumbers to be sold in the market were generally stored outdoors. An edict was sent to all ship owners in 1727, stating that all of them were responsible for the provision of the need of Istanbul for construction lumber.
The inspection of these goods was conducted by the relevant executives of the crafts. They were either in the inns on the coast line or close to them. Goods imported from Europe were disembarked at Galata, and were carried to the vaults of the buyer merchants. This transfer was carried out by a number of varied porters. According to a census done in the beginning of the eighteenth century in 1726, there were 1,500 registered porters on the quays of Istanbul, whereas there were around 300 registered porters at the quays of Kadıköy, Üsküdar and Bosphorus. This number would almost reach to 2,500 with the porters serving in the Historical Peninsula. It became 3,000 in 1822.21
Goods Coming to the Istanbul Seaport
Despite the lack of systematical records on the type and quantity of the goods delivered to the Istanbul Port, there is some information available on the type of the goods. As the population of Istanbul had increased in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the need for food supplies had increased. Within the framework of domestic trade, food supplies including mostly grain, fruits, vegetables, salt, oil and rice were brought from close places such as the ports at the coasts of Marmara, Western Anatolia and Southern Black Sea. As a matter of fact, the grain required for bread, the most important food supply of the city, was among the goods, whose export was prohibited.
In the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries, hundreds of small and medium scale ships, some of which were under the charge of the state, most of which were under the inspection of the state, would bring grain from the Black Sea on their own accounts. The region providing the grain in the Black Sea was the Danube Basin and hinterland of the coasts of Rumelia and Anatolia.
It is possible to classify the Ottoman shipping merchants operating on the Black Sea in the eighteenth century into two groups. The first group consisted of the kapan22 merchants carrying the grain demand of Istanbul and working with the state on the basis of the contracts, and the other group included freelance entrepreneur merchants. These ships, making contracts under certain conditions to carry the grain from the ports especially on Danube and its vicinities to Unkapanı, were called “kapan-ı dakik sefâyini” or “kapanın defterli sefâyini” (registered ships of the kapan). As a matter of fact, with a contract signed in 1755 between the state and the ship owners, 56 merchants allocated 120 ships to carry out this kind of transportation. The average tonnage of these ships was 7,000 İstanbul kilesi, corresponding approximately to 175 tons. These ships were accepted as privileged and different from others, and they could embark their loads at the quays before the other ships. Furthermore, an approved list of these ships was given to the customs officers of Istanbul Strait at Anadolukavağı so as to provide convenience to them and enable them to return without waiting at the passages. Also, they were allowed to carry a mark demonstrating that they were a kapan ship. The state did not prefer to apply the monopoly system in the formation of the trade fleet for the transportation of the grain between Black Sea ports and Istanbul; it conducted transfer operations via prerogative system. A similar application was carried out between Rodosçuk/Tekirdağı and Istanbul Port. Seventy two boats, with the tonnage of 1,000 Istanbul kilesi, committed to carry grain of 12,000 kile from Rodosçuk, regarded as the cellar of Istanbul, to Istanbul every day. As similar agreements were made for other Marmara ports, it is understood that the grain transportation between Marmara ports and Istanbul was left to the private entrepreneurs.23
The freelance merchants were subject to similar procedures. They had to fulfill certain conditions to pass through the Istanbul Strait with their ships. They had to state the name of the port they would embark, the tonnage of their ship, the type and quantity of the grain they would carry and they had to stipulate that they would bring their load directly to Istanbul as well as providing a guarantor. After preparing these documents, they would go to the kapan naibi (kapan deputy) and he would present them to the qadi of Istanbul. Following the approval of the documents by the qadi, the application would be sent to Divan-ı Hümayun (Imperial Council), and an edict would be prepared addressing the kadi or other officials of the quay, the relevant ship would embark. The type and the quantity of the load would be recorded at the back of the edict and be approved at the quay where the grain was embarked. On its return to Istanbul, the ship would be stopped and inspected at the fortresses during its passage through Istanbul Strait, and if the registrations were conformable, an officer would get on the ship and it would be ensured that the ship would go to no other place but to Unkapani.24
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, it is seen that private Ottoman merchants also had adopted the idea of making trade in the Black Sea region with the Russia’s increasing hegemony over the northern coasts of the area. The ship owners, who were dealing with shipping trade in the Ottoman Empire and aspiring to trade with Russia, had to get permission and act according to the conditions specified in the contracts to pass through the Istanbul Strait as they would go to the lands of another country. These documents called “İzn-i sefine” (Shipping Permission) demonstrate that 4,176 ships belonging to Muslim and non-Muslim Ottomans passed through Istanbul Strait between the years 1780-1846. Despite the fact that the rate of the non-Muslim merchants making trade with this region was 80% until the 1800s, it decreased to 5% towards the midst of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the rate of Muslim merchants increased to 95%.
Ottoman merchants would deliver food supplies such as dried fruit, raisin, date, vinegar, lemon, lemon juice, orange, fresh fruits, and oil excluding the goods, the export of which were prohibited, to Russia, and they would bring mainly provisions for Istanbul. In cases when the goods brought from Russia via sea routes were not bought by the kapan in Istanbul, the merchants would be allowed to sell them to other guarantor merchants so as to avoid economic loss.
It is known that Ottoman trade ships would make cruises between Istanbul and Eastern Mediterranean ports. As an example, the lumbers, embarked on big merchant ships in Istanbul, were carried to Alexandria and the same ships would bring provisions such as sugar, lentil, rice, oil and linen from Egypt on their return. The connection with Alexandria, which was the most important port of Eastern Mediterranean at this period, had an important role in the economic life of Istanbul. Since the sixteenth century, biggest ships of the Ottoman trade fleet called “sultana” would carry lumber of three-four ships load to Alexandria every year between August and September. The ships going to Egypt would generally come together at Rhodes, and they would head towards Alexandria as convoys under the protection of the fleet, composed of warships under the commandment of governor of Rhodes sanjak. Thus, they would be protected against the attacks of Maltese and other Christian pirates. While Ottoman pirates were influential on the Western Mediterranean, Christian pirates would come to Eastern Mediterranean and attack Ottoman ships. Ottoman ships were favorite trophies for all the pirates with a flag of a Christian state. Though it was mostly small vessels that were captured, sometimes big transport galiots coming from Istanbul were also detained. In 1615, Spanish pirates captured 13 Turkish transport ships coming from Alexandria. Of the 82 ships, operating between Istanbul and Alexandria in 1782, 70 of them had Ottoman state flag, whereas 12 of them carried flags of European countries.25
It is without doubt that there were not only Ottoman trade ships on this route. Along with the ships of Venice, Dubrovnik and France operating in the sixteenth century, trade ships of Holland and England also started to come to Ottoman seas and carry out transactions in the seventeenth century. The number of European merchant ships coming to Istanbul Port had increased in the eighteenth century. The ships, coming from different countries would bring goods, peculiar to their countries, mostly on the account of their merchants. As wool and silk woven and other types of fabrics were imported, French, English and Dutch merchants were in a serious competition with one another. In addition, Ottomans would import dyestuff from France, glass, paper and medicines from Venice, lead, tin and watch from England. Apart from these, luxury goods such as precious jewelry stones were also imported. Goods coming from the Far East were carried to Istanbul in increasing amounts through Marseilles, Genoese, Venice, and Livorno. The most crucial problem of the ships bringing goods to Istanbul was that they could not find any load to carry on their returns. It was because Istanbul was a city of only administration and military with no or very few manufactured goods. The goods exported in Istanbul were the ones, carried in the ships transiting through its ports. It was because of the fact that Black Sea was closed to the foreign state ships. Ottoman ships would bring the goods of the Black Sea coasts to Istanbul, or goods from Iran would be transferred to European ships when they reached Istanbul. Within this framework, if we put aside Black Sea, Istanbul was quite outside the important trade routes as a port. On the other hand, Izmir attracted more merchants and; thus, in the sixteenth century and the following periods, Izmir and Alexandria were centers of export and import of maritime commerce.
As a result of the rarity of the imported goods in Istanbul, there was no need for numerous warehouses. Generally, the basements of the houses of the merchants were used as warehouses. It is seen that these houses were made of stone so as to protect these warehouses against fires. It is a known fact that, the fires had made considerable damages on the port regions in Istanbul from time to time. The imported goods were mostly goods of high values, not covering much space. The Kurşunlu Han (Leaded Inn), done by Grand vizier Rüstem Pasha in the midst of the sixteenth century was also serving as a warehouse.26
The most important means of conveyance for the inner city transportation were porters and pack animals. Nevertheless, as they had difficulties in carrying loads to far distances, boats or pereme were used instead, as more convenient and mostly faster means of transportation. Thus, the pereme organization was quite crowded till the midst of the nineteenth century. They had approximately 1,500 oarsmen members in the 1680s, while this number reached to 24,000 in the 1840s. This abundance in the number of the oarsmen led to the assignment of them for navy services in case of need from time to time.27
FOOTNOTES
1 Halil İnalcık explains the importance of Istanbul on the basis of the fact that it was on a sea route requiring dominance over both the Black Sea and Mediterranean. (“The Question of the Closing of the Black Sea under the Ottomans”, Arkheion Pontou, 1979, vol. 35, p. 74).
2 İdris Bostan, “Fatih Sultan Mehmed ve Osmanlı Denizciliği”, Başlangıçtan XVII. Yüzyılın Sonuna Kadar Türk Denizcilik Tarihi, ed. İdris Bostan and Salih Özbaran, İstanbul: Deniz Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 85-95.
3 İdris Bostan, Osmanlı Bahriye Teşkilâtı: XVII. Yüzyılda Tersâne-i Âmire, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2002, pp. 7-14.
4 İdris Bostan, “İmparatorluk Donanmasına Doğru: Tersâne-i Âmire’nin Kuruluşu ve Denizlerde Açılım”, Türk Denizcilik Tarihi, vol. 1, pp. 121-131.
5 Philippe du Fresne-Canaye, Fresne-Canaye Seyahatnamesi, 1573, tr. Teoman Tunçdoğan, İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2009, p. 74.
6 W. Müller-Wiener, Bizans’tan Osmanlı’ya İstanbul Limanı, tr. Erol Özbek, İstanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, 1998, p. 47.
7 Bostan, Tersâne-i Âmire, p. 7.
8 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, p. 49.
9 İdris Bostan, “Kadırgadan Kalyona”, Beylikten İmparatorluğa Osmanlı Denizciliği, İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2008, pp. 183-206.
10 Bostan, Kadırgadan Kalyona, p. 199.
11 Yusuf A. Aydın, Sultanın Kalyonları, İstanbul: Küre Yayınları, 2011, pp. 147-215.
12 Tuncay Zorlu, Innovation and Empire in Turkey, London : Tauris Academic Studies, 2008, pp. 47-50.
13 İdris Bostan, “Tersane’de Büyük Havuz İnşası 1794-1800”, Beylikten İmparatorluğa, pp. 221-247; Zorlu, Innovation and Empire, pp. 57-62.
14 İdris Bostan, Osmanlılar ve Deniz, İstanbul: Küre Yayınları, pp. 2007, 69-83.
15 Bostan, Tersâne-i Âmire, pp. 101-178.
16 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, p. 55.
17 Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatnâme, prepared by Orhan Şaik Gökyay, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1996, v. 1, pp. 237-241; Robert Mantran, 17. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında İstanbul, tr. Mehmet Ali Kılıçbay and Enver Özcan, II vol., Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1990, v. 1, p. 171; v. 2, pp. 88-93.
18 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, p. 61.
19 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, pp. 57-59.
20 Mantran, İstanbul, pp. 199-200.
21 Nejdet Ertuğ, Osmanlı Döneminde İstanbul Hammalları, İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2008, pp. 219-227, 231-244.
22 Kapan refers to the site where there is a public weighing machine for whole-sale commodities
23 Lütfi Güçer, “XVIII. Yüzyıl Ortalarında İstanbul’un İaşesi İçin Lüzumlu Hububatın Temini Meselesi”, İFM, 1949-50, no. 11, pp. 397-416; İdris Bostan, “İzn-i Sefine Defterleri ve Karadeniz’de Rusya ile Ticaret Yapan Devlet-i Aliyye Tüccarları 1780-1846”, Beylikten İmparatorluğa, pp. 325-330.
24 İdris Bostan, “Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Döneminde İstanbul Boğazı’ndan Geçişin Tabi Olduğu Kurallar”, Beylikten İmparatorluğa, pp. 355-366.
25 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, pp. 58-62.
26 Müller-Wiener, İstanbul Limanı, pp. 63-68.
27 Nejdet Ertuğ, Osmanlı Döneminde İstanbul Deniz Ulaşımı ve Kayıkçılar, Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı, 2001.