H.Ü. Đktisadi ve Đdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt 20, Sayı 2, 2002, s. 4371 REFLECTIONS ON THE OTTOMAN RAW COTTON PRODUCTION AND EXPORT DURING THE 18501913 PERIOD ∗ Sevinç MIHCI (Dr., Hacettepe University, Department of Economics, 06532, ANKARA sevinc@hacettepe.edu.tr) Hakan MIHCI (Asst. Prof., Hacettepe University, Department of Economics, 06532, ANKARA hakan@hacettepe.edu.tr) Abstract: The present study attempts to analyze raw cotton production and export in the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The emphasis is given to the commercialization of the Ottoman agriculture while the peripheralization process of the Empire is evaluated. In this context, the effect of the world capitalist system on the Ottoman cotton production and export is considered. The problems of the raw cotton production can be explained with the administrative structure of the Empire in general, and the “traditional social order” that the Ottoman central authority had preserved throughout the centuries in particular. * This paper is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend Uğur Uluocak. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Đbrahim Tanyeri, Hüseyin Özel and Muammer Kaymak who read the manuscript and made useful comments and suggestions. The authors are also indebted to two anonymous referees for their helpful criticism and suggestions. All remaining errors and omissions are ours. Keywords: Ottoman economic history, raw cotton, peripheralization process, commercialization of the cotton production. Anahtar Sözcükler: Osmanlı iktisat tarihi, ham pamuk, çevrele<me süreci, pamuk üretiminin ticarile<mesi.