A Study Of The Foreign Debts Of The Late Ottoman Empire(1838-1914)

To the end of its reign,the Ottoman Empire suffered from political corruption,social unrest and repeated failures in foreign wars,and its by-gone-days glory no longer returned.In order to save the Empire crisis and consolidate its rule,Sudan made great efforts to carry out reform,and borrowed foreign debts from western countries to meet the needs of reform.In a certain sense,the huge amount of loans met the needs of reform,eased the tension within the Empire,and maintained the rule of Sudan.However,the huge amount of foreign debt repayment was imposed on the taxes of the imperial people,which caused people’s dissatisfaction and intensified social contradictions.In the meantime,western countries,by means of loaning money the Ottoman Empire,tried to introduce capital,interfere in the economic activities of the Ottoman Empire,monopolize the public service industry of the Empire,and control the finance of the Ottoman Empire.A series of economic and political problems caused by foreign debts were becoming increasingly serious,which had pushed the Ottoman Empire to the brink of collapse.On the basis of the in-depth interpretation of the domestic and foreign literature,this paper,starting from the perspective of the foreign debt of the Ottoman Empire,describes the background and different stages of the borrowing process of the Ottoman Empire,analyzes the impact of foreign debt on the Ottoman Empire,and discusses the transformation of the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and western countries in the late period.The paper is divided into three parts:The first part is the introduction,which mainly discusses the main basis of topic selection,research status at home and abroad,theoretical and practical significance,research characteristics and innovation,and defines the relevant concepts.The second part is the main body,and divided into three chapters.The first chapter analyzes the background of the Ottoman Empire borrowing foreign debt,mainly from two aspects: on the one hand,the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself,the fall of the political system of the integration of religion and custom in politics,the disintegration of the Tima system in economy,and the conflict of religious belief,exhausted a large amount of finance for the Ottoman Empire to maintain internal stability;on the other hand,the economic penetration and political intervention of western countries forced the Ottoman Empire to break the traditional economic model and get involved in the world market.However,the Ottoman Empire entered the world market only in a marginalized position,becoming a source of goods and raw materials for western countries,and being exploited by capitalist countries.Confronted with domestic turmoil and foreign aggression,empty state treasury and financial difficulties,the Empire needed funds to maintain its balance of payments.The second chapter mainly introduces the loan process of the Ottoman Empire from the western countries.When the Ottoman Empire borrowed foreign debt from the western countries,different characteristics took place in different stages.From 1838 to 1874,due to the needs of reform and war,the Ottoman Empire borrowed foreign debt from Britain and France for the first time,Britain and France took this opportunity to export capital.The second stage of the loan was from 1875 to 1880,the default stage of the Ottoman Empire.Owing to the government’s poor management of the funds,the Empire could only repay the original loans by borrowing new short-term loans.When there was a chain break in the middle,the loan process terminated,the Empire declared a default and halted paying the loans.In 1881,the government bond administration broke this awkward situation.For the sake of ensuring the interests of creditors,the administration took the tax revenue of the Empire as the guarantee,and the representative elected by the foreign bondholders to hold the post,thus the Ottoman Empire could conduct normal repayment.The third chapter summarizes the characteristics of the foreign debts borrowed by the Empire,and analyzes the positive and negative effects of foreign debts on the later-period Ottoman Empire.Foreign debt caused great harm to the Ottoman Empire,and heavy taxes increased the burden of the people.The capital export of western countries monopolized the commerce of the Empire,controlled the finance of the Empire,and the Ministry of Finance was in the subordinate position.The people of the Empire began to revolt out of disappointment with Sudan and dissatisfaction with the western countries.The Empire was teetering in the revolt of the people and went to decline.However,the Ottoman Empire could only continue to survive due to the support of foreign debts.Some advanced management methods in the Empire’s finance,such as double-entry bookkeeping,were deeply influenced by western countries.As the predecessor of Turkey,a series of advanced financial methods have laid a solid foundation for Turkey’s economy.The third part is the conclusion.In the 19 th century,the Ottoman Empire which was infiltrated by capital was not only an individual case,but also some backward countries in as Asia and Africa were battered.All the economies infiltrated by capitalism had some common factors.However,in this diversity,the history of each country has its own characteristics.In terms of the specific forms of interaction with other economies in the world and the resulted structures,the differences between the later-period Ottoman Empire and other regions in Asia,Latin America or North Africa cannot be explained only by the impact of the world economy.Only by combining the specific economic and social factors of the Ottoman Empire,can the special characteristics of the foreign debts of the Ottoman Empire be comprehended.