Summary
The free-trade convention of 1838, approved by Sultan Mahmud II, that struck down monopolies, lowered tariffs on European goods and opened up the interior markets of the Ottoman Empire, inaugurating, in Doumani’s account, the politics of “free trade” in Palestine (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 2167-2330).
Details
- Mahmud II approved the convention under duress from stinging military defeats by the Egyptian forces and dependent on help from the European powers to reassert his authority over Muhammad Ali Pasha (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 2167-2330).
- Chapter 2 records its effects as part of the shift of Nabulsi merchants’ regional networks from Egypt toward Beirut and Damascus: British machine textiles’ growing share after the convention lowered tariffs and abolished monopolies (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 1285-1365).
- Chapter 5 traces the customs regime the convention inaugurated: a firman of February 27, 1846 reiterated the 1838 regulations — basic grains untaxed unless shipped overseas (then 12 percent in total), semiprocessed goods exempt locally but not interprovincially, and processed goods such as soap paying the amed, reft and kharaj taxes — and the regulations’ enforcement against Nablus soap, especially the kharaj dispute over land versus sea exports, sparked the soap merchants’ tax strike of 1851-1853 (Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, lines 4341-4415).
Related pages
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, Tanzimat, Muhammad Ali Pasha, Jabal Nablus