The Ottoman Empire was not able to set up a central coinage system
and succeed in applying it
within its
wide borders during its first and middle periods. Various
currencies which had different values
were used
in different regions of the Empire.
Although the budgets of the administrations were usually done by
using akche unit, they were also
done by
using other units. The Ottomans brought very pragmatic solutions
on this by not interfering
much with
the customs, traditions and habits of local people on the newly
invaded lands; so they
had
different currency units minted under different names as a result
of these policies. Memluk currency
in Arabic
countries, Iranian Shahi in the east, Hungarian pens and golden
coin in the west, different
currency
units in Magrib were used. Although these coins were minted under
the governance
and
control of the Ottoman administration, there had been many
difficulties experienced in the control
of these
various types of currency units. Even, some uprisings were also
occurred due to the fact
that the
currencies were not able to be controlled properly. In addition to
that, the flow of the foreign
currencies
was allowed, to make the matters better, the daily exchange ratios
of these currencies
were fixed
in the central administration.
The appropriate understanding of any economics is closely related
with the efficient determination
of
currency units. Even though the administration of the Empire went
well, there were hardships
experienced in control of the complex currency system in a proper
way by the central administration. The official currency of the
Ottoman Empire was the akche minted from silver. In other words,
akche was the only currency unit used to fix all the currencies
valid within the Empire. The value of this currency based on
silver was fixed by the central administration. The changes of the
value of akche could affect indirectly the prices within the
Empire, the prices of furniture, foreign trade, the costs of
valuable metals, the costs of wars; in other words the lives of
all the people living in the Empire.
Although 700 hundred years passed when first akche was minted, it
is still not clear according
to which
scale this unit was minted. It is also very sad that the science
of numismatic has not been
considered
as a scientific branch in universities yet. This scientific branch
is restricted with the works of historians on academic levels.
About this issue, it is a miracle that the the Turkish Numismatic
Association continues with its limited facilities on this field
according to the current law concerning
with old
works of art. The aim of this study is to analyze according to
which weighing unit, the akche, namely the official currency of
the Empire,and golden and copper coins were minted.
VARIOUS
VIEWS ON THIS ISSUE
The studies which have been done on which weighing unit was used
on the minting of akche so far have been focused on three basic
views.
a- Traditional view:
The weights of akche were given as normal rumi dirhem scales in
the books published as the old Ottoman weighing unit. And the data
was transferred into a metric system, this scaling unit was being
used. This situation gives an impression that akche in the Ottoman
Empire
was minted
according to rumi dirhem unit. According to this scaling unit, our
valuable economics
historian
Mustafa Akdag defends insistently that:
1 miskal =
4.81 g. = 24 karat = 1.5 dirhem
1 dirhem =
3.207 g.
1 karat =
0.2004 g. ( 4.81/24 = 0.2004 or 3.207 /16 = 0.2004 g.)
1 karat =
4 dank
1 dank =
0.0501 g. (0.2004 /4 = 0.0501 g.)
The writer
mentioned above defends that the Ottoman akche was minted by using
900 karat silver out of 1,000, and the metal value of silver and
akche was the same by putting forward many Ottoman numismatists'
views.
