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The
seventeenth century had been a period of instability for the
Ottoman currency culminating around the middle of the century in
the closure of Ottoman mints, the cessation of the production of
silver akches and their use as a means of exchange.
The decline
of the akche posed serious challenges to the Ottoman
administration. Without control over the currency, its control
over the economy diminished considerably. Moreover, the
disintegration of the monetary system and the increasing reliance
on foreign coins had serious political implications. During the
second half of the seventeenth century the government thus made
numerous attempts at establishing a new currency but these proved
to be unsuccessful due to the continuation of wars and fiscal
difficulties. After a long interval of inactivity, the mint in
Istanbul resumed operations in 1685, producing the small akches
and the copper mangir beginning in 1689. Supported by the revenues
from this experiment, the government then renewed its efforts to
establish a new system around a large silver unit modelled after
the European coins circulating in the Ottoman markets since the
middle of the sixteenth century.
 The
first large silver coins were minted in 1690 after the Polish coin
isolette or zolota which was imported in large quantities by Dutch
merchants during the seventeenth century. These coins were about
one third smaller than the Dutch thalers.[1]
Their weight was fixed in standard dirhams (3,20 grams) and they
contained 60 percent silver and 40 percent copper. The largest of
these weighed 6 dirhams, or approximately 19.2 grams. Later, in
1703, an even larger coin weighing approximately 8 dirhams, or
25-26 grams and its fractions were also minted.
It appears that the first large coin of 1690
was intended as a zolota or cedid (new) zolota to distinguish it
from the popular Polish coin and not as a gurush or piaster.[2]
Only after larger silver coins began to be minted in the early
decades of the eighteenth century, was the new monetary scale
clearly established.
The new
Ottoman gurush was then fixed at 120 akches or 40 paras. The early
gurushes weighed six and a quarter dirhams (20.0 grams) and
contained close to 60 percent silver. The zolotas were valued at
three fourths of the gurush or at 90 akches.
The fractions of both the gurush and zolota
were then minted accordingly.[3]
Due to wars and continuing political turmoil, however, many coins
were minted with sub-standard silver content
until the monetary reform of 1715-16. The appearance of
sub-standard coinage attracted large numbers of counterfeiters
until the 1720s. |
