A Privileged Class in Everyday Life: Understanding the Janissaries’ Role in Capital Accumulation

Abstract

This study focuses on an obstacle to the capital accumulation possibilities of the pre-capitalist period in the Ottoman economy. From the second half of the 16th century, the janissaries, like all the institutions of the Empire, changed. The main argument of the study is that the new form taken by the janissaries as a result of this transformation had a feature that absorbed the capital produced in the Empire. This study does not address or discuss the Empire’s integration process or its peripheral position within the capitalist system.