From the Pages of the Defter (ص 250)

غرض

عنوان

From the Pages of the Defter (ص 250)

المحتوى

for the years 1311-1314 (1895-1898) and 1314-1316 (1898-1900).**° There is not much
context for the researcher to extract from these accounting registers, but they do clearly
show the varying interest rates charged on mortgage loans.
Donald Quataert writes that the Bank Ziraaet charged six percent annual interest.*°° The
records for Hebron mortgages show that, actually, six percent was the base rate for a loan to
be repaid in one year. For each subsequent year of repayment, three percent was added to
the total interest to be charged against the original loan. (See Figure 4.1, below.) So, when
Ismail al-Khatib of Hebron took a loan of 5,000 kurus in mid-1896, and the repayment
schedule established at the time of the loan called for ten annual payments of 500 kurus,
each was to be accompanied by 165 kurus interest (fa’iza), totaling 1,650 kurus interest over
ten years.**’ This amounted to a total interest of 33 percent of the original loan, similar to
private moneylenders’ rates. We can surmise, however, that this was not a private loan
“8° These files are: ISA RG83 5/10 tet and RG83 19/1 tet. It is not clear if these registers belonged to the
Emniyet Sandigi, the Ottoman Agricultural Bank, or another government institution. There is no
indication in or on the registers regarding the name of the office that kept and managed them. One
other register, (ISA RG83 9/3 tet) for the years 1315-1317 (1899-1901), is labeled “Bang Ziraat, i.e. the
Agricultural Bank.
“8° He did not study bank records, however. See his “Dilemma of Development: The Agricultural Bank and
Agricultural Reform in Ottoman Turkey, 1888-1908”, MES, 6/2 (April 1975): p. 214. Bunton (2007), in
his chapter on credit during the Mandate, follows Quataert regarding the Ottoman period (103).Nadan
(2006), citing Mandate government reports, writes that at the beginning of the Mandate period, banks
“had to comply with Ottoman law, which prohibited interest in excess of 9 percent—a law that
remained in force throughout the [Mandate] period.” (216)
87 ISA, RG 83 19/1 tet. Loan # 295. Date of the loan: 5 Haziran 1312 (maliyye) / 17 June 1896.
233

هو جزء من

From the Pages of the Defter

تاريخ

٢٠١٦

المنشئ

Susynne McElrone

مجموعات العناصر

Generated Pages Set

Theses رسائل ماجستير ودكتوراه