Rules, Contracts and Law Enforcement in the Ottoman Empire

Bora Altay is an Economist at the Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey.Fuat Oğuz is Professor of Economics at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey.

• 1 The Rule of Law in the Historical Context.- 2 The Institutional Change: Historical Background.- 3 Fundamental economic indicators of the Ottoman Economy.- 4 A comparison with European societies under the State Finance.- 5 Tax -farming contracts.- 6 Law and economics of tax-farming contracts.-  7 Prisoner’s Dilemma as a tool to analyze tax-farming institutions.- 8 Commitment Problems and the Law Enforcement.- 9 A comparison with France.- 10 Concluding Remarks.