Ottoman 'Feudalism' and Obstacles to the Development of Bulgarian Agriculture in the XIX Century

The malign influence of the Ottoman “feudal system” on the economic development of the Balkan region is a persistent theme in Bulgarian historiography. Like any empire that established its structures in the Middle Ages, the Ottoman state did not give much economic freedom to the rural population in its development, although there are serious historical disputes as to whether the existence of timars can be equated with European feudalism. Without entering into this debate, my paper examines developments in the late Ottoman Empire, most notably after the Land Law of 1858. While formally preserving the supreme ownership of land in the hands of the Sultan, the law in practice legitimized private property, which in turn legitimized a long-standing practice. The population of the Bulgarian lands began to accumulate land en masse, and the number of chiftliks held by Christians increased. Some of these chiftliks evolved into modern capitalist estates, but in the mass case the changes in agriculture were slow and geographically isolated. But to what extent can the reasons for this be traced back to alleged Ottoman “feudalism”? To what extent was the role of the state a hindrance, or were there other global factors that impeded the transition to capitalism in agriculture? Accordingly, was it the Ottoman legacy that hindered agrarian capitalism in post-1878 Bulgaria, where modern chiftliks remained an isolated phenomenon?