Despite bankruptcies being a ubiquitous occurrence in European communities trading in the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, they have aroused little scholarly interest so far. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing bankruptcy disputes between the Venetian and Ottoman merchants in Istanbul in the early seventeenth century. By examining the resolutions of these controversies through litigation in Ottoman Islamic courts and consular tribunals, as well as international diplomacy and out-of-court settlements, this piece demonstrates how Venetian and Ottoman authorities established an inter-polity system of courts and state obligations to prevent and manage bankruptcies among international merchants.
Sabancı University, Turkey - ORCID: 0000-0002-6847-5067
Chapter Title
Venetian creditors and Ottoman defaulters: handling bankruptcy in seventeenth-century Istanbul
Authors
Tommaso Stefini
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.05
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
568
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0962-5
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0963-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0964-9
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195