Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
30th International DAVO Congress, Göttingen, Almanya, 26 - 28 Eylül 2024, cilt.56, sa.57, ss.41, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
The financial crisis in the 19th century forced the Ottoman rulers to establish control on the state revenues and state institutions responsible for tax collection via institutional reforms and the Ottoman customs were among these institutions. The institutional structure
and personnel employment policies were changed in the Ottoman customs to tax both domestic and foreign trade through customs and to adapt to the international trade and customs order after 1860. A Customs Regulation containing institutional organization and personnel policies was adopted on 28 October 1860, and Ottoman customs were gathered under the administration of the Ottoman Rüsûmât Emaneti (Customs Administration) in 1861 and modern school graduates were employed as staff in the Ottoman customs. However, when difficulties were experienced in adapting to the requirements of the international trade agreements and to the changing international customs order since the Ottoman Customs personnel lacked technical knowledge, finance experts in customs transactions were invited from Germany. The first expert was Emil Bertram, a finance expert from Germany served as undersecretary in the Ottoman customs. He prepared a new customs regulation and with his suggestion, a customs school named Tariff School was opened in 1893 in order to train estimators who would apply the new tariff system. After Bertram foreign experts were appointed as undersecretaries in the Ottoman customs to maintain knowledge and skill transfer from Europe, and Sir Richard Crawford, an experienced customs officer from England, was the last of them. Crawford introduced the Declaration system to the Ottoman customs and opened another Tax Officials' School to teach the declaration system to Ottoman staff.T his study is prepared to examine the reforms in the Ottoman customs started in 1860 and transfer of knowledge and skills through foreign experts invited from Europe and personnel education policies by consulting archival sources and academic studies to contribute to Ottoman Economic History.