We shall see that from the 1860s onwards a number of quite new destinations for migrant labour were beginning to open up. All the same, however, there is no doubt that when, around or perhaps rather before the middle of the nineteenth century, the scale of the outward migration from the East increased very substantially, it came to be heavily concentrated on Istanbul. The latter had long been by far the largest urban centre in the Ottoman world, but in the nineteenth century a variety of factors combined to enhance its relative importance. In particular there was the growing centralization of political authority there from Mahmut II's reign onwards; the expansion in the size of the central bureaucracy as the reform movement got underway; and the expenditure in the capital of funds derived from foreign borrowing and of the increased tax revenues collected in the provinces that resulted from these developments. All this gave a great boost to the economy of a city whose principal raison d'etre was as a seat of government, and where an extraordinarily high proportion of the population derived its livelihood directly or indirectly from the government. The huge influx of foreign soldiers, sailors and their hangers-on in the Crimean War of the mid-1850s also temporarily created boom conditions with a correspondingly increased demand for labour, as did the redevelopment of large parts of the city in the wake of the enormously destructive fires of 1865 in Stambul and 1870 in Pera. In addition the early 1870s, especially 1871-73, saw a tremendous surge of business confidence in the capital, in part fuelled by the government's foreign borrowing, with numerous new banks and other enterprises, many with western participation, being set on foot. Despite rather poor trading conditions a great deal of money was being made out of financial dealings with the Porte, and many large residential and commercial building projects were being undertaken, especially in and around Pera.

Turkey Labor migration Anatolia Nineteenth century Economic conditions

Anatolia labor migration Turkey nineteenth century economic conditions