Globalisation and the Ottoman Empire: A study of integration between Ottoman and world cotton markets

The Ottoman Empire underwent a process of integration with the global economy during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This paper explores one aspect of this process, examining the linkages established between the cotton industries in Egypt and Western Anatolia, which we consider as part of the Empire, and the international cotton market during the first wave of globalisation. We undertake a quantitative exploration of the pattern of price transmission between the Ottoman and the international cotton markets over this period, connecting changes in the nature of spatial market integration to major economic and political developments.