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guilt and promised that they would never do it again. They were ordered to pull themselves together
and stop this mispractice. But they became even worse within a very short time. Despite many
subsequent warnings, they continued violating the law and religion’s orders.
Then were gathered all bakers and assessors together and questions were addressed to them
regarding the previous prices, they replied that the bread was for as long as they could remember
around hundred and fifty dirhams less than the necessary weight, but the flour was made from
quality wheat and passed through a fine-mesh sieve, a sufficient amount of poppy seeds was
sprinkled on the loaves that were baked crisp. They also said that one oke of fat to be added to one
kile of flour, but it was nowadays reduced to half an oke. The loaves presently baked were of
different and often lower qualities. The inquiries showed that the reason of this worsening was the
habit of giving and receiving bribes and the resulting lack of control.
Standard for the buns:
The buns should be one-half the weight of a bread loaf and one oke of fat should be added to one
kile of flour. The inspection revealed a low quality due to bribing again. Bakers were told to revert
to the original standards.
Onions:
The onions which were sold at one akça for four and a half oke are now on sale at four oke at the
same price. Onions with stems weighed five okes, which were reduced by half an oke in the
autumn. Green grocers were making two-oke bundles from the two and a half oke winter deliveries.
This practice also was against the law because of the akças inobtrusively slid into the pockets of
controllers. Merchants were told in no uncertain terms to return to the previous rules.
Butchers:
When the butchers, assessors and city fathers were brought together and asked, most of the true
believers said that the price of mutton had three different levels at three different annual periods:
The unit was two hundred and fifty, three hundred and two hundred dirhams in each of the fourmonth
slices of the year. They added that three hundred dirham was wholly forgotten for the past
four or five years. Replying the question of why three hundred dirhams were not being used any
longer; butchers showed several reasons: Primo, there was a freightage tax of one akça per sheep at
Gallipoli pier in the past, which is now raised to four akças. Secundo, the imperial almshouses and
some dignitaries collect from us sixty thousand sheep on foot per annum and the latter has been an
official levy today. Tertio, they had received a court decision to the effect that the unit will be three
hundred dirhams in Bursa when it is three hundred and fifty in Istanbul and always fifty dirhams
less than it will be in Istanbul. Yet said the believers that the pier tax was raised some fifteen years
ago while the abandonment of three hundred dirham unit took place only four or five years ago and
gift of sixty thousand sheep to almshouses is no longer valid although the state levy continues and
this did not cause any lessening of live sheep deliveries to the city. Now, varying numbers of sheep
is sent to Bursa and price is determined by the quantity of available animals. Sometimes, more
sheep comes here than to Istanbul and butchers did not raise the unit weight to three hundred
dirhams when it was three hundred and fifty in Istanbul. The butchers were accused by the inquirers
that they had entered into a clandestine agreement with the mayor, to whom they had paid large
amounts of money at the beginning of the season and sold the mutton at the unit weight of two
hundred and fifty when it should have been three hundred and thereby disregarded and denied the
tenet of intermoslem solidarity. It was ascertained that the real culprit in this was the mayor. The
city fathers intervened at this point and laid bare another bitter fact that continued for the past four
or five years. The goat flesh always sold at a unit weight fifty dirhams more than the mutton; but
the mayor collected two akças for each goat slaughtered and permitted it to be sold at the mutton
price. Around one hundred city fathers as true believers swore before the mayor and his aides that
they had actually witnessed the money changing hands between the mayor and butchers. The latter
did not deny it and said that they had no compuction to sell the goat flesh at the same price as
mutton. Many butchers clearly confessed this in front of the people in the meeting.
Marketplace vendors:
CIHEAM-IAMM
Juin 2005
267