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twenty five dirhams for one akça when the season is over.
Walnuts will sell at four and a half akças per kile when one mud is bought at eighty akças.
Unripe medlars will sell at five akças per kile, four and a half akças four days later and four akças a
further four day later. The ripe ones will go at one akça per three hundred dirhams first, one akça
per oke three days later, six hundred dirhams for one akça a further three days later and finally at
one akça per two okes.
Cuss lettuce will first be sold at one akça per eight, sixteen for one akça three days later and finally
twenty four for one akça.
Cucurbitacea:
When asked about the old laws and regulations on the horticulture products, the city fathers and
assessors replied that the city inhabitants used to buy their hearts’ content the fruits such as melons
and water melons when they reached the market. But the street vendors have created their own
orchards and made an alliance among themselves to buy these fruits right in the field and store them
at their inobtrusive storage places, sell them only in a few shops and the profits are shared by
overlords and their accomplices. Since they are in absolute unison in this field, the pious moslems
suffer from this. It was decided that the old rules should be revived and an imperial edict will be
quite effective to ensure this. The moslems will then be forever grateful to the Emperor and the
State, to which their prayers will perennially be addressed. First come the cucumbers among these
fruits.
The cucumbers used to be sold at four for one akça first, eight for one a week later, sixteen for one
in the second, twenty four for one in the third and thirty two for one in the fourth week. They were
marketed fresh as they arrived. Yet the merchants sell them for one, two, four or five for one akça at
a time when twenty or thirty should be sold at that price. The price never falls even when they are
no longer fit for human consumption.
Moslems never seen fresh cucumbers because the municipal inspectors tolerate this practice in
consideration of akças that they receive from the merchants, who even dump off the excess
deliveries to the city garbage ditches in order to keep the prices up and sell stale cucumbers on
which they sprinkle murky water as if they are valuable medicaments. They cheat the moslems at
exorbitant prices as in the case of other fruits. Therefore, they were ordered in no uncertain terms to
return to the old laws.
The Engürü (Ankara) melons will be sold at one akça per two oke first, per five okes six days later
and per eight another six days later.
The Karaca melons will sell at one akça for three okes first, for six okes a week later and for ten
okes finally.
The water melons will sell at one akça for four okes first, for six okes two days later and for eight
okes one week thereafter.
The unripe melons will sell for one akça for three okes first, for four okes three days later, for five
okes one week thereafter and for sever okes ten days later. The melons and water melons will never
be put on the market when they are not mature yet; those that do it will be summarily handled by
the judge according to the old law.
The inquiries revealed that there was no trace in the market of the old laws and practices. When
asked about the reasons for this disobedience, the city fathers replied that the municipal inspectors
were receiving bribes under the pretext that the vendors were found to be selling these products at
higher than established prices. An examination of the ledgers confirmed what the people had
declared and entries were made on the books to the effect that this mispractice had started some
four or five years ago.
As for the vegetables, findings are the following;
Okras will sell for one akça per two okes first and two and a half okes five days thereafter.
There will be no price limitations in the first three days on pumpkins, which will then sell at one
akça for three okes from third day on, for four okes during the next week, for five okes in the
following week, for six okes in the next week for eight okes in the last week. When the pumpkins
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Juin 2005
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