Onnik Jamgocyan Grain, Gold, and Geopolitics: Studies in Ottoman Economic and Diplomatic History

Grain, Gold, and Geopolitics assembles seven influential studies by Onnik Jamgocyan that examine the economic, financial, and diplomatic structures of the Ottoman Empire from the eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Based on extensive multi-archival research in Ottoman, European, and Mediterranean repositories, the volume analyses the provisioning of Istanbul, the political economy of grain and customs regimes, the role of Armenian financiers, and the interaction between diplomacy and commerce in an era of imperial rivalry and reform. Jamgocyan’s work foregrounds the material foundations of power, demonstrating how fiscal practices, trade networks, and intermediary elites shaped state authority, social stability, and international relations. Edited and translated into English by Serkan Keçeci, this collection brings together scholarship originally published in French and makes it accessible to an international readership. The volume constitutes a significant contribution to Ottoman economic and diplomatic historiography and will be of particular interest to scholars of imperial governance, Mediterranean trade, and the history of political economy.