Osmanli Deniz Ticaretinde Hukuki Bir Sorun: Kaza Yapan Geminin Mallari
A Legal Question in the Ottoman Maritime Trade: The Goods of the Accidented Ship

Summary/Abstract: The loss of the goods transported by the sea roads by an accident such as the sinking of the ship caused important financial losses to the merchants. Accordingly, the safeguarding of some of the goods was important as it led the merchants to alleviate their financial losses. However, in this point an important problem faced by the owners of the goods, was the fact that the people safeguarding or finding the goods of the wrecked ships evaluated this situation as an easy way of gain and thus plundered them. In those cases, the return of the goods to their proper owners frequently necessitated legal procedures. In the events of plundering and confiscation, the return of the goods saved from the ship accidents was one of the subjects extant in the maritine commercial law by the ancient Rhodes Law. This subject was important as it was crucial to save the trading capital. The Ottoman Empire regulated this subject in its maritime trade law on the basis of the flag of the wrecked ship Accordingly the Ottoman Empire adopted the principle that the goods saved from the wrecked ships of both belonging to the Ottoman Empire and the nations, which made treaty with the Ottoman Empire, had to be returned to their proper owners. Despite this regulations, as it has been observed from the instances of the Ottoman maritime trade, the merchants faced various problems for the return of their goods sometimes due to the confiscations of their goods by the administrative officials and sometimes due to the plundering of their goods by the local people. In this framework, the legal status of the goods safeguarded from the wrecked ships on the Ottoman seas is analyzed under the light of the evidence of the eighteenth century. This study also investigates the difficulties faced in the return of these goods to their former owners.

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