ARENDAȘII DE IMPOZITE ÎN SANGEACUL TULCEA ÎN ANII ȘAPTEZECI AI SECOLULUI XIX
TAX FARMERS IN TULCHA SANDZHAK IN THE ’70S OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The present article aims to review the tax farming problem in the Ottoman empire in the 70’s of the 19th century. Recently in the Bulgarian historiography the interest in tax farming and mainly the participation of Bulgarians in these economic operations found a serious place in the researches of Sv. Yaneva and Evgeniya Davidova.The current research target is to complete the overall picture of this type of fiscal practices functioning on Tulcha Sandzhak territory, which covers the whole Northern Dobrudzha. The article is based on unpublished Ottoman defter for tax farming of the tithe in Tulcha Sandzhak for the fiscal year 1289/1290 (1872/1873),kept in the Oriental department of the National Library. The overall number of tax farmers totals 110 people divided in religious indication as follows: Muslims – 75, non-Muslims – 35, of which a Jew and four. The total amount of the tithe is 6,129,554.5 grosh. The researched defter outlines a significant range of representatives of the local business elite. They are mainly persons with considerable financial abilities, often occupying or had occupied administrative positions. The accumulated funds from the Tax farmers allow them to better integrate in the Ottoman managerial system. Often they be come intermediaries between the local society and the government or even take part in the local managerial bodies.What is notable in the present document is that significant parts of the kefils in specific periods are members of the local administrative councils and judiciaries created after the vilayet reform. Commitment is observed between the authorities and the financial abilities of the tax farmers and their guarantors.105The researched document indicates one local variation of the practical system functioning for tax farming and demonstrates as ampling of the local business elite.

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