The Eighteenth Century: the Traditionalists 357
he has specific ideas for the development of certain places such as Gümülcüne
(Komotini), Tekirdağ, and Montenegro, stressing the need for the creation of
new administrative units (B393–96). Undercultivated areas, like those in the
Danube that were being randomly used by Vlachs should be registered and
granted to local peasants, as well as to new peasants from either Albania and
other poor lands or Poland (attracted through spies). New cultivations should
also be encouraged, according to the example of the French, who founded cof-
fee plantations in America. In the same vein, the production of local goods
should be encouraged: Kütahya, claims Penah Efendi, can produce far better
pottery than Austria, and thus the money that now goes to Austria (to buy pot-
tery) would stay in Ottoman lands (B398–400).
Penah Efendi’s originality does not end with his town-planning proposals.
Inaugurating a fashion of intense preoccupation with the economy and trade
(in contrast, Canikli considers explicitly financial problems secondary, arguing
that usually they are only a pretext to avoid action)52 that was to emphasize
the need to increase local production, he explains that most European coun-
tries bring goods to the Ottoman Empire and take money in exchange, but also
leave this money or at least half of it there since they also buy local goods.
Some other countries, however, only export goods to Ottoman lands, with the
result that they take Ottoman money back to their home; such goods include
furs (implying that one such country is Russia). The import of furs and expen-
sive cloths should thus be strictly controlled and their use restricted to high
officials; the same goes for silk clothing from India. Local production of exotic
goods, says again Penah Efendi, should be encouraged: coffee could be plant-
ed in Egypt, Basra, or Palestine ( just as the French did in America); headgear
could be made from cotton produced in Rumeli and the Morea; shawls now
imported from Tunis could be produced locally, and so on. In general, not only
should the local production of currently imported goods be encouraged but
the use of expensive imported clothing should also be prohibited (B474–76). In
his next chapter (B476–79), Penah Efendi further elaborates on this argument.
He explains that in the case of imported silk and cotton clothes the damage
is restricted to the buyers, who give their money; however, in the case of the
production of gold and silver thread and embroidery, the damage is general.
Such production leads to a shortage of silver coinage since the gold and silver
52 He states that whenever an officer receives an order, his answer is invariably that there
is no money, but this is only a pretext so that he can avoid doing the task. Mustafa III
tried to win the 1768 war with money, to no avail, while all the conquests of old had been
achieved because of valor and zeal rather than money (Ö160). If the sultan looks after his
subjects, disciplines the army, and consults with the right people, he will have no need of
the treasury.