Acceso usuarios
Emre Öktem
The Ottoman capitulations were often considered an anomaly peculiar to the Ottoman Empire, although their origin dates back to trade treaties concluded between European and Eastern States in the Middle Ages. A legal technique frequently used in such treaties, the most-favoured-nation clause, entered Ottoman practice with the Treaty of 1387 concluded with Genoa. It then appeared in virtually all treaties on trade concerning capitulations up to the last treaty concluded by the Sublime Porte. The variations in the unilateral/bilateral and general/specific character of this clause reflect the changes in the political and economic relations between the Ottoman Empire and the European Powers. The ubiquitous most-favoured-nation clause played a noxious role, nearly nullifying the Empire's sovereign rights over the regulation of its foreign trade and thus contributed to the ruin of its economy, jointly exploited by all European States. On the other hand, one cannot fail to observe that the idiosyncratic Ottoman most-favoured-nation clause closely followed the legal evolution of this clause in European treaty practice, testifying to the inclusion of the Empire in the jus publicum europaeum.
