Market Ustikolina and Weekly Market Day in the 16th Century

Abstract

Ustikolina market has been mentioned since 1394 for the business of the local population, which was especially engaged in the wax trade. In addition, Du­brovnik merchants were active in Ustikolina very early on. According to some of the leading historians of the medieval period, Ustikolina could not withstand the competition of the nearby, more advanced markets, Goražde and Foča. However, from the content of sources, it is evident that the Ottoman authorities have been recorded revenues from the market tax on the Ustikolina market since the first census of 1468/1469. That means that there were trade activities before that period. In order to improve trade, in the middle of the 16th century, the local judge sent to Porte a written petition to change the weekly market in Ustikolina. It was requested that the market be held on Fridays instead of Saturdays. Local authorities wanted to rationalize and facilitate the activities of the population of Ustikolina and its surroundings and make them able to do the most important weekly tasks on the same day and attend the obligatory Friday prayer.

The paper pays special attention to the analysis of the document that Porte sent to the local judge in this regard. The content of the mentioned document reveals the way in which the Ottoman state solved certain problems that were important for the local community, and the holding of the weekly market was one of those. Also, from the document, it can be established that Ustikolina had a local Muslim community, a mosque where the central weekly prayer was performed, a market, and an established market day, which were the basic preconditions for declaring a place for an urban settlement.

The paper mentions similar practices from the local area, but also from the main capital of Istanbul, which is one of the indicators to what extent it was centralized the Ottoman state in the 16th century. Based on the above, can be seen the efficiency of the governing apparatus whose administrative ar­rangement in the way of functioning of large and small places was not left to chance. In the concrete example, it can be seen that the issue of establishing and changing the weekly market was resolved officially, which was defined by the state protocol.