Karesioğulları Beyliği Ekonomisi

Abstract

Economy of the Qaresid PrincipalityQarasi (Karesi), who was a commander of Sultan Mas'ūd (Mesut) II, had captured the zone comprising the modern provinces of Balıkesir and Çanakkale from the Byzantine Empire between the years 1290 and 1328, founding an independent principality in the areas he was ruling. This principality, which continued its existence after Qarasi's death for quarter a century more under the rule of his sons, managed to become a great naval power within a short period of time similar to other Turkish principalities founded in the coastal areas. The principality had also become a power feared in land as well, not just in the seas. Behind all this lay a great economic wealth. There was an advanced production and a trade based on that. Major goods used in trade were fabrics from wool and cotton, clothes, grain and especially wheat, livestock, well-cut precious stones such as turquoise, ruby and emerald, alum, wax, wine and soap, and alongside these important trading goods, slavery as well, which had emerged as a result of continuous warfare. Products acquired from fruit and vegetable production, animal husbandry, beekeeping, fishery and mining were supplying the needs of the people living in the region, while they were also exported to locations around Anatolia such as Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Iran, Constantinople and lands to the north of the Black Sea, as well as to Western Europe. This had caused the emergence of a great wealth in the Qarasid Principality just like all over Anatolia.