Abstract:
This study provides a quantitative examination of longitudinal changes in wage levels within cash waqf organisations from a longterm perspective. By employing cash waqf contracts, this study estimates long-term trends in the wages of skilled and unskilled workers in the Rumelia provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The new dataset indicates that the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers remained constant until the late eighteenth century. This pattern shifted in favour of skilled workers from the mid-nineteenth century. This study employs regression analysis to identify wage level trends and determine the influence of economic and non-economic variables on wages, based on cash waqf organisations. The results show that wages had a positive correlation with institutional revenues, especially for skilled workers, while social characteristics such as gender or family status had a limited impact. Despite a decline in capitals, many waqfs continued to pay above-subsistence wages, reflecting a socially motivated approach to compensation. The findings highlight the role of cash waqfs in sustaining employment and contribute to the knowledge of Ottoman labour history by offering an alternative to state- or market-centred wage analyses.
