‘Top-Down’ or ‘Bottom-Up’ Modernisation: Local Railway Entrepreneurs in the Ottoman Empire in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

Abstract In 1857 a local group headed by Bulgarian merchants from the town of Şumnu applied for the Rusçuk and Varna railway concession, in what was one of the earliest attempts by Ottoman subjects to carry out such a capitalist undertaking. Since their application was officially and unofficially supported by the Sublime Porte, this article discusses the genesis and unfolding of this local project as one which resulted both from a ‘top-down’ initiative instigated by the Ottoman government and a ‘bottom-up’ enterprise influenced by new trends in Ottoman economic life.