The title of Şevket Pamuk's book is misleading. Far from restricting himself to
monetary phenomena—interest rates, coinage, inflation, and availability of
specie—the author has chosen to cast his study of money during the Ottoman period
(1300–1918) in the widest possible terms. Viewing some of the crucial issues of Ottoman
economic and political history through a monetary lens has produced new and interesting
insights—in some cases, the result is a revision of old arguments—but on other
matters, Pamuk has produced provocative new hypotheses. Furthermore, the book offers a timely
addition to the rapidly developing field of global history. Although most of Pamuk's
comparative remarks relate to early modern Europe, his study establishes a benchmark against
which the analyses of monetary and economic phenomena in the other two early modern Middle
Eastern states—the Mughal and the Safavid—can be measured.