A.DU VELAY: ESSAI SUR L HISTOIRE FINANCIERE DE TURQUIE. PARIS 1903 First edtion, large 8vo, contemporary leather slightly trimmed over boards, complete 722p., text clean and bright, overall in very good condition. Du Velay was a former official of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (which acted as a Central Bank),his account is the most valuable for late Ottoman financial history. He describe the Ottoman Public Debt Administration which was essentially a state within a state, as Europeans took direct control of the finances to ensure their loans. He details how the transition from the old Janissary system to modern military reforms created a massive budget deficit that the traditional fiscal system could not support. He explained the Ottoman debt spiral, a circle that led to the bankruptcy of 1875 and the total European control. He analyzed the role of the foreign banks and the priority given by the local Greek and Armenian bankers to European bondholders over Ottoman citizens, the plight of the Ottoman taxpayer,noting how the corruption and the tax farming system led to inefficiencies that crippled the state ability to modernize. He describes the huge control exercised by the Greeks and the Armenians in all aspects of economic activity A massive academic monumental work, no one can realize the late 19th century Ottoman world without this scientific insider s presentation. Of the utmost rarity