Thie Price of Slaves

In both Kaffa and Istanbul, the sale of each slave was taxed, according to the captive's origin rather than his or her ability. The Ottoman state derived substantial income from sales of slaves from Poland-Lithuania, even in times of peace.

Although there has been no systematic study of the price of slaves, prices varied according to place of origin, sex, age, physical condition, abilities, and supply. Individual differences were particularly great for females, and throughout the Ottoman period, it seems, whites were more costly than blacks.⁴⁶ At Akkerman in the mid-sixteenth century the average price of a typical Polish or Ukrainian captive was 2,250 aspers, or akςe in Turkish (about forty to fifty gold pieces), although the figure could double for an especially talented or handsome individual. This was slightly lower than the cost of a good horse. Of course, the prices paid at Istanbul and Edirne, the largest slave emporia in the heartland, were slightly higher and rose steadily over the next century.⁴⁷

We do have a vivid description of the pricing system in Istanbul.

But of what esteem the Chercassians are with the Turks, may be guessed from the Price which the Sellers put upon their Captives. They value them in the first place, because their Virgins are more beautiful than all others, better proportion'd in their Bodies, capable of Instruction and of great modesty, and their young Men, as they think, more sharp in their Wit, and capable of making the best Ar­tificers. The next in their esteem are the Polanders, then the Abaze [a Caucasian people], then the Russians for the hardness of their Bodies and their enduring of Labour, which considerations often send them to row in the Grand Sinior's Gallies, then the Cossaks, then the Geor­gians, and last of all the Mengrelians [another Caucasian people].

Cantemir continues:

The Germans, Venetians, and Hungarians (whom they are wont to call by the name of Ifrank) are by them thought incapable of all drudgery, by reason of the softness of their bodies, and the Women of giving pleasure proper to their Sex from the hardness of theirs. So that were Slaves produc'd in the Market out of all these Nations of the same age, strength, or beauty, a Chercassian, Man or Woman, would be sold for 1000 Imperial Crowns, a Polander for 600, Abaza for 500, a Russ or Cozac for 400, a Georgian for 300, a Mengrelian for 250, a German or Ifrank for still less.⁴⁸

This price range given by Cantemir seems wide, and most slaves apparently fell somewhere in the middle. Moreover, we do not know, for example, even whether by “Polander” Cantemir meant any subject of the Polish-Lithua­nian Commonwealth, or just ethnic Poles. Similarly, did “Russ” mean any East Slav at all or (much less likely) primarily Muscovites, who were only just then beginning to refer to their country as “the Russian Empire”? Such difficulties notwithstanding, the prices quoted here do give a general sense of the relative value of captives from various European nations. Presumably, the figures for African slaves, who were rarer in Turkey than in Egypt and whom Cantemir does not even seem to consider, would have been some­what lower.⁴⁹