A Fez Factory in Istanbul

In the 19th century, the Imperial Fez Factory Feshane employed 500 workers of different ethno-religious background. Wage ledgers provide unprecedented information not only on remuneration but also on the production process and labour-control practices in the fez factory, enabling us to formulate research questions within the framework of a broad labour history. In 'Working in a Fez Factory in Istanbul in the Late Nineteenth Century: Division of Labour and Networks of Migration Formed along Ethnoreligious Lines' (IRSH 54 2009 supplement), Mustafa Erdem Kabadayı meticulously analyzes a wage ledger of the Feshane Fez Factory which covers the period from 13 February 1876 until 12 March 1876. This ledger in particular offers insights on the ethnoreligious characteristics, migration and gender of Ottoman factory labourers, on employment practices and wage earning at the fez factory.