Berat was the name of the license (

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

) which granted their non-Muslim Ottoman bearers, the ''beratlı'', a variety of

tax exemption Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...

s and access to European Law. They were also known as "honorary ''

dragomans A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A ...

''". The access to European law helped its agents dominate European commerce.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beratli Taxation in the Ottoman Empire Ottoman law Society of the Ottoman Empire