The tuz resmi was a

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. During the 15th century, households working in the salt industry were exempted from taxes such as avariz, in return for their contributions to tuz resmi. In one case, an entire village involved in salt-production was exempted from the

cizye Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in Isl ...

, avariz-i divaniyye ''and'' tekalif-i örfiye taxes. An emin could play a key role in salt taxation; most of the surviving records of the emin stationed in

Ragusa Ragusa is the historical name of Dubrovnik. It may also refer to: Places Croatia * the Republic of Ragusa (or Republic of Dubrovnik), the maritime city-state of Ragusa * Cavtat (historically ' in Italian), a town in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Cro ...

(who handled customs and tariffs on foreign trade) are receipts for salt duty. There were even dedicated salt-duty officers, who were granted the title ''tuz emini''. Tuz resmi was usually arranged through the muqata'ah system; the government would grant a salt-producing resource to a contractor or tax-farmer, who would then be obliged to return a proportion of salt production (or the cash equivalent) to government coffers. There was usually a separate muqata'ah for each salt-mine. During the

Tanzimat The Tanzimat (; ota, تنظيمات, translit=Tanzimāt, lit=Reorganization, ''see'' nizām) was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. ...

reforms, the Ottoman government took over complete control of salt production, and prices were fixed; in 1879, the salt industry was given to bankers as collateral against government borrowing, and then in 1881, it was made part of the

Regie Company The Ottoman Tobacco Company, also known as the Régie Company for its French official name ''Société de la régie co-intéressée des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman'', was a parastatal company or Regie formed in the later Ottoman Empire by the Ottoma ...

which gave all salt revenues to the Public Debt Commission – in an attempt to help pay off the Ottoman government's foreign debts. In the face of this government control of salt production (and of salt prices), smuggling became a problem. In the later 19th century, government revenue from tuz resmi was typically 70-80 million kurus per year; by 1912 revenue had risen to 130,476,788 kurus – much higher than other tariffs such as the muskirat resmi (spirits tax) or the

damga resmi The damga resmi was a form of stamp duty in the Ottoman Empire. During most of the Tanzimat period, it was one of the more effective sources of revenue. The original form of damga resmi was abolished in 1839 as part of a complex series of tax re ...

(stamp duty), although taxes on land and crops continued to return more revenue.

References

{{portal bar, Food Taxation in the Ottoman Empire Salt tax