''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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

) 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 European Union law is a system of Supranational union, supranational Law, laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). It has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote ...

. They were also known as "honorary ''

dragomans A dragoman was an Interpreter (communication), interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish language, Turkish-, Arabic language, Arabic-, and Persian language, Persian-speaking countries and polity, polities of the Middle East and ...

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

References

* Taxation in the Ottoman Empire Law of the Ottoman Empire Society of the Ottoman Empire {{Ottoman-stub