Formal conceptions of state capacity have mostly focused on indirect measures of state capacity – by, for instance, using the state's fiscal or extractive capacity as a proxy for its overall capacity. Yet, this input or extractive view of state capacity falls short, especially since...

This study investigates the evolution of market integration in Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean and Europe until World War I. We find that market integration levels were the highest in northwest Europe while Ottoman lands were part of the less integrated periphery. Over the centuries, most European...