Talking two specific case studies, the island of Crete which moved from Venetian to Ottoman rule in the seventeenth century, and Bulgaria in the nineteenth century when the economy displayed the effects of the considerable economic upheavals experienced in the empire in that period, this book questions varios assumptions about the economic impact of Ottoman conquest and rule in the Balkans, challenges and nuances stereotypical views about the Ottoman economic mentality and approach and examines how Ottoman economic management actually functioned on the ground.