Monthly salary of the three men, by Hijri year
- Hasan Tahsin Efendi
- Ali Rıza Bey, the minister's son
- Hasan Şevki Efendi, from Darüşşafaka
- a year in an office without a salary
Hijri year, with the Gregorian years it spans. Monthly salary in kuruş.
The school and the office. Training, entry and pay in the Ottoman Post and Telegraph service, 1870–1905
Ottoman Bureaucracy in motion
This page shows what the paper finds. It follows – officials of the ministry from the year in which each of them entered an office, through – yearly salary observations. There are seven parts. In each part one thing moves: a year, or the years an official had spent in an office. Every point in a chart is one official and opens his record on ottomanbureaucracy.com.
Part 1 of 7
Three men drew their first salary in Istanbul in the same year
The year was AH –, which ran from August 1891 to July 1892. Hasan Tahsin Efendi had worked in an office for – years without a salary and started on – kuruş a month. Ali Rıza Bey, the minister's youngest son, had worked – year without a salary and started on – kuruş. Hasan Şevki Efendi came from Darüşşafaka, a charity boarding school for Muslim orphans. He had not worked without a salary, and he started on – kuruş, the usual salary of a telegraph clerk.
Son of a postal clerk. He entered an office at fourteen and became a telegraph clerk.
- Years in an office without a salary
- –
- First salary, kuruş a month
- –
- Salary in AH –
- –
Youngest son of the minister Hasan Ali Efendi. His salary stopped rising after his father died.
- Years in an office without a salary
- –
- First salary, kuruş a month
- –
- Highest salary
- –
- Salary in AH –
- –
From Darüşşafaka. He was paid a clerk's salary on appointment.
- Years in an office without a salary
- –
- First salary, kuruş a month
- –
- Salary in AH –
- –
Figure 1 of the paper. Hasan Tahsin Efendi and Hasan Şevki Efendi were chosen by a rule: each is the official whose salaries lie nearest the median of his group. Each name opens the official's record on the website.
Part 2 of 7
Most officials first worked for years without a salary
This work was called mülazemet. – of the officials with lower schooling record one, and on average their first salary came – years after they had entered an office. In Istanbul, the officials first paid in 1890 to 1894 then started on a median of – kuruş. A clerk's salary was 400 kuruş. Half of them had reached it – years after they had entered an office. In the provinces it took – years.
Pay over the first ten years in an office: lower schooling, Istanbul, first paid 1890–1894
– kuruş
The same for officials from Darüşşafaka
– kuruş
Officials hired with a salary against officials with a mülazemet: pay over ten years
–
95% interval –
Rise in salary with one more paid year, and with one more year of mülazemet
– and –
Share of officials who had reached 400 kuruş
By years since entering an office. The dashed line marks one half.
Years since entering an office
Pay received so far, median, in kuruş
Years since entering an office. Years without a salary count as nought.
Figures 6, 7 and 18 and Table 7 of the paper. Officials hired with a salary are those outside Darüşşafaka who record no mülazemet and were paid within a year of entering an office.
Part 3 of 7
From AH 1307, officials who came straight from Darüşşafaka started on exactly 400 kuruş
From 1880 the ministry's engineers taught telegraphy in the senior classes of Darüşşafaka. The sample holds – officials from the school, and – of them served no mülazemet. The – first paid in 1881 to 1889 started on different amounts, with a median of – kuruş. Of the – first paid without a mülazemet in 1890 to 1894, – started on exactly 400 kuruş. In the same years the first salaries of other new officials in Istanbul fell to 100 kuruş or less.
Every first salary in Istanbul, by Hijri year
- official from Darüşşafaka, no mülazemet
- official from Darüşşafaka, after a mülazemet
- other official first paid in Istanbul
- median of the others in Istanbul
- median of the others in the provinces
Hijri year of the first salary. First monthly salary in kuruş, on a ratio scale.
In AH – (–) – other officials were first paid in Istanbul, on a median of – kuruş, and – of them started on 100 kuruş or less. – officials came straight from Darüşşafaka, and – of them started on exactly 400 kuruş.
Figure 8 and Table 1 of the paper. Each point is one official: the 992 officials outside Darüşşafaka who were first paid in Istanbul in AH 1296 to 1323, and the 150 officials from Darüşşafaka, wherever they were first paid. First salaries above 1,000 kuruş are drawn at 1,000. A point opens the official's record on the website.
Part 4 of 7
The fixed first salary paid these officials sooner. In kuruş it did not pay them more
The officials from Darüşşafaka first paid in 1881 to 1889 started level with officials with lower schooling (–). Six to ten years later they earned – more. Those first paid in 1890 to 1895 started – higher, and six to ten years later they earned – more. The two periods differ at the start and not later.
Pay over ten years, officials from Darüşşafaka: first paid 1881–1889, then 1890–1894
– then –
kuruş
The same for officials with lower schooling first paid in Istanbul
– then –
kuruş
Ten-year pay of Darüşşafaka officials as a multiple of the others' in Istanbul
– then –
times
Difference between the periods at the start, less the difference six to ten years later
– log points
95% interval –
Median monthly salary, in kuruş
By salaried year. Year 0 is the year of the first salary.
Salaried year
Officials from Darüşşafaka against officials with lower schooling
Difference in salary in per cent, with 95% intervals. Languages, religion, the father's occupation, the year, the province of posting and the province of birth are held constant.
Salaried year
Figure 10 and Table 3 of the paper. These are differences in the pay that the ministry assigned. They are not estimates of what schooling caused.
Part 5 of 7
No other group of new officials started on 400 kuruş in Istanbul
In 1890 to 1894, – officials came straight from Darüşşafaka and were first paid in Istanbul, and – of them started on 400 kuruş. Of the – other officials first paid there, – started on 400 kuruş or more and – on 100 kuruş or less. None of the – officials from other advanced schools started on 400 kuruş, and none of the – who knew French. Of the – sons of officials, – did.
The 330 officials first paid in Istanbul in 1890 to 1894
- one official
- recorded with French
- 100 and 400 kuruş
First monthly salary in kuruş, on a ratio scale
Schools one by one
Salary difference from officials with lower schooling over all recorded years, in per cent, with 95% intervals. The number of officials is in brackets.
Officials from the Mekteb-i Sultani also came to earn much more, but they are few, and they started on low salaries. What only Darüşşafaka had was 400 kuruş at the start.
Figures 11 and 14 and Tables 4 and 5 of the paper. First salaries above 1,000 kuruş are drawn at 1,000. A point opens the official's record on the website.
Part 6 of 7
Two familiar numbers have to be read with the rules of hiring in mind
Officials with advanced schooling earned – more than officials with lower schooling. This is an average of – for Darüşşafaka and – for the other advanced schools. The difference rose from – in the 1870s to – in 1900 to 1905. Without the officials from Darüşşafaka it was – in the 1870s, – in the 1890s and – in 1900 to 1905. The rise took place in Istanbul. The pay of Muslim officials differed from that of non-Muslim officials by –. With French and other languages held constant the difference is –.
Advanced against lower schooling, by decade
Difference in salary in per cent, with 95% intervals for the two main lines.
The same difference in Istanbul and in the provinces
Rise between 1870–1889 and 1890–1905: – log points in Istanbul, – in the provinces.
Religion and French among new officials
Shares of the officials first paid in each five-year period.
Figures 15, 16 and 17 and Tables 5 and 6 of the paper. Decades are periods of observation. The models hold the kind of work, languages, religion, the father's occupation, years of service, the year, the province of posting and the province of birth constant.
Part 7 of 7
The registers and the people in them
The paper uses – officials and – yearly observations between 1870 and 1905. For – of them the first salary falls in those years, and – of the observations are in Istanbul. The website holds the whole collection: – officials, of whom – are named, – annual records and – localities. The registers were compiled from 1879, so the officials seen before that year are those who were still serving then.
Officials in the paper's sample
–
– yearly observations
Hijri year with the most officials in the sample
AH –
– officials with a salary
Officials on the website
–
– annual records
Localities on the website
–
– places of posting located in the paper
Officials with a salary in the paper's sample, by Hijri year
Hijri year, with the Gregorian years it spans
Where officials are recorded on the website, in –
Each circle is a locality with officials on record in that year in the website's collection. Its area follows their number. A circle opens the locality's page.
Figures 4 and 5 of the paper for the sample. The map uses the website's data edition –, which is larger than the paper's sample.