POL-UA 540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Pearl Hunting, Overfishing
22 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Assaf the peasant: born in mt. lenanon in the early to mid 1900s, his family works a small plot of land that primarily is used to grow silk worms via mulberry trees, the price of silk fluctuates. Initial demand lead to overproduction and worms got sick. Often times families fell into debt when the price of silk fell: assaf leaves his land. An option his father did not have as this is just coming out of feudalism. His father was intimately tied to the landlord via debt and therefore the land. Needed his permission to marry and gave up percentage of his crop to him. Ottoman land code peasants became owners of the land they worked. This allowed peasants to leave the land if they wanted: assaf joins the police/security whose primary job is to protect the tax collectors of the ottoman empire. Used to only drink yemeni coffee on special occasions. Now the young people drink brazilian coffee daily.
