WORKERS IN THE OTTOMAN PUBLIC DEBT ADMINISTRATION IntroductionThe main purpose of this article is to investigate the workforce involved in one of the major late-Ottoman institutions, namely Duyun-ı Umumiye İdaresi (henceforth Ottoman Public Debt Administration OPDA). This article consists of two parts. The first part discusses the political and economic conditions in the Ottoman Empire as well as in Europe, when the OPDA was founded. The second part concerns the workforce involved in the OPDA.PART IThe Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the OPDAOver the last two centuries the Ottoman Empire suffered from numerous crises in various aspects. The spread of nationalist ideas among its minorities, the loss of wars and territories, the signing of treaties added to the deterioration of the Ottoman Empire's position towards European states. During the two centuries before its final fall, the Ottomans had lost many wars and conquered vast territories. All these exerted a negative effect on the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, the impact of Europeans, through their economic penetration, missionary activities and nationalist ideas on minorities such as Armenians, Greeks and Bulgarians, was ever increasing, etc. The Ottomans used to take out internal loans, especially from important resident merchants. However, the Empire no longer holds out in European countries. After a while, the Ottoman Empire took cash from a few European bankers. After a short time, the Ottoman administration borrowed from European countries. All these global changes affected the Ottoman Empire. One of these dormant grids was emerging from foreign credit. The Ottoman Empire borrowed foreign credit (primarily from Britain) during the Crimean War in 1853-1856. After the first loan, another for...... half of the work ......elişimi, Çalışma Safhaları ve Osmanlı Devleti'ne Etkileri”, (unpublished master's thesis, Ankara Üniversitesi, 1997) p. 110.8- Erdoğan Keskinkılıç, “Duyun-ı Umumiye İdaresine Memur Olmak”, Amme İdaresi Dergisi (2002) vol. 36/2 pp. 67-75.9- Haydar Kazgan, “Düyun-ı Umumiye”, In Tanzimattan Cumhuriyete Türkiye Ansiklopedisi, ed. Murat Belge and others (İstanbul: İletişim, 1985) vol. III page 691-786.10- Murat Birdal, The Political Economy of Ottoman Public Debt: Insolvency and European Financial Control in the Late Nineteenth Century, London: IB Tauris, 2010.11- Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey modern, London: University of Cambridge, 1977 vol. II.12- Şevket Pamuk, Osmanlı-Türkiye İktisadi Tarihi 1500-1914, İstanbul: İletişim, 2010.13- Şükrü Hanioğlu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, USA: Princeton, 2008.