“Grano Turco”: A Grain, a Name, and the Networks of Trade in 1895 Istanbul

24 August 2026

Blog

Among the recent acquisitions, acquired through a grant, is a collection of documents from the Tribunale Consolare d’Italia. The documents concern a certain Nicolas Cumarianos of Xanthié (Xánthi/Ξάνθη) in Thrace, modern-day Greece. Mr Cumarianos filed a petition concerning monies owed to him by an Italian citizen called Luigi Sollari. The process took place over several months in 1895.

The file contains approximately 50 documents. The correspondences are written in Italian, French, and Greek—indicative of the multilingual character of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the late nineteenth century. Fascinatingly, the file also contains two separate lists of foodstuffs and everyday products which reflect the accounts of Mr Sollari and monies owed to Mr Cumarianos. Both lists record the quantity and price of each item in piastre.

Given the cost of living today and the effects of rampant inflation, these two lists offer a glimpse into the relative value of a variety of products from the past. Beyond their monetary value, however, the naming conventions used in the lists provide intriguing insights into the nature of trade and commerce in Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century.

Kile and Grano Turco

In this section of the list, one reads: 110 oke of patates valued at 82 piastres, 4 oke of soda valued at 4 piastres, 20 oke of pasta macaroni valued at 60 piastres, 10 oke of nuoce(?), likely noce (walnuts/ceviz) valued at 12.20 piastres, and finally ½ kile of grano turco valued at 15 piastres.

The last entry is particularly interesting. Kile (kileh/كیله) was an Ottoman unit of measurement used for dry foodstuffs. The term grano turco, however, is particularly interesting. Corn (maize) is generally thought to have reached the Ottoman Empire and neighbouring regions, as well as Europe, through trade beginning in the fifteenth century. Its introduction into the Ottoman lands is often associated with trade through Egypt (Mısır), which gave corn its Ottoman Turkish name, mısır. The same word, of course, refers to Egypt, deriving from the Arabic مصر (maṣr), a term evoking ideas of founding, settling, and becoming populated.

The Italian appellation grano turco offers a fascinating parallel. Italy was an important trading partner of the Ottoman Empire and remains an important commercial partner of Türkiye today. Just as corn was associated with Mısır in Ottoman and Turkish usage because of its route of introduction through Egypt, Italian grano turco—literally “Turkish grain”—seemingly also reflects the association between the grain (corn) and the Ottoman/Turkish world from which it reached Italian markets. The terminology is therefore more than a curiosity. It preserves, in a single line of a nineteenth-century petition account, traces of the routes through which foodstuffs circulated and of the places with which those commodities became linguistically associated.

Oke and Olio D’oliva

On the second page of this commodities list, Mr Sollari owes for 4 oke of petrolio valued at 5 piastres, likely kerosene oil for lamps, 8 oke of olio d’oliva valued at 48 piastres, 33 oke of rizo(?), likely riso (rice/pirinç) valued at 77.20 piastres, and (another) 5 oke of pasta maraconi valued at 15 piastres.

Oke (okka/اوقه), also known as kıyye, was another Ottoman unit of weight, equal to 400 dirhams, or approximately 1,282 grams. In this case, the gentleman owed money for 8 oke—roughly 10 litres—of olio d’oliva, or zeytinyağı (olive oil). In today’s terms, that quantity would cost approximately 3,400–4,500 TL.

The final document of this file makes it seem as though Mr Sollari disappeared and failed to confront Mr Cumarianos’ accusations. As the Italian saying goes: La verità è come l’olio, viene sempre a galla—“The truth is like oil; it always rises to the surface.”

Watermarks

Finally, some of the paper used for these documents bears intriguing watermarks. These can also offer clues about the changing nature of the paper trade.

The watermark pictured contains a crown, a shield, a post horn, and a set of initials. This combination suggests that the paper may represent a family or proprietorial coat of arms. Not pictured is the portion of the page bearing the words “Austro-Hungarian Manufacture,” indicating that these papers came from mills within the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This was a transitional period in papermaking. The traditional production of handmade paper from rags was gradually being transformed by the increasing use of wood pulp and mechanised, industrial production. The papers themselves therefore provide another glimpse into the changing technologies and commercial networks of the late nineteenth century.

This is but a snapshot of what these documents have to offer. They provide a wide range of possibilities for interdisciplinary and multilingual research projects.

If you have any questions or would like to see the collection for yourself, please get in touch with me at librarian@biaa.ac.uk.

Come one, come all!

Sean,
BIAA Librarian

Further reading