Work Hard My Child, Don't Be a Civil Servant; Become an Entrepreneur! New Subjects and Entrepreneurship in Textbooks from the Late Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The late Ottoman Empire witnessed many remarkable developments in entrepreneurship, especially at the beginning of the twentieth century. Turkish subjects, who had been mainly seen as oriented towards the civil service, were encouraged to take initiatives in areas such as agriculture, trade, and craft. Besides the effective use of the Ottoman press, education was also applied for this purpose. Curricula and textbooks that should make education functional came into operation. Entrepreneurship was one of the important subjects discussed in various dimensions in primary-school textbooks prepared in line with the renewed curricula after the Revolution in 1908. This study shows that efforts to raise entrepreneurial citizens were not something new in Turkish society. By focusing on four main textbooks taught at the primary education level in the late Ottoman Empire, economic contents have been analysed. Prepared and approved by officials, these textbooks suggested that children should be made aware of the enterprise idea [fikr-i tesebbus], private enterprise [tesebbus-i sahsi], the characteristics that the entrepreneurs should have, and acceptable entrepreneurship areas. Within this framework, they were directed to become entrepreneurs.