Abstract:

The nineteenth century was a period of ever-expanding government intervention that not only became more intensive, but also encompassed new fields of action. These were to be attended to by expert personnel, expected to be in possession of relevant knowledge and skills, achieved via training (tahsil-i fünûn) from other skilled men or in an institution of education. This drive towards a broader, more intense and specialised government intervention is well reflected in the shifting use of the concept of nafia in the bureaucratic parlance from a broad notion of beneficial and profitable actions to a very specific meaning of “public works” such as infrastructures and urban reforms. My analysis of the conceptual links between fenn-ilm, on the one hand, and nafia, on the other, strives to underline the importance of science for restructuring the state and the economy. While this conceptual interaction first emerged in the realm of government politics, it helped shape the symbolic sphere of economy and indicates the birth of the notion of a ‘national economy’ that no longer was defined by the state and fiscal concerns.

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