The Printing Press and Institutional Resistance

Key Insight

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type printing press in Mainz in 1445 brought revolutionary changes to economic history. This innovation made books more readily available, facilitating mass literacy and education. The technology rapidly spread across Western Europe, appearing in Strasbourg by 1460, throughout Italy (Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Turin) by the late 1460s, and in London by William Caxton in 1476. It also reached Eastern Europe, with presses established in Budapest in 1473 and Cracow in 1474.

In stark contrast, the Ottoman Empire actively resisted the printing press. As early as 1485, Sultan Bayezid II issued an edict forbidding Muslims from printing in Arabic, a rule reinforced by Sultan Selim I in 1515. It was not until 1727, 282 years after its invention, that Sultan Ahmed III finally permitted İbrahim Müteferrika to establish a press. Even then, the operation was strictly monitored by religious and legal scholars, the Kadis, to ensure 'printed books will be free from printing mistakes'.

This deliberate obstruction had severe long-term consequences. Müteferrika printed only 17 books between 1729 and 1743, and his family managed only 7 more by 1797. Outside the Ottoman core, the first printing press in Egypt was set up in 1798 by French forces. By 1800, literacy rates in the Ottoman Empire were only 2 to 3 percent, far behind England's 60 percent for adult males and 40 percent for adult females, and even Portugal's 20 percent. This opposition stemmed from the highly absolutist Ottoman institutions, fearing that books would spread ideas, make populations harder to control, challenge the existing political and social status quo, and undermine the power of elites who controlled oral knowledge, thus fearing 'creative destruction'.