This article investigates the role of the Ottoman Nizamiye Court of First Instance in conflicts over capital between public revenue agencies and tax farmers in the Syrian district of Homs at the turn of the twentieth century. The court’s records show that it adjudicated these conflicts in exclusive reference to codified law. However, I argue that the court’s formalist adjudication responded to political and economic circumstances defined by the global fiscal crises of the 1870s. In the aftermath of these crises, tax farmers took on new roles underwriting both Ottoman public debt and foreign investment through contracts with public revenue collection agencies like the Public Debt Administration. These agencies employed codified law to garner as much of tax farmers’ profits as possible. Tax farmers used the same law to contest these efforts and leverage their new economic influence to maintain control over regional markets and land. The court’s formalist rulings served the prerogatives of imperial sovereignty and solvency.

本文研究了20世纪初奥斯曼帝国Nizamiye初审法院在霍姆斯叙利亚地区公共收入机构与税务农民之间的资本冲突中的作用。法院的记录表明，法院仅参照编纂的法律来裁定这些冲突。但是，我认为法院的形式主义裁决是对1870年代全球财政危机所定义的政治和经济情况的回应。在这些危机之后，税农通过与公共债务管理局等公共税收征管机构签订的合同，承担了奥斯曼公共债务和外国投资的新角色。这些机构采用编纂的法律，以尽可能多地增加税收农民的利润。税收农民使用相同的法律来反抗这些努力，并利用其新的经济影响力来维持对区域市场和土地的控制。法院的形式主义裁决服务于帝国主权和偿付能力的特权。