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This research introduces a novel geo-spatial sampling model to overcome a major difficulty in historical economic geography of Bulgarian lands during a crucial period: immediately before and after the de facto independence of the territory from the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century. At its core it seeks to investigate the research question how the Bulgarian independence affected agricultural production in two regions (centered around the cities of Plovdiv and Ruse) of today's Bulgaria, for which there are conflicting yet empirically unsubstantiated claims concerning the economic impact of the political independence. Using our be-spoke geo-sampling strategy we believe, we have sampled regionally representative commensurable agricultural data from the 1840s Ottoman archival documentation, in accord with agricultural censuses conducted by the nascent nation state of Bulgaria in the 1890s., European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; European Research Council (ERC); Research and innovation Programme; Project: "Industrialisation and Urban Growth from the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Empire to Contemporary Turkey in a Comparative Perspective, 1850-2000"; UrbanOccupationsOETR

Due to great geostrategic significance the area was organized as a military frontier of the sancaks of Klis, Krka, Bihać and partly Herzegovina in eyalet of Bosnia. In Ottoman sources, particularly in mühimme defteris this part of the frontier is often called “the end of frontier” or “the edge of frontier” (intiha-yı serhad). There existed a specific patterns of urban evolution because all towns gradually developed from the military strongholds. Even though urbanization of the frontier during the 16th and 17th centuries was limited, there is no doubt that certain Ottoman forts outgrew military frames and gained stronger civilian i.e. central functions. The whole south-west of the Bosnian eyalet eventually became criss-crossed by small towns with the population of several thousand which emerged from forts. The main subject of research of this paper are precisely such towns, towns to which the war represented a factor of urban development and which developed out of too great fear on south-western borders.