Macedonia's economy in the centuries before the Revolution of 1821 went through two distinct phases. In the early years (15th to 16th century), the incorporation of the whole Greek Peninsula into the Ottoman Empire, the consequent shifts in population and the incessant wars in central Europe and the Mediterranean did not permit the Macedonian economy to benefit from the flourishing Italian trade of the times.
During this early period, the rural economy remained exactly as it had been under the Byzantines, except that logging and stock-breeding began to prosper (as the mountain areas became more populous). In the 17th century, the introduction of new crops led to the development of urban and semi-urban craft industries.
With the next century, growth in these sectors and in mining came to a standstill; in contrast, production of certain agricultural crops intensified. This was the era of expansion of the Capitulations (concessions to Western imports) and of the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe, which effectively destroyed the Macedonian economy's chances for independent development, forcing it to concentrate on retail trade and the production of raw materials.
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