The present volume deals with the period of Ottoman rule in the land between the rivers Sava, Drava and Danube. In the first part, factors of stability and change in the structures of social and economic life in villages and towns are discussed with particular emphasis on the development of new, or improved devices of analysis and methods of interpreting. To establish a link between tax registers and the picture of the past life, this part closes with the commentary of three stories from narrative sources of that period. In the second part an attempt is made to check the applicability of the results of the investigation of issues of taxation and demography on the local level to the wider areas of Ottoman Empire.