The 1914 Jaffa Citrus Economy: Cycles of Boom and Bust

In 1914, Jaffa's orange groves were the beating heart of Ottoman Palestine's economy, shipping Shamouti oranges across Europe and the Middle East. But beneath the boom lay a fragile system: land disputes between fellahin and effendiya, labor tensions between Jewish immigrants and Arab workers, and the looming shadow of the Great War. This episode follows the 1914 citrus season — the harvest, the exports, the strikes, and the machinery — to reveal how a single crop entangled communities in a web of prosperity and peril. Lucas and Luna trace the path of a Shamouti orange from the groves of Sarona to the docks of Jaffa, explore the role of the Citrus Board and the impact of the Ottoman Land Code, and examine how the war's outbreak in August severed markets and triggered economic collapse. Through personal stories of growers, pickers, and traders, they ask: was this golden age sustainable, or was it a prelude to the storm?

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