Good Order in Bucharest during the Phanariot Age

Our article analyses the dynamics of the order and disorder in the city of Bucharest during the Phanariot rule. We are interested in the urban policy created by the Phanariots before the city received an administrative and legislative framework, in the 1830s. This era of reforms, generated by the Organic Regulation, gave birth to the urban institutions designed to control sanitary, economic, social, and political facets of urban life. The article is based on the ordinances and nizams issued by the Phanariots with the aim to control and regulate urban life. To assess the implementation of these orders and their reception by the population, the article makes use of the cases kept in the judicial archives. These documents shed light on the daily practices of respecting the neighbourhoods and adhering to the rules of common coexistence. In a broader sense, we try to see which were the urban aspects subjected to regulation and their impact on the daily life of the population; determine who had the political authority necessary to enact city regulations and what kind of measure were taken to ensure that they were effective; assess how many of these measures met the requirements of communal living and how many were plagiarisms, replicating other measures; and understand to whom the decrees were addressed and the reasons for which the Phanariot rulers issued them.