In the early modern age, many centralized states have emerged across Europe. States that have an effective and centralized taxation system have achieved great military success against other nations, as well as increasing their capacity to cope with the difficulties they face at home. In the second half of the eighteenth century, remarkable differences emerged between the fiscal and military capacities of states that could and could not collect more revenue. In the Ottoman Empire central revenues remained low during the 17th and 18th centuries, largely due to the seizure of gross tax revenues by various intermediaries. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the centralist structures in the Ottoman Empire weakened considerably. However, the producers and traders could not get strong enough to put pressure on the central government to change these structures. The central government was able to resist the establishment of private property, despite its decline in power and loss of control of the tax collection process in many parts of the empire's territory. Land use remained mainly in the hands of small-scale family businesses. The central government sought solutions to the internal and external dangers it encountered through selective institutional changes, flexibility and pragmatism methods.