Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T00:05:59.214Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

British Economic Activities in Izmir in the Second Half of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Elena Frangakis-Syrett
Elena Frangakis-Syrett*
Affiliation:
Queens College of the City University of New York, Department of History
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, British entrepreneurs were prominent in all the major sectors of the Izmir economy, forming one of the most important western communities in the city. They played an active role in the city's large commercial sector, not only in imports and exports, but also in complementary sectors such as insurance and maritime transportation. They also participated in money-lending and tax-farming. As the light-industrial sector of Izmir's economy grew, British entrepreneurs took advantage of the new opportunities offered there. They were particularly prominent in sectors that needed large capital resources and technological expertise, such as mining or infrastructure projects. Despite their strong economic presence, at no time did they monopolize any sector. Their dominance in various sectors was constantly challenged and at times checked by strong competition from other capital, both western and local. Nevertheless, the larger British houses attempted to dominate the sector in which they specialized, and constantly diversified their economic activities and patterns of investment. Despite intense competition, the British maintained a primary position in Izmir's economy throughout this period.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 6: Special Issue on Ottoman Trade , fall 1991 , pp. 191 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clarke, Hyde. 1860. “A History of the British Colony at Smyrna” Levant Herald (March 19).Google Scholar
Cuinet, Vital. 1894. La Turquie d'Asie, III, Paris.Google Scholar
Dutemple, Edmond. 1883. En Turquie d'Asie, Paris.Google Scholar
Frangakis, Elena. 1985. “The Raya Communities of Smyrna in the Eighteenth Century, 1695-1820: Demography and Economic Activities” Actes du Colloque International d'Histoire: La ville neo-hellenique, I. Athens.Google Scholar
Frangakis-Syrett, Elena. 1988a. “Trade between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe: The case of Izmir in the Eighteenth Century,” New Perspectives on Turkey. 2 (1), Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frangakis-Syrett, Elena. 1988b. “Implementation of the 1838 Anglo-Turkish Convention on Izmir's Trade: European and Minority Merchants,” paper delivered at the Conference “The Impact of the 1838 Anglo-Turkish Convention: Anatolia and Egypt Compared,” Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY at Binghamton, 7-8 October.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgiades, D. 1885. Smyrne et l'Asie Mineure au point de vue économique et commercial. Paris.Google Scholar
Giraud Edmund, H. 1934. Family Records. London.Google Scholar
Goffman, Daniel. 1990. Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550-1650. Seattle: Washington University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. J. 1842. Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia. I. London.Google Scholar
Issawi, Charles. 1980. The Economic History of Turkey, 1800-191Ą. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Kasaba, Reşat. 1988a. “Was There a Comprador Bourgeoisie in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Western Anatolia?” Review. XI(2).Google Scholar
Kasaba, Reşat. 1988b. The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy: The Nineteenth Century. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. 1981. The Definition of a Peripheral Economy: Turkey, 1923-1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurmuş, Orhan. 1974. “The Role of British Capital in the Economic Development of Western Anatolia, 1850-1913,” Ph.D. Thesis, London University.Google Scholar
Kurmuş, Orhan. 1987. “The Cotton Famine and Its Effects on the Ottoman Empire,” in Islamoğlu-Inan, H. (ed.), The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Owen, Roger, 1981. The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Panayotopoulos, A. 1983. “The Greeks of Asia Minor, 1908-1912. A Social and Political Analysis,” D. Phil. Thesis, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Percy, Earl. 1901. Highlands of Asiatic Turkey. London.Google Scholar
Quataert, Donald. 1977. “Limited Revolution: The Impact of the Anatolian Railway on Turkish Transportation and the Provisioning of Istanbul, 1890-1908,” Business History Review. LI(2), Summer.Google Scholar
Quataert, Donald. 1983. Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire, 1881-1908. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Quataert, Donald. 1986. “Machine Breaking and the Changing Carpet Industry of Western Anatolia, 1860-1908,” Journal of Social History. 19(3), Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quataert, Donald. 1987. “A Provisional Report Concerning the Impact of European Capital on Ottoman Port Workers, 1880-1909,” in Islamoğlu-Inan, H. (ed.), The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Quataert, Donald. 1990. “Ottoman Textile Manufacturing, 1800-1914,” paper delivered at the Conference on “Manufacturing in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1500-1980,” Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY at Binghamton, 16-17 November.Google Scholar
Rougon, F. 1892. Smyrne: situation commerciale et économique. Paris.Google Scholar
Scherzer, Charles. 1873. La province de Smyrne. Vienna.Google Scholar
Vitalis, Robert. 1990. “On the Theory and Practice of Compradors: The Role of Abbud Pasha in the Egyptian Political Economy,” International Journal of Middle East Studies. 22(3), August.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, G. E. 1918. “Agriculture and Industries in Turkey,” in Hall, W. N. (ed.) Reconstruction in Turkey. New York.Google Scholar