The importation of Ottoman tonbaku from Iran and its socio-cultural implications: 1891-1914

Abstract

This thesis analyzes Ottoman tonbaku imports from Iran and its socio-cultural implications. This study examines the possibility of success of public economic policies that did not take society and social groups into consideration in the economic decision process within the context of the tonbaku trade. This work takes smuggling as a case to study this argument. The Ottoman state imported tonbaku from Iran owing to its own low domestic production. Thus, this circumstance led to the domination of Iranian merchants and the Shiite Ulama, who collected religious taxes from this trade, on the tonbaku market in the Ottoman Empire. The state also monopolized the tonbaku trade with Iran to maximize its revenue, giving a concession to Société du Tombac, known as the Tonbaku Monopoly, in 1891. The Ottoman government and the Monopoly did not take the merchants and the Ulama groups into consideration in the decision process and preferred to continue a high price policy. However, the establishment of the Monopoly and the price policy contributed to a severe smuggling and consumption of smuggled tonbaku. Thus, the income of the state from the trade decreased. Additionally, the Monopoly was abolished in 1914.