Bureaucrats into merchants: tea, capitalism and the making of the Republican bourgeois

Abstract

This article uses the story of the Albayrak Tea Company and its founder Mustafa Nezih Albayrak as a prism to examine the formation of a class of Muslim merchants in early Republican Turkey. Mustafa Nezih Bey, an Ottoman bureaucrat who ventured into business in the late 1910s, became one of the most prominent tea merchants in the early Republic, paving the way for its mass consumption. Looking at the overlap between the late Ottoman bureaucracy and the Turkish bourgeoisie, this study aims to show a continuation in the economic field rather than a break between the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Republican Turkey. The making of the Republican merchant elite was a complex process that involved not only state policies and long legacies of merchant activity from the Ottoman era but transformations in education and mass media in the aftermath of the 1908 Revolution.

Keywords:

• Tea trade
• economic nationalism
• Late Ottoman empire
• early Republican period
• commercial bourgeoisie
• bureaucratic bourgeoisie
• Turkification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. This article was produced from the PhD. Thesis of the author with updated corpus.

Notes

1 See, for instance, Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918 [National Economy in Turkey 1908-1918] (Istanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2017), François Georgeon, Osmanlı-Türk Modernleşmesi 1900-1930 [Ottoman-Turkish Modernisation 1900-1930], tr. Ali Berktay, 5th edition (Istanbul: YKY, 2020), Şevket Pamuk, Türkiye’nin İki Yüzyıllık İktisadi Tarihi [Turkey’s Two Hundred Years of Economic History] (Istanbul: İşbankası Kültür Yayınları, 2020), Taylan Esin, Osmanlı Savaşı’nın İktisadi Aktörleri (1914-19) [Economic Actors of the Ottoman War (1914-19)] (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2020), and Donald Quatert, Osmanlı Devleti’nde Avrupa İktisadi Yayılımı ve Direniş 1881-1908 [European Economic Expansion and Resistance in the Ottoman Empire 1881-1908], trans. Sabri Tekay (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2017).

2 Hamdi Genç, Murat Çokgezen, and Murat Koraltürk, ‘Cumhuriyetin İlk Yıllarında İş Dünyasının Profili’ [Profile of the Business World in the Early Years of the Republic], İktisat İşletme ve Finans, vol.19 (216), (2004), pp.62-75: DOI:10.3848/iif.2004.216.1280

3 Rıfat Bali and Murat Koraltürk, Türkiye'de Özel Girişimciliğin Gelişimi ve İş İnsanlarının Ağzından «Başarı» Hikâyeleri (1930'lardan 1960'lara) [The Development of Private Entrepreneurship in Turkey and ‘Success’ Stories from Businessmen (1930s to 1960s)], (Istanbul: Libra Kitap, 2021). This limitation was something they acknowledged in the book; however, there were also errors of information, at least concerning Mustafa Nezih Albayrak, such as the company’s date of establishment. It was founded in 1917 and not in 1927.

4 Yaşar Tolga Cora, ‘A Muslim Great Merchant [Tüccar] Family in the Late Ottoman Empire: A Case Study of the Nemlizades 1860-1930’, The International Journal of Turkish Studies, vol. 19. No.1/2 (2013), pp.1-29.

5 Yaşar Tolga Cora, ‘A Muslim Great Merchant [Tüccar] Family in the Late Ottoman Empire: A Case Study of the Nemlizades 1860-1930’, p.5.

6 Fatma Müge Göçek, Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p.99.

7 Camellia Sinensis is the scientific Latin name for the tea plant. The word can be translated as the Chinese camellia, which designates its origin.

8 According to the Report on Trade and Commerce of the Trebizond Vilayet for the year 1909 by the British Consul, Longworth, Britain had the largest share of the tea trade during the Turkish financial year that ended on 14 March 1910, and Russia followed Britain; pp.15-16.

9 Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives (hereafter BOA) HR.SFR.3.708/60. ‘Our agent informs us at Constantinople that a consignment of tea forwarded to N.P. Mouchtouris, Stamboul, and by our agent at Samsoun, that a parcel of tea in consignment to A.zade&Frere of that city…’.

10 Ikdam (newspaper), nr.188, 10 Şaban 1312 (6 February 1895), p.4.

11 ‘Zümreler itibariyle başlıca ithalat maddeleri kıymeti ve umumi ithalat yekununda % nisbetleri (altın lira hesabıyle)- Kahve ve çay ithalatı’, Celal Aybar (ed.), Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun Ticaret Muvazenesi 1878-1913 [Trade Balance of the Ottoman Empire 1878-1913], Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başvekalet İstatistik Umum Müdürlüğü, Neşriyat Serisi No.132, Tetkikler Serisi No.73 (Ankara: Zerbamat Basımevi, 1939), p.47.

12 Some Muslim tea merchants were active in local trade networks in Anatolia, such as in Trabzon and Erzurum. Moreover, the Muslim refugees that came from Russia and Central Asia contributed to the sale and consumption of tea in Istanbul. However, they were mostly petty merchants and did not participate in the international tea trade.

13 BOA, HR.UHM.20/16 (14 March 1896), BOA.HR.TH.171/107 (26 March 1896). These documents suggest that Ottoman Greek tea merchant Athenais Klotaridis was a merchant from Constantinople who imported tea from Hamburg via a German firm named G.W.A. Westphal Sohn und Co. We learn from the document that in 1896 he ordered 229 kg of Souchong tea (a Chinese tea variation) for 4.40 francs per kilo. See also BOA, MV.9/29 (13 April 1886) According to this document, a local merchant from Constantinople, Biazi, ordered 319 cases of tea from Britain. BOA, Y.MTV.68/27 (28 September 1892). In 1873, another local Greek merchant from Constantinople named Manulaki imported 114 crates of tea from Britain.

14 The chief fournisseur of the palace for tea.

15 An Ottoman tughra is a calligraphic monogram of the Ottoman Sultan. He was penalized for his actions: see BOA, Y.MTV.68/27 (28 September 1892).

16 According to a document from 1917, Isakolyan moved his shop to Bahcekapu and continued to deal with the tea trade (BOA, DH.EUM.2.Şb.41/14-22 August 1917). While other documents suggest that Karabet Yavroyan quit the trade and his sons opened a tin box factory in Constantinople. (See, for instance, BOA, DH.İ.UM.19/1-18 January 1922.)

17 BOA.BEO.3983/298723 (31 December 1911).

18 BOA.HR.SYS.2462/44 (19 May 1919). These documents were consulate dispatches between the Spanish Embassy in Italy and the Ottoman Empire. His business trip from Italy to Spain necessitated that he provide some documents which probably served as a passport. According to his documents, he was born in Smyrna in 1887 as an Ottoman subject from the Jewish millet. (Italian original: ‘suddito Ottomano, ma di nazionalita israelita’.) He was referred to as Samuel Leon (Emar or Ammar) in various documents.

19 BOA, A.}DVN.MKL.67/1 (17 August 1920).

20 They were also equipped with the necessary languages for international trade. Wealthy Greek merchants sent their children to Europe for education as early as the seventeenth century. During the nineteenth century, they also increasingly got their children educated in their community schools and foreign schools established by the European residents, which instructed them in modern languages and taught them the basics of economy and trade. The non-Muslims also provided the European merchants with ‘a local milieu of reliable assistants and associates and established relationships of dependency and trust with local authorities in a foreign environment that could be otherwise dangerous and hostile’ in Despina Vlami, Trading with the Ottomans, The Levant Company in the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris, 2015), p.159.

21 Cihan Artunç states in his article, ‘The Protégé System and Beratlı Merchants in the Ottoman Empire: The Price of Legal Institutions’, that ‘evidence suggests beratlıs formed partnerships with other beratlıs or non-Muslim Ottomans who later went on to purchase berats.’ Although we do not have a definitive number of the non-Muslims under European protection at the turn of the twentieth century, Artunç relates that at the end of the eighteenth century ‘under the beratlı system, there were about 1,700 people under protection in the entirety of the Ottoman Empire’, pp.10-16. Moreover, Olivier Bouquet states in his article that ‘müstemen (foreign people in the Ottoman Empire under protection) were a few thousand at the end of the eighteenth century that became a few ten thousands one century later’, in Olivier Bouquet, ‘Non-Muslim citizens as foreigners within: how Ecnebi became Yabancı from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic’ Middle Eastern Studies, 53 (3) (2017), pp.486-99.

22 Fatma Müge Göçek, Rise of the Bourgeoisie, p.90.

23 Vasiliki Amorati, ‘Beyond Myths and Realities of Smyrna's Cosmopolitanism and Urbanization: Exploring the Agrarian Life of the Greek Orthodox Inhabitants of Smyrna during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’, Unpublished Symposium notice, 23rd Biennial International Symposium, 14-16 November 2013, Indiana University.

24 Although during the Tanzimat Period, there were many attempts to modernise and regularize schooling and education systems throughout the empire. Firstly in 1867, with the Maarif Nizamnamesi (education regulation), in villages and neighbourhoods, primary schools and secondary schools in towns with five hundred houses, high schools in towns with a thousand houses and Sultaniye schools in provincial centres throughout the Empire were to be built. This division is similar to today's main, primary, secondary and high school divisions. Educational reforms and the opening of new and modernized schools proliferated during Abdulhamid II’s reign. The Mülkiye Mektebi, for instance, was first established in 1859. However, its curriculum and schooling system were thoroughly changed with the 1877 regulation of the Mekteb-i Mülkiye. New courses were added to its curriculum, school years and premises of the school were expanded and so on. All these educational reforms and regulations were discussed and decided upon by the Ministry of Education (Maarif Nezareti).

25 Fatma Müge Göçek, Rise of the Bourgeoisie, p.81.

26 Ibid.

27 National economy did not mean a Turkish/Muslim economy at this stage. The national economy that was discussed was an overarching and all-encompassing Ottoman economy until the Balkan wars.

28 Mehmed Cavid Bey was an Ottoman economist, journalist and leading politician who served as the finance minister between the years 1909-1911 and 1914. He was born to a merchant family in Salonica and was educated in Mülkiye Mektebi in Istanbul (the academy for civil servants). He was one of the founding members of the Committee of Union and Progress, worked for the ministry of education and taught economics.

29 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918 [National Economy in Turkey 1908-1918] (Istanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2017), p.160.

30 Şevket Pamuk, ‘The Ottoman Empire in the ‘Great Depression’ of 1873-1896’, The Journal of Economic History 44, no. 1 (1984), p.110.

31 Mithat Kadri Vural, ‘Savaş Yıllarında Milli Bir Burjuvazi Oluşturma Çabası Olarak ‘Harp Zenginleri’ ve Buna Yönelik Eleştiriler’ [‘War Riches’ as an Effort to Create a National Bourgeoisie in the War Years and Criticisms Against This], Journal of Modern Turkish History Studies XVI/ 32 (Spring 2016), p.111.

32 Taylan Esin, Osmanlı Savaşı’nın İktisadi Aktörleri (1914-1919) [ Economic Actors of the Ottoman War (1914-1919)] (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2020), p.219.

33 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918, p.163.

34 The famous iconic battleship Averof took its name from a wealthy Ottoman Greek businessman who, as a philanthropist, bought and donated the armoured cruiser to the Greek state. Averof by itself cost the Ottoman Empire the Aegean islands.

35 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918, p.170.

36 Ibid., p.170.

37 Ibid., p.171.

38 FO 371 41418528 in Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918, p.681.

39 Ibid.

40 The capitulations were a highly debated topic in the Ottoman press during the second constitutional era. The Ottoman intelligentsia was aware that concessions and capitulations were doing harm to the Ottoman economy and its political independence. In the 1911 CUP Party Congress, the capitulations’ termination was officially discussed. See Mehmed Emin Elmacı, Ittihad-Terakki ve Kapitulasyonlar [Union and Progress and the Capitulations] (Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 2005), p.47. Also, one of the first acts of the new CUP government in 1913 was to ‘open negotiations with the Great Powers for the eventual abolition of the capitulations’, see Feroz Ahmad ‘Ottoman Perceptions of the Capitulations 1800-1914’, Journal of Islamic Studies 11 (2000), p.15. DOI:10.1093/JIS/11.1.1.

41 See, for instance, BOA, DH.İ.UM.EK.108.54, BOA, DH.İ.UM.EK.102.69, BOA, DH.MKT.85.31, BOA, DH.İ.UM20.2.

42 Murat Koraltürk, Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Ekonominin Türkleştirilmesi [Turkification of the Economy in the Early Republican Period] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2011), pp.31-32.

43 ‘Alexander Israel Helphand, generally known by his nickname, Parvus, or Parvus Efendi, as his Turkish friends called him’, in Asım Karaömerlioğlu, ‘Helphand-Parvus and His Impact on Turkish Intellectual Life’ Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 40, No. 6 (Nov. 2004), p.145.

44 Ibid., p.153.

45 These claims were discussed in Doğan Çetinkaya’s book, Osmanlı’yı Müslümanlaştırmak, see p.40: Doğan Çetinkaya, Osmanlı’yı Müslümanlaştırmak Kitle Siyaseti, Toplumsal Sınıflar, Boykotlar ve Milli İktisat (1909-1914) [Islamizing the Ottomans Mass Politics, Social Classes, Boycotts and National Economy (1909-1914)], (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2015). Cetinkaya argues that the German Orientalist propaganda literature put them forward before and during the First World War. According to this argument, Germans thought of the non-Muslims (especially Armenians) ‘as allies of the British and the English and as parasites detrimental to their interests in the Near East’. That is why they portrayed them as the abusers of the goodwill of the Muslim Turks who lacked commercial abilities. Cetinkaya adds that Charles Issawi later adopted this literature in the edited book the Economic History of the Middle East 1800-1914, which other historians often cited in the following years.

46 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908- 1918, pp.514-15. Zafer Toprak indicated that ‘it was the civil servants who received a salary from the state which suffered the most during the First World War. The purchasing power of the bureaucracy fell by 60-80%.’

47 Ticaret ve Sanayi Odasında Müteşekkil İstanbul İktisat Komisyonu Tarafından Tanzim Edilen Rapor [Report Prepared by the Istanbul Economic Commission at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry] (29 Kanun-i Sani 1340-26 Teşrin-i Sani 1340-1924) (Istanbul: Istanbul Ticaret Odası, 2006), pp.20-21.

48 Ibid.

49 A modern Ottoman school that was established in 1859 to educate future Ottoman civil servants.

50 ‘Nasıl Para Kazandınız? Bizde bir fabrika açıldığı gün…Besler Çikolata ve Biskuvi Fabrikası Sahibi neler anlatıyor?’ [How Did You Earn Money? The day we opened a factory…What does the owner of the Besler Chocolate and Biscuit Factory say?] Milliyet, 26 Dec. 1931.

51 François Georgeon, ‘Ahmed Midhat’a Göre Ekonomi-Politik’ [Economy-Politics according to Ahmed Midhat], Osmanlı-Türk Modernleşmesi 1900-1930 [Ottoman-Turkish Modernisation 1900-1930], tr. Ali Berktay, 5th edition (Istanbul: YKY, 2020), pp.143-50.

52 Türk Ticaret Salnâmesi [Turkish Trade Yearbook]. D02948, 1340-1341/1924-1925 and Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Büyük Ticaret Salnâmesi = Republique de Turquie Grand Annuaire Commercial, Malûl Gaziler Neşriyat Şirketi D02947, 1927, 1. D02947, 1928.

53 ‘Sadaret kalemi mümeyyizlerinden pederim Şevket Bey’, see in Mustafa Nezih Albayrak, ‘Terceme-i halimin Musikiye tealluk eden bazı kısımları’, Istenografik Albayrak Notası [Stenographic Albayrak Note] (Istanbul: Ahmed Ihsan Matbaası, 1941). See also T. Yılmaz Öztuna, ‘Albayrak Mustafa Nezihi’ in Reşat Ekrem Koçu (ed.), Istanbul Ansiklopedisi [Encyclopedia of Istanbul] (Istanbul: Neşriyat Kolektif Şirketi, 1959), vol.2, p.584, ‘Babası Bab-ı Ali mümeyyizlerinden Mehmed Şevket Bey’.

54 T. Yılmaz Öztuna ‘Albayrak Mustafa Nezihi’ in Reşat Ekrem Koçu (ed.), Istanbul Ansiklopedisi, vol.2, p.584.

55 Osman Nuri Ergin, Türk Maarif Tarihi [History of the Turkish Education], (Istanbul: Eren Matbaası, 1977), pp. 594-600. Also, see, Mücellitoğlu Ali Çankaya, Mülkiye Tarihi ve Mülkiyeliler [History and People of Mülkiye], (Ankara: Örnek Matbaası, 1954), p.7.

56 ‘308 senesinde Bursa İdadi Mektebi muallimliğine tayin edildim’, in M. Salahaddin, ‘Nasıl Para Kazandınız? Mustafa Nezih Bey anlatıyor. Maruf Çay Deposu sahibi diyor ki: “Başkasını taklid etme, bırak, seni taklid etsinler”’ [How Did You Earn Money? Mustafa Nezih Bey recounts. The owner of the renowned tea warehouse says, ‘Do not imitate others, let them imitate you.’] Milliyet, 13 December 1931.

57 Ali Kemal, Ömrüm [My Life], ed. M. Kayahan Özgül (Ankara: Cümle Yayınları, 2004), pp.104-07.

58 Ismail Şiriner, Hakan Kapucu Murat Aydın et al. (eds), Politik İktisat ve Adam Smith [Political Economy and Adam Smith] (Istanbul: Yön Yayıncılık, 2010), p.129.

59 BOA, MF.MKT.1086.6.

60 Ali Kemal, Ömrüm [My Life], ed. M. Kayahan Özgül (Ankara: Cümle Yayınları, 2004), pp.58-59.

61 Ticaret ve Sanayi Odasında Müteşekkil İstanbul İktisat Komisyonu Tarafından Tanzim Edilen Rapor, pp.22-23.

62 M. Salahaddin, ‘Nasıl Para Kazandınız? Mustafa Nezih Bey anlatıyor’, Milliyet, 13 December 1931. Although we do not know what he had in mind when he said that ‘he partly owed his success to his education at the Mülkiye Mektebi’, we do know the courses offered in its curricula included courses on economics, finance, accounting, and trade law, ‘ilm-i servet, daire-i maliyenin usul-i teşkili ve usul-i muhasebat, hukuk-ı ticariye ve muahedat-ı ticariye’, see Resul Babaoğlu, Mekteb-i Mülkiye (1859-1960) Tanzimat’tan Cumhuriyet’e Bilimsel ve Kültürel Modernleşmenin Kurumsallaşması [Institutionalization of Scientific and Cultural Modernization from the Tanzimat to the Republic] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2020), p.70.

63 ‘1308 (1890/1891) senesinde Bursa İdadi Mektebi muallimliğine tayin edildim’, in M. Salahaddin, ‘Nasıl Para Kazandınız? Mustafa Nezih Bey anlatıyor’, Milliyet, 13 December 1931.

64 BOA, MF.MKT.196/111 (22 February 1894), BOA, MF.MKT.201/39 (21 April 1894), BOA, MF.MKT.251/26 (26 February 1895). See also, Bursa’nın Köklü Eğitim Kurumları Bursa Mekteb-i Sultanisi [Deep Rooted Educational Institutions of Bursa: Bursa High School of Boys] (Bursa: Bursa Araştırmaları Merkezi Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyesi, 2011), p.238. This book includes a picture of Mustafa Nezih Bey and indicates that he was the mechanics’ instructor and the second master of the high school. ‘Mihanik Muallimi ve Müdür Muavin-i Evveli’.

65 Afyon (Karahisar).

66 BOA, MF.MKT.279/30 (25 August 1895), BOA, MF.MKT.332/80 (10 September 1896).

67 BOA, MF.MKT.466/27 (15 September 1899), BOA, MF.MKT.777/59 (6 May 1904), BOA, MF.MKT.790/90 (13 July 1904), BOA, MF.MKT.825/79 (21 January 1905).

68 BOA, MF.MKT.905/7 (30 December 1905).

69 BOA, MF.MKT.1134/50 (02 July 1909).

70 M. Salahaddin, ‘Nasıl Para Kazandınız? Mustafa Nezih Bey anlatıyor’, Milliyet, 13 December 1931.

71 Ibid.

72 The fifth edition of the company brochure from 1339 (1920/1921) listed two company shops in Istanbul. One in Bayezid near the tramway stop no. 35, the other in Bahcekapı opposite the Dördüncü Vakıf Han, no. 71. The eleventh edition of the company brochure from 1341 (1922/1923) listed the Bahcekapı shop and the one in Beyoğlu, no. 271 Galatasaray.

73 After the monopolisation of the tea trade by the Turkish State, the family would retain only the shop in Tahmis and close all the others.

74 ‘Ruhsat-ı resmiyeyi haiz etiketli Albayrak Mustafa Nezih kutu ve paket çayları Istanbul, Anadolu ve Trakya’nın ekser muteber magazalarında satılmaktadır’. For instance, see, Kutu ve Paketlere Mahsus Çay Pişirme Tarifesi ve Çayların Envai [Recipe for Brewing Tea and Variety of Teas for boxes and packages].

75 It is an allusion to the Ottoman flag, which would be appropriated by the later Turkish Republic as well.

76 İkdam (newspaper), 1923, Milliyet, 10 April 1931.

77 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Milli İktisat 1908-1918, p.170.

78 Haber Akşam Postası (newspaper), ‘Okuyucularımızın Soyadlarını Yazıyoruz’ [We Write the Surnames of Our Readers] 29 November 1934, Akşam (newspaper), ‘Az zaman içinde herkesin bir soyadı olacak’ [Soon everyone will have a surname], 29 November 1934.

79 Crescent and star.

80 The Clearing System is known in Turkish literature as ‘Kliring Sistemi’, often described as ‘malımı alanın, malını alırım’, which can be translated as ‘I will buy from whoever buys from me’.

81 ‘Piyasada Çin Çayı Kalmadı’ [There is no Chinese tea left in the market] Akşam Postası, 5 May 1935, ‘Çay İhtiyacı’ [The need for tea], Akşam, 12 July 1935, ‘Çay Meselesi’ [The tea issue], Cumhuriyet, 16 July 1935.

82 Levent Özkardeş, ‘Cumhuriyetin İlk Yılları ve 1929 Ekonomik Buhranında Dış Ticaretin Yönetimi’ [The First Years of the Republic and the Management of Foreign Trade in the 1929 Economic Depression], Gümrük ve Ticaret Dergisi, (2015) (6), p.34.

83 BCA, 30-18-1-2/ 86 - 30 – 7 (9 April 1939) ‘İstanbul’da Albayrak Mustafa Nezih ve Mahdumları firması tarafından Çin’den ithal edilen çay bedeli olarak Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası’na yatırılan 698.77 lira mukabilinde İnhisarlar Umum Müdürlüğünce Çin’e sevk edilen sigaralar için tanzim olunan menşe şehadetnamesi nüshasının, teslim esnasında Şanghay’da zuhur eden harp dolayısıyle, Çin Gümrükleri tarafından tasdik edilemediği anlaşıldığından Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası’nda mezkur müdürlük namına bloke olarak kalan bu paranın diğer bütün noksanları tamamlamak kaydıyle ve menşe şehadetnamesi ibrazına lüzum gösterilmeksizin tediye edilmesi….’ [The copy of the certificate of origin issued by the General Directorate of Monopolies for the cigarettes sent to China, in return for 698.77 liras deposited in the Central Bank of the Republic as the price of tea imported from China by Albayrak Mustafa Nezih and Sons in Istanbul, due to the war that broke out in Shanghai at the time of delivery, remained blocked on behalf of the aforementioned directorate in the Central Bank of the Republic, as it was understood that it could not be certified by the Chinese Customs, should be paid, provided that all other deficiencies are completed and without the need for the submission of the certificate of origin….].

84 Akşam, 2 May 1938. ‘Yukarıdaki taze mahsul nefis çaylar mahallerinden sureti hususiyede alınmış ve doğrudan doğruya isimleri yazılı vapurlarla ticarethanelerimize gelmiştir’ [The above-mentioned fresh produce teas were specially taken from the delicious tea districts and came directly to our trading houses on the steamers whose names are written above].

85 Milliyet, 13 December 1931. ‘Çaycılığa başladığım zaman, çay Istanbul piyasasında açık satılırdı. Çayı kutu ve paketler içinde satma fikrini ilk tatbik eden ben oldum. Sonra muhtelif çaylardan harman yaparak her birini ayrı numaralar altında piyasaya çıkarmağı düşündüm. Bu numaralı harman çayları derhal umumi bir rağbete mazhar oldu. Çaylarımın nefaseti karşısında kuvvetli rakiplerimi şaşkınlık aldı. Onlar da kokulu çayları harman yaparak kutular içinde satmağa başladılar’ [When I entered the tea business, tea was sold in open containers in the Istanbul market. I was the first to implement the idea of selling tea in boxes and packages. Then I thought of blending various teas and putting each one on the market under separate numbers. These numbered blend teas immediately became popular. My strong competitors were stunned by the delight of my teas. They also started to sell scented teas in boxes by blending them].

86 Akşam, Son Posta, 15 May 1933.

87 Son Posta, 2 June 1938, Akşam, 4 June 1938.

88 Kutu ve Paketlere Mahsus Çay Pişirme Tarifesi ve Çayların Envai.

89 Although we do not have a definitive source, we might argue that the French translation of the brochure was also penned by Mustafa Nezih Bey himself, who studied French at the Mekteb-i Mülkiye, where French was a compulsory subject every year. See Resul Babaoğlu, Mekteb-i Mülkiye (1859-1960) Tanzimat’tan Cumhuriyet’e Bilimsel ve Kültürel Modernleşmenin Kurumsallaşması, p.71.

90 Abdulfeyyaz Tevfik, ‘Rakının Nezih Rekibi: Salonların Nefis Bir İçkisi Olan Çay Cazip Bir Tarzda Nasıl İhzar Edilir?’ [Raki's Choice Competitor: How to Prepare Tea, a Delicious Drink of the Salon, in an Attractive Style?'], Milliyet, 5 April 1931.