conquest of Constantinople nearly six centuries ago, and when for the
first time Turkey acquired--to her misfortune--a large non-Turkish
population, Sultan Mehemet IV. desired to give a proof of his
magnanimity and, in a spirit of justice, not only recognised the entire
freedom of religion of the newly subjected non-Turkish races, but
even exempted them from all duties towards the state. The non-Turkish
elements were only called upon to pay a yearly tribute to the Empire
and outside of this were left entirely free to look after themselves.
When it is realized that these religious and political privileges
were graciously granted by the Turks to conquered races generations
before the Spanish Inquisition--when the Christian conquerors of
Spain tried to impose Christianity on the conquered Arabs and Hebrews
through hair-raising tortures--and centuries before the religious wars
of Europe--when Catholic and Protestant majorities tried to impose
their individual dogma upon each other through massacres and torture
without considering racial or even family ties--the broadmindedness
and justice of the Turkish conquerors becomes apparent. Be it also
said incidentally that when it is realized that these political and
religious privileges granted by the Turks in 1453 have survived nearly
five long centuries, the stories of all these Christian persecutions
will be somewhat discredited and will be considered at least as greatly
exaggerated as the news of the death of Mark Twain.
Be that as it may, the fact is that the granting of these privileges
placed on the shoulders of the Turks the heavy burden of all military
and governmental duties while the non-Turkish elements went through
centuries free from any obligation. Of course they were free to
participate in the governmental civil service if they chose to do so,
but their sense of allegiance to the country was not strong enough
and their greediness was too strong to induce them to undertake
duties to which they were not forced. Rather than to take care of the
common wealth of the nation they preferred to take care of their own
individual wealth and as commerce, finance and industry developed
through the centuries the non-Turkish elements of the country obtained
a solid economic grip and used it in their endeavours to choke the
Turks.
The democratic revolution of 1908 started the economic awakening of
the Turks. The governmental reorganisation which took place at that
time threw on their own resources many Turkish families who had until
then depended for their living on salaries earned by their, members
as government employees. To support their family these people had
to go into business. Later the various wars of Turkey, involving
losses of vast territories, necessitated further curtailment in the
number of civilian and military employees of the Government. This
further increased the Turkish participation in the business life of
the country. Finally the general war which resulted in tremendous
territorial losses for Turkey as well as in the complete emancipation
of women brought about a very forceful nationalistic awakening in all
forms of activity. The slogan “Turkey for the Turks” invaded general
business and gave such a tremendous impetus to the Turks that it was
a very great surprise to me--and a very gratifying one--to witness at
my return the extent to which my people have succeeded in obtaining a
foothold in the business life of the country. The great majority of
the Turks are now in business, men and women. In all the shops and
offices of Stamboul, in quite a few stores and offices of Pera and
Galata you see Turkish girls at work behind counters or at desks, some
working on big ledgers, others pounding on typewriters. All the Turkish
working-girls dress very simply in demure little black frocks, their
hair covered with the becoming “charshaf” with a thin veil rakishly
thrown over it. It gives to their faces a soft, dark frame from under
which a few mischievous blonde or black locks openly laugh at the old
customs.
Of course there are many more Turkish men than women in business. Many
Turkish trading firms have been formed, many Turkish factories are
now operating and there are even quite a few small Turkish banks. All
these firms employ Turks almost exclusively. Thus gradually the Turks
are reclaiming the business of their own country from those who have
had it for centuries and as the Turks are really the only stable and
reliable element of the Near East they will surely obtain finally the
lead in Near Eastern business matters. The process will be slow as the
competition the Turks have to contend with is extremely strong and
very often not fair. But their business ability should not be gauged
by the time they will require to take a preponderant position in Near
Eastern business. They have as rivals Jews, Armenians and Greeks who
have the benefit of many centuries of experience plus old established
organizations. An old saying states that it takes one Jew to fool two
Christians, one Armenian to fool two Jews and one Greek to fool two
Armenians. The non-Turkish conception of good business in the Orient is
principally to fool those one is dealing with and Greeks, Armenians and
Jews are now more than ever trying to “deal” with the Turks!
The principal Turkish business center is, of course, in Stamboul and
the location of my office gives me the double advantage of being near
my home and among my own people. My office is right at the foot of the
hill of the Sublime Porte. It is near the station and almost on the
water front. Big transit warehouses for merchandise to be transshipped
to and from Black Sea ports are just opposite our building, but as the
warehouses are low they do not impair in any way the view I have from
my windows. In fact the view is so gorgeous and so little inducive
to work that I have turned my desk so that I have the window and the
view at my back. I believe that with such a view as the one we have in
Constantinople and with the climate we enjoy, business here will never
reach the intensiveness of business in London or in New York, despite
the fact that geographically speaking Constantinople commands a more
important economic position than any other city in the world being as
it is astride two continents. While the atmosphere of New York is so
full of electricity that one is forced to be on the go practically
all the time, and while the fog of London makes it almost a physical
pleasure to remain at work within the four walls of a cosy office,
the climate of Constantinople relaxes one's nerves and its gorgeous
scenery, its beautiful Oriental sky have an irresistible, softening
appeal, calling to the outdoors, to repose or to contemplation,
according to one's individual temperament. Although it does not make
people lazy, it renders them somewhat easy-going. They do not, they
cannot struggle with as much intensiveness as in New York or in London.
From the windows of my office I can see part of the famous Galata
Bridge, where more races and nationalities intermingle with each other
than anywhere else in the world. I dare say that there is not a single
nationality of Europe which has not at least one member cross this
bridge every day. Americans, Africans and Asiatics are also represented
here. Since the armistice Great Britain has added to this collection
Australians and New Zealanders. Hindoos in native costumes or in
British uniforms, Cossacks, Kalmuks and Tartars of the Russian steppes,
Arabs with long, flowing robes rub elbows with Turcomans, Chinamen,
Japanese and Annamites, while the local crowd of Turks, Armenians,
Albanians, Greeks and Slavs of different nationalities go their way in
an incessant stream. Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle freshly landed
from the Balkan countries pass over the bridge among electric street
cars, carriages, sedan-chairs, caravans of camels and automobiles:
Rolls-Royces, Fiats, Mercedes and Fords. Thickly veiled Arab women,
bloomered Gypsy, Armenian and Greek women, fat Jewesses covered with
gold pieces and their more modern progeny--Rebeccas with sleepy black
eyes--critically view each other under the amused gaze of passing
British ladies, American tourists, Russian princesses and gracefully
slim Turkish ladies flaunting their emancipation to the astonished
gaze of foreigners, while Parisian cocottes and a few of their less
refined local colleagues cross the bridge joy-riding in the military
automobiles of their lovers who have occupied Constantinople “in the
name of civilization.”
This continuous movement on the bridge is only equalled by the movement
in the harbour which I can also see from the windows of my office.
Small steamers serving the commuters of the Bosphorus and of the
Islands, large cargo boats and passenger steamers, schooners, yachts,
warships and even big transatlantics seem to be moving perpetually in
and out of this congested harbour bringing to it their individual load
of wares, merchandise and passengers from the farthest corners of the
globe. Right in front of my windows the two old continents--the cradles
of the most ancient civilizations--meet and become one under the clear,
peaceful blue sky of the East.
It is this very diversity of things that renders Constantinople and
especially business in Constantinople so interesting and captivating
that I don't know of any one who, having tasted its romance, does
not feel tied and bound forever to the place. It is not only that
one deals with all the nations of the world but--which is far more
interesting--one is in personal and daily touch with all of them: a
business day in Constantinople is really captivating and edifying. Even
in such a comparatively small office as ours it offers a degree of
diversity and of unexpected happenings which is totally different from
the usual routine and humdrum life of offices in other parts of the
world.
From nine o'clock in the morning to the closing of business my office
is the scene of an international procession and of unexpected events,
some of which are comic and others tragic; but all instructive. It
starts with the daily interview with our brokers, Jews, Armenians,
Greeks and Turks. As merchants of all these nationalities are
established in the market one is obliged to employ an international
crowd of brokers. They are all, except the Turks, cut on the same
pattern. Courteous and polite--but not any longer “sleek” or “unctuous”
like the Oriental merchants of the old school--they want to impress
you with their good-heartedness and their joviality. They want you
to believe that they have no secrets from you and that their motive
in working for you is solely the academic interest they take in your
success. They are ready to swear that they do not want to make any
profit and that they will sacrifice their commission to put a deal
through for you. This display of good will and good intentions lasts
generally up to the time that the deal is “almost” through; then at the
psychological moment the broker makes a desperate attempt to obtain
an additional commission on the grounds that he has been obliged--in
your interest--to divide his regular commission entirely among certain
people whose influence alone has brought it to the point of completion.
Of course all this haggling is part of the game and at times it is
quite amusing to see the extent to which a man who believes himself
astute can make a fool of himself. However, I must say that when one
knows them well these men can be handled easily and if after a few
trials they see that they cannot fool you they respect you the more for
it--and try again only on very rare occasions when they think you are
off your guard.
The Turkish brokers are of a totally different type. Some are well
educated, refined men, former government officials who are newly in
business and hope to work their way up to becoming sooner or later
full-fledged merchants. They are learning the business while they give
you the benefit of their often very extended connections. But they
are aware of their lack of experience and expect you to coach them.
Generally you have to give them accurate and detailed instructions
which you can, as a rule, depend on their following conscientiously
Others are--at least in appearance--good old peasants of Anatolia,
often wearing baggy trousers and turbans. They do not at first
impress you as able brokers or salesmen, but try them out and see;
they may know how to read only just enough to decipher laboriously
the specifications of the goods they sell, they may know how to write
only just enough to sign their names, but they can and they do make
mentally the most complicated calculation of discounts, percentages
or commissions, they can and do book orders and clients. They are
usually the most honest type of brokers in Constantinople. Many Turkish
merchants also belong to this class and many of them who at first
impressed me as being paupers turned out to have more money than any
one else in the market. They are thrifty, active, intelligent and
honest peasants.
Of course the interviews with brokers are just as much part of the
office routine as answering cables and letters and going over current
business. I try to dispose of all these matters in the mornings so
that when I come back after lunch, rested and fresh, I can devote the
greater part of my afternoon to new propositions and this is the really
interesting part of the day, as propositions of the most diversified
nature abound now in Constantinople. One comes in touch with the most
extraordinary, interesting and at times pathetic people with unusual
business offers. Everybody has something to sell, everybody is in quest
of business. Thousands and thousands of refugees of all kinds are here
and all of them, as well as the usual inhabitants of Constantinople,
have to earn their bread.
The most unusual propositions are generally engineered by the Russian
refugees. Many of these are spendthrifts who prefer to earn their
living in an easy manner, either through gambling or through managing
amusement places, restaurants, dancing clubs, theaters, etc. A group
of titled Russian refugees headed by a former chamberlain of the late
Tsar succeeded in starting a large establishment which provided all
imaginable amusements, not barring roulette, and their enterprise was
so successful that within two or three months after it started they
were able to pay back with substantial profits the money they had
borrowed to launch it. After this they became intoxicated with their
success and considering their enterprise as a mint, proceeded to spend
its nightly earnings as rapidly as they were won. They disposed of
their profits at their own gambling tables, they lavishly entertained
their friends and guests by consuming indiscriminately their own stocks
of wines and food, and naturally within another couple of months they
were obliged to close their doors. But many other amusement places
flourish still in Pera under the management of Russians, who are most
ingenious in this kind of enterprise. A former officer of the Russian
army once came to us and asked us to finance a scheme which would have
made a second Monte Carlo of Constantinople. As we did not care to
enter into this kind of business we lost sight of him for quite a long
period. He came back one day, however, and told us that his scheme
having fallen through he and his family had been so near starvation
that they had just about decided to commit suicide collectively when
it occurred to him to commercialize the hobby he had in his days of
prosperity, namely, cabinet and furniture making. He had offered his
services for this purpose to a new restaurant which had immediately
commissioned him. His wife, a former lady in waiting of the Tzarina,
had become a cook in this restaurant and their daughter, a child of
about fifteen, had had the good luck to find a position as lady's maid
with some well-to-do foreigners. Thus the family had been saved from
starvation and the former officer is now one of the most successful
furniture makers of Constantinople. He had heard that we were enlarging
our offices and wanted to figure on the new furniture we needed.
Needless to say that he got the order.
Some Russians have, of course, regular business propositions like the
man who undertook--and succeeded--in exchanging for the account of
some friends of mine, jewels, petroleum and caviar from Caucasia for
American flour and condensed milk, a transaction which brought very
substantial profits to himself and to my friends. Others, however,
have propositions which are businesslike or practicable only to their
unaccustomed eyes. Some come just with an idea and expect you to jump
at it and give them a substantial participation, like an old Russian
admiral who came once to us suggesting that we should purchase one of
the cargo boats of the Russian Volunteer fleet which was to be sold at
auction next week for the payment of debts. He believed that by making
an offer before the public auction the boat could be purchased at a
bargain price. The poor old admiral was very much disappointed when it
was explained to him that the creditors--British and Greek firms--were
the ones who forced the sale and would be satisfied only by the highest
price obtainable as their claims exceeded by far the market value of
the ship. He had counted on the influence he still had with Russian
circles to accomplish this transaction. He had counted on this to keep
his body and soul together. His clothes were shabby and his shoes were
patched.
One could not help feeling sorry for him, but the most pathetic of all
are the women. One day an old Russian princess was ushered into my
office. Her name was familiar to me as having been the hostess in the
years gone by in her stupendous estate in Crimea of an uncle of mine on
a special mission of the Sultan to the Tsar who was then summering at
Yalta. My uncle had told us the lavish manner in which this princess
had entertained the Turkish mission. Her residence was a palace filled
with precious antique furniture and works of art. Her meals were served
on solid gold plates incrusted with diamonds, rubies and other precious
stones. She had thousands of peasants on her estate. Now she was coming
to ask my assistance to sell her rights to some oil fields she had
in Caucasia. She was willing to sell them for a song--the rights to
these oil fields whose annual income had been in the past equal to
a king's ransom. I had to explain to her that as the Bolsheviks did
not recognize the rights of private property, especially property
belonging to the former Russian nobility, I was afraid that it would
be impossible to find a buyer for her. The poor lady was disappointed,
but she confided to me that she had received similar answers from other
business men. She therefore wanted to make me another proposition. When
she had fled from Crimea she had hidden her most precious jewels in a
place where she knew the Bolsheviks would never think to search for
them. She was now ready to tell exactly where these jewels were and to
divide them with anyone who would recover them for her. When I told
her that the insurmountable difficulties of getting her jewels out of
the country while the Bolsheviks were still there made her proposition
impracticable, the poor old lady, making a superhuman effort not to
break down at this, possibly the hundredth, refusal of her “business”
proposition, asked me if I knew any one who would care to take French
lessons. Happily my wife wanted to take up French and I was able to
help her.
Russians are not the only ones who scramble for business. Hundreds of
transactions are proposed by and handled through people of a hundred
different nationalities, and the characteristics of each individual
nation govern the negotiations in each transaction. With so many
diversified propositions and with the different style of negotiations
they each require, it really is a fortunate thing that the religions
of the different races of the Near East crowd the calendar with many
diversified holidays. Otherwise few business men would be able to stand
the strain. As it is, the quantity of holidays which are kept by the
business community of Constantinople affords a welcome relief. First
of all there are the weekly Sabbaths. Turkish business houses keep
their Sabbath on Fridays which is the Sunday of the Muslims. While
they generally do not close altogether, business is always very slack
for them on Fridays. In my office where we are all Turks and Muslims,
and we are eight in all, we take our Friday turns in rotation so that
on these days there are only two of us at the office. The Jews and
the Christians, of course, maintain their Sabbath respectively on
Saturdays and Sundays so that business is also slack on these days.
Other holidays occur quite often on account of the great diversity of
religions and nationalities. All these compensate for the strain of
normal business days which, while not being as intensive as in some of
the great western business centers is nevertheless very exhausting on
account of the variety of business treated and of the complexity of
the transactions. One has to satisfy the requirements of buyers and
sellers who do not speak the same business language, whose conceptions,
ideas and mentality are totally different and whose methods are
diametrically opposed. One has, therefore, to think and engineer all
kinds of combinations to overcome all the difficulties, and I know by
experience that it is not always an easy task.
At the close of the business day, when I climb the hill leading to our
house, I am generally tired and mentally exhausted and the prospect of
a quiet evening at home is certainly a relief.
VIII
A STAMBOUL NIGHT
I generally leave my office at about five-thirty or six o'clock. On
my way home I meet the crowd going to the bridge, the commuters who
have to catch their boat as well as business people and government
employees who live in Nishantashe or Shishli, on the other side of the
Golden Horn. It is the rush hour of Constantinople. Every one is going
home. The small stores on the avenue, mostly stationery stores and
bookstores, are pulling down corrugated iron shutters over their doors.
Every few minutes a grinding metallic noise indicates that another
storekeeper is starting home. I buy my daily provision of cigarettes
from the Persian tobacconist around the corner. I know he is a Persian,
although he wears the Turkish fez, from his hennaed beard trimmed in
a semi-circle and from the long frock coat he wears. Little Turkish
newsboys shout the headings of the last sensational news in the evening
papers. I always buy one and if I do not have the proper change the
newsboy digs into his fez. They carry their change on their heads and
the much worn squares of paper money are the more greasy for it. I
cross the street-car tracks congested with cars wherein human cattle is
packed as tightly as in a New York subway. People are streaming down
the hill in groups of three or four, clerks from the Sublime Porte
looking prosperous and smart despite the fact that their salary which
is anyhow barely enough to support them, is paid to them every two or
three months. They go hungry and live in the cheapest possible quarters
but try to look well, these poor Turkish Government employees, in an
endeavour to save appearances and to keep up their dignity in the eyes
of the foreigners. They walk leisurely and stop to greet each other.
They talk politics. I know quite a few of them and every once in a
while we exchange “temenahs,” the graceful Turkish salutation. Quite a
few go up the hill; Turkish business men and working girls living in
Stamboul like myself.