Abstract:

By the beginning of the 19th Century, the Aegean region of Turkey had already become the leading manufacturer of raw cotton, with the increased cultivation of cotton in the countryside. As a result, the coastal port city of Izmir was also fast becoming the center of cotton thread production. During this exciting era, many cotton thread and cloth mills sprang up in the outskirts of the city, financed by European investors, around the 1800’s. These mills aimed at the national-local market and were in fierce competition with the foreign textile imports, especially with the Indian and English manufactures. The Izmir Oriental Industries Company, Textile Mill (est.in 1893) was one of those mills which had a very important place in the textiles industry of the time, and secured itself a strong position, both in national and international markets. Because of the intensity of many centers of weaving centers all around the Black Sea region of Turkey, the whole region at that time had already became a very important market for yearly consumption of cotton thread and cloths for the Aegean textile mills. The fine cotton thread, used videly in the manufacture of the Black Sea type of futa, alaca, peştamal and cloth weavings was produced partly by the Istanbul Yedikule mills and partly by the İzmir Oriental Industries Company Textile Mill and by local and foreign tradesmen. In 1924, in order to secure it’s place firmly among the manufacturers of cotton thread aimed at the Black Sea region, The Izmir Oriental Industries Company Textile Mill decided to embark on a kind of a ‘market research and evaluation survey expedition’ of the Black Sea region. At the end of this long survey, a very detailed report was prepared, giving many crucial details of the cotton textile market situation around the whole region. This article is based on this historical report, which provides valuable information on the names and locations of the many tradesmen, involved in the textile business, their yearly consumption of cotton thread and cloth, the thread and textile manufactures that are traded and about the economical and social conditions of the many Black Sea towns and cities at the time, such as Trabzon, Rize, Giresun, Samsun, İnebolu ve Kastamonu after the First World War. The copy of the original document in Ottoman Turkish is presented with the article, together with it’s modern Turkish translation.

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