The Ottoman Tobacco Company, (''Memalik-i Şahane Duhanları Müşterekül Menfaa Reji Şirketi'') also known as the Régie Company for its French official name ''Société de la régie co-intéressée des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman'', was a parastatal company or Regie formed in the later

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

by the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, with backing from a consortium of European banks. The company had a monopoly over

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

production, and its revenue was intended to help overcome the Ottoman state's persistent shortage of income. The Ottoman Tobacco Company constituted the largest foreign investment in the Ottoman Empire, and it attempted to introduce more efficient production methods – against local resistance. In 1881, the

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...

on salt was incorporated into the Régie Company, which passed revenue from salt taxes ( tuz resmi) to the Public Debt Commission. As the state (or a parallel state controlled by the government's creditors) now effectively controlled salt production and salt prices, salt smuggling became a problem. In 1884, the Ottoman government instituted a tobacco monopoly and delegated it to a partly foreign company, the “Regie co-intréressée des tabacs de l’Empire ottoman”, which relied on a consortium of European banks and on the Imperial Ottoman Bank, also listed in London and Paris. Founded in 1863, the latter brought together French shareholders supplementing initial contributions of British funds in 1856. Both had offices in Paris, Place de la Bourse. Under the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the Ottoman Tobacco Company was nationalised in 1925 and became Tekel, which was sold to

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

in 2008. There are successor companies in other Ottoman successor states. To this day, the state-run tobacco monopolies in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

are known as Régie.

References

{{reflist Taxation in the Ottoman Empire Tobacco companies of Turkey Tobacco taxation

See also

References