İMPARATORLUK’TAN CUMHURİYET’E TÜRKİYE’DE YABANCI SERMAYE ANLAYIŞI

Foreign capital entered Ottoman Empire in the second half of 19.Century inthe form of foreign debt and capital investment. The borrowing transactions, whichstarted in order to finance the Crimean War, brought a quick capital transfertogether. As a natural outcome of these borrowings, foreign investment on sectorslike banking, railways, water, gas, mining and insurance was made. Eventually,French, German and British capital became preeminent in pre-World War I.Railways, which attracted the most attention of European investment, definitelycaused Ottoman economy and finance to enter under the control of foreign capitaland the increase of external debt. On the other hand, Ottoman administrativeofficers had economic, financial, political and military expectations from railwayprojects. These expectations were reflecting their perception of foreign capital. Also,the causes of Ottoman external borrowing were important pieces of data tocomprehend Ottoman perception of external capital.Gazi Mustafa Kemal, who very well knew the causes of loss of Ottomanindependence in economy and politics, had different understanding of foreigncapital. He was not against it, and he saw it crucial for the development of thecountry. Yet, he declared in the interruption at Lausanne Peace Conference that thenew Turkish State would no longer be policing the foreign capital and would not gounder the control of it. As for the foreign borrowing, he was against the idea ofwasting debt and creating new one just like Ottomans had done. He supported theidea of the debt occurring to develop the country, to increase production, to provideprosperity and to improve sources of income. The foreign capital transactions andthe foreign loans taken in Atatürk’s time were applications parallel to hisunderstanding of foreign capital.