Hamidiye Paper Factory

The process of industrialization in late ottoman state was tested by the strong european competition. the trade agreements with european countries restricted the policy instruments to implement industrial development. these agreements prohibited that the ottoman state could not raise the custom duty rates on its own. the present article studies the establishment and function of hamidiye paper factory within the framework of this specific economic situation. this factory was the lastly founded paper factory of ottoman state. serkurena osman bey was the founder of the factory; his initial intention was to set up, a printing press. but there was a great difficulty in front of this venture, because nearly all paper imported from europe. for this reason, he gave priority to found a modern paper factory. at the end of the interviews with state for this aim, privilege contract was signed which showed rights and responsibilities to found a new factory. next step became the establishment of a company to accumulate capital. construction process of the factory lasted approximately seven years. the factory started its operation in 1893. the ottoman state gave demand support from state offices to this factory, in order to gain competition power. however, the factory was able to operate only 6-7 months, because of experienced disputes with company of machine supplier. after the proclamation of the second constitutional era, english partner edwin pears wanted to reopen long time closed factory. his negotiations with the ottoman authorities took more than two years, due to the problematic financial state of the factory and some taxation problems. although the consent was finally achieved, edwin pears’ intention to revive the factory failed. the outbreak of world war i, in which england involved in the opponent camp, prepared the end of the factory