Modernity From Below: The Amalgamated Oriental Carpet Manufacturers, Ltd. of Izmir, 1907-1922

Abstract

Turkish carpet making and marketing, a rapidly expanding niche in the world market in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, offers an excellent case study for modernity in a major Ottoman provincial urban center such as Izmir and its hinterland in western Anatolia. Representative of the changes that the city’s economy was undergoing was the Amalgamated Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Limited (ocm), which included multiethnic and multiconfessional actors similar to the city’s business sector and general population, as well as dual nodes of administration in London and Izmir. This case study of ocm (and of its emulators) reveals the degree of modernity that Izmir’s business circles were capable of at the turn of the century, and their ability to put together a trust and strategize accordingly along similar lines as the trusts in Europe or the us.