Document 23-5: The Treaty of Balta-Liman (August 16, 1838)

Britain Forces the Ottoman Empire to Make Economic Concessions

The British Industrial Revolution led to increased demands for overseas markets. In 1838, the United Kingdom signed a treaty with the Ottoman Empire at Balta-Liman, near Istanbul. The treaty responded to complaints by British merchants that their goods were subject to a high tariff or other taxes when shipped into or across Egypt. Egypt, nominally a territory of the Ottoman Empire but virtually independent under the rule of Muhammad Ali (or Mehmet Ali), had embarked on its own efforts to industrialize, including high tariffs and state monopolies of important industrial sectors. These excerpts from the treaty show how the United Kingdom’s demands and the Ottoman Empire’s acquiescence helped destroy Egypt’s industries by flooding its markets with cheap British goods.

Article I

All rights, privileges, and immunities which have been conferred on the subjects or ships of Great Britain by the existing Capitulations and Treaties, are confirmed now and for ever, except in as far as they may be specifically altered by the present Convention: and it is moreover expressly stipulated, that all rights, privileges, or immunities which the Sublime Porte6 now grants, or may hereafter grant, to the ships and subjects of any other foreign Power, or which it may suffer the ships and subjects of any other foreign Power to enjoy, shall be equally granted to, and exercised and enjoyed by, the subjects and ships of Great Britain.

Article II

The subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, or their agents, shall be permitted to purchase at all places in the Ottoman Dominions (whether for the purposes of internal trade or exportation) all articles, without any exception whatsoever, the produce, growth, or manufacture of the said Dominions; and the Sublime Porte formally engages to abolish all monopolies of agricultural produce, or of any other articles whatsoever, as well as all Permits from the local Governors, either for the purchase of any article, or for its removal from one place to another when purchased; and any attempt to compel the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty to receive such Permits from the local Governors, shall be considered as an infraction of Treaties, and the Sublime Porte shall immediately punish with severity any Vizirs [ministers] and other officers who shall have been guilty of such misconduct, and render full justice to British subjects for all injuries or losses which they may duly prove themselves to have suffered. . . .

Additional Articles

Certain difficulties having arisen between the Ambassador of Her Britannick Majesty and the Plenipotentiaries of the Sublime Porte, in fixing the new conditions which should regulate the commerce in British goods imported into the Turkish Dominions, or passing through the same in transit, it is agreed between His Excellency the British Ambassador and the Plenipotentiaries of the Sublime Porte, that the present Convention should receive their signatures, without the articles which have reference to the above-mentioned subjects forming part of the body of the said Convention.

But at the same time it is also agreed, — the following Articles having been consented to by the Turkish Government, — that they shall be submitted to the approbation of Her Majesty’s Government, and should they be approved and accepted by Her Majesty’s Government, they shall then form an integral part of the Treaty now concluded.

The Articles in question are the following:

Article I

All articles being the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its dependencies, and all merchandise, of whatsoever description, embarked in British vessels, and being the property of British subjects, or being brought over land, or by sea, from other countries by the same, shall be admitted, as heretofore, into all parts of the Ottoman Dominions, without exception, on the payment of three per cent. duty, calculated upon the value of such articles.

And in lieu of all other and interior duties, whether levied on the purchaser or seller, to which these articles are at present subject, it is agreed that the importer, after receiving his goods, shall pay, if he sells them at the place of reception, or if he sends them thence to be sold elsewhere in the interior of the Turkish Empire, one fixed duty of two per cent.; after which such goods may be sold and resold in the interior, or exported, without any further duty whatsoever being levied or demanded on them.

But all goods that have paid the three per cent. import duty at one port, shall be sent to another free of any further duty, and it is only, when sold there or transmitted thence into the interior, that the second duty shall be paid.

It is always understood that Her Majesty’s Government do not pretend, either by this Article or any other in the present Treaty, to stipulate for more than the plain and fair construction of the terms employed; nor to preclude, in any manner, the Ottoman Government from the exercise of its rights of internal administration, where the exercise of those rights does not evidently infringe upon the privileges accorded by ancient Treaties, or the present Treaty, to British merchandise or British subjects.

Article II

All foreign goods brought into Turkey from other countries, shall be freely purchased and traded in, in any manner, by the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty or the agents of the same, at any place in the Ottoman Dominions; and if such foreign goods have paid no other duty than the duty paid on importation, then the British subject or his agent shall be able to purchase such foreign goods on paying the extra duty of two per cent., which he will have to pay on the sale of his own imported goods, or on their transmission for sale into the interior; and after that such foreign goods shall be resold in the interior, or exported, without further duty; or should such foreign goods have already paid the amount of the two duties (i.e. the import duty and the one fixed interior duty), then they shall be purchased by the British subject or his agent, and afterwards resold or exported, without being ever submitted to any further duty.

Article III

No charge whatsoever shall be made upon British goods, — (such being the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United Kingdom or its dependencies, or the growth, produce, or manufacture of any foreign country, and charged in British vessels and belonging to British subjects) — passing through the straits of the Dardanelles, of the Bosphorus, and of the Black Sea, whether such goods shall pass through those straits in the ships that brought them, or are transshipped in those straits, or, destined to be sold elsewhere, are landed with a view to their being transferred to other vessels (and thus to proceed on their voyage) within a reasonable time. All merchandise imported into Turkey for the purpose of being transmitted to other countries, or which, remaining in the hands of the importer, shall be transmitted by him for sale to other countries, shall only pay the duty of three per cent. paid on importation, and no other duty whatsoever.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. The first article stipulates that any future concession to any other foreign power will be matched by a concession to Great Britain. This is known as a “most-favored nation clause.” What does this clause tell you about this treaty? What does it tell you about international relations between the Ottoman Empire and other powers at this point in history?
  2. What is the significance of eliminating Ottoman monopolies on any particular item? What is the significance of establishing lowered tariffs and shipping duties?
  3. Does this treaty benefit both parties equally? Explain. If it provides benefit primarily to one party, then why might the other have signed it?