The Ottoman Tobacco Company, 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 Regie or Régie (from the Latin ''regium'': regal, royal) refers to a public or government establishment, administration, commission or management. They are also common first names in the Francophone world. Transport organisations * '' Regia Aut ...

formed in the later

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

by the

Ottoman Public Debt Administration The Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA) ( ota, دیون عمومیهٔ عثمانیه واردات مخصصه اداره‌سی, script=Arab, Düyun-u Umumiye-i Osmaniye Varidat-ı Muhassasa İdaresi, or simply as it was popularly known), ...

, 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 The tuz resmi was a tax on salt in the Ottoman Empire. During the 15th century, households working in the salt industry were exempted from taxes such as avariz, in return for their contributions to tuz resmi. In one case, an entire village invol ...

) 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-intr$éressée des tabacs de l’Empire ottoman”, which relies on a consortium of European banks and on the

Imperial Ottoman Bank The Ottoman Bank ( tr, Osmanlı Bankası), known from 1863 to 1925 as the Imperial Ottoman Bank (french: Banque Impériale Ottomane, ota, بانق عثمانی شاهانه) and correspondingly referred to by its French acronym BIO, was a 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 ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, the Ottoman Tobacco Company was nationalised in 1925 and became

Tekel Tekel A.Ş. ( Turkish, literally ''single-hand'' or ''monopoly'' and generally capitalised as TEKEL) was a Turkish tobacco and alcoholic beverages company. It was nationalised in 1925 from a parastatal (government owned/controlled) company, the R ...

, which was sold to

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

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

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

are known as Régie.

References

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

See also

References