Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Centilmen Kapitalizm ve Bağdat Demiryolu, 1888 –1914: ‘Kozmopolitanizme’ Karşı ‘Vatanseverlik’

Year 2021, , 118 - 140, 15.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.38000/juhis.1004940

Abstract

Cain ve Hopkins’in yorumuna göre İngiliz emperyalizmi, “centilmen kapitalistler” olarak adlandırdıkları bir toplumsal zümre tarafından gerçekleştirilen bir olguydu. Bu ibare Güneydoğu İngiltere merkezli bir mal ve hizmet sektörüne gönderme yapmaktadır. Elinizdeki makale, Cain ve Hopkins’in yaklaşımının Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Almanya’nın yürüttüğü Bağdat demiryolu projesine karşı İngiliz ticari ve siyasi elitlerinin takındığı tutumu ne ölçüde aydınlatabildiğini irdelemek suretiyle, söz konusu tartışmaya katkıda bulunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Deutsche Bank tarafından temsil edilen Alman girişimi, 1888’den itibaren Anadolu’da demiryolu inşaatına başlamış durumdaydı. 1903’e gelindiğindeyse Almanlar, Ankara’yı Basra Körfezi’ne bağlayacak olan Bağdat demiryolu projesi için gereken imtiyazı temin etmişlerdi. Bu durum İngilizler’i bu projeye katılmak ile ona muhalefet etmek arasında bir tercih yapmaya zorladı. Londra merkezli finans çevrelerinin oluşturduğu bir grup, projeye katılabilmenin peşine düştü. Fakat İngiliz demiryolu ve taşımacılığı sektörünün önde gelen temsilcilerinden oluşan rakip bir grup, Alman-Fransız-İngiliz ortak girişimi planına İngiltere’nin çıkarlarına aykırı olduğu gerekçesiyle sert biçimde karşı çıktı ve İngiliz hükümetini projeye verdiği desteği durdurmaya zorladı. Devam eden yıllar, sonuçsuz kalan İngiliz-Alman-Osmanlı görüşmelerine şahitlik etti. Nihayet 1913-1914’te bir uzlaşı sağlandı: İngiltere, Basra Körfezi’nin kontrolü, demiryolları, nakliye ve en önemlisi petrol gibi çeşitli alanlarda aldığı tavizler karşılığında Almanya’nın yürüteceği Bağdat demiryolu projesine rıza gösterdi. İngiltere tarafında bu anlaşmadan asıl kazançlı çıkanlar tam da önceki planı baltalayan demiryolu ve taşımacılık sektörü temsilcileriydi. Bu meseleyi teşkil eden demiryolu, taşımacılık ve finans sektöründeki çıkarların tümü, Cain ve Hopkins’in yaklaşımları zemininde gerçekten de “centilmen kapitalistler” olarak nitelendirilebilir. Gelgelelim bu makalenin ulaştığı sonuçlar, “centilmen kapitalistler”in Cain ve Hopkins’in sandığı kadar insicamlı bir grup olmadığını göstermektedir: Bazı finans çevrelerinin “kozmopolitanizmi” ile demiryolu ve taşımacılık sektörünün daha sınırlı çıkarlarının “vatanseverliği” arasında ciddi bir yarılma vardı.

References

  • [1] Allfrey, Anthony (2013), Edward VII and his Jewish Court (1991), Reprint, Thistle, London.
  • [2] Bickel, Benno (2003), “Zeittafel Bagdadbahn”, in Jürgen Franzke (Ed.), Bagdad- und Hedjazbahn: Deutsche Eisenbahngeschichte im Vorderen Orient (160-162), W. Tümmels, Nuremberg.
  • [3] Bilgin, Mustafa Sıtkı (2004), “The Construction of the Bagdad Railway and its Impact on Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1902-1913”, Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi, 16, (109-129)
  • [4] Burk, Kathleen (1990), Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • [5] Burman, John (2009), “Politics and Profit: The National Bank of Turkey Revisited”, Oriens, 37, (225-236)
  • [6] Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G. (1993a), British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688 – 1914, Longman, London.
  • [7] Cain, P.J. and A.G. Hopkins. A.G. (1993b), British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction 1914 - 1990, Longman, London.
  • [8] Cassis, Youssef (1994), City Bankers, 1890-1914, Transl. Margaret Rocques, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • [9] Conlin, Jonathan (2016), “Debt, Diplomacy and Dreadnoughts: The National Bank of Turkey, 1909 – 1919”, Middle Eastern Studies, 52/3, (525-545)
  • [10] Cottrell, P.L. (2016), “Financing the Bagdadbahn: Barings, the City, and the Foreign Office, 1902-3”, in A.K.B. Evans and J.V. Gough (Eds.), The Impact of the Railway on Society in Britain: Essays in Honor of Jack Simmons (2003), (77-98), Reprint, Routledge, London and New York.
  • [11] Dilley, Andrew (2018), “Elisions and Elusions of Gentlemanly Capitalism”, History of Global Arms Transfer, 5, (37-48).
  • [12] Earle, Edward Mead (1924), Turkey, the Great Powers, and the Bagdad Railway: A Study in Imperialism, Macmillan, New York.
  • [13] Ediger, Volkan Ş., and Bowlus, John W. (2020), “Greasing the Wheels: The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and Ottoman Oil, 1888-1907”, Middle Eastern Studies, 56/2, (193-206)
  • [14] Francis, Richard M. (1973), “The British Withdrawal from the Bagdad Railway Project in April 1903”, Historical Journal, 16/1, (168-178).
  • [15] Grunwald, Kurt (1969), ”’Windsor-Cassel’ - The Last Court Jew: Prolegomena to a Biography of Sir Ernest Cassel”, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 14/1, (119-161)
  • [16] Hamilton, K.A. (1975), “An Attempt to Form an Anglo-French ‘Industrial Entente’”, Middle Eastern Studies, 11/1, (46-73).
  • [17] Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü (2008), A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.
  • [18] Heller, Joseph. British Policy towards the Ottoman Empire 1908-1914 (1983), Reprint, Routledge, London and New York.
  • [19] Jones, Stephanie (1989), Trade and Shipping: Lord Inchcape 1852-1932, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
  • [20] Kennedy, Paul M. (1987), The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism 1860-1914, Ashfield Press, London and Atlantic Highlands/NJ.
  • [21] Kent, Marian (1975), “Agent of Empire? The National Bank of Turkey and British Foreign Policy”, Historical Journal, 18/2, (367-389)
  • [22] Kießling, Friedrich (2002), Gegen den “großen Krieg”? Entspannung in den iternationalen Beziehungen 1911-1914, R. Oldenbourg, Munich.
  • [23] Kumar, Ravinder (1962), ”The Records of the Government of India on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway Question”, Historical Journal, 5/1, (70-79)
  • [24] Lynn-Jones, Sean M. (1986), “Détente and Deterrence: Anglo-German Relations, 1911-1914,” International Security, 11/2, (121-150)
  • [25] McLean, D. (1976a), “British Finance and Foreign Policy in Turkey: The Smyrna-Aidin Railway Settlement 1913-14”, Historical Journal, 19/2, (521-530)
  • [26] McLean, David (1976b), “Finance and ‘Informal Empire’ before the First World War”, Economic History Review, 29/2, (291-305).
  • [27] McMeekin, Sean (2011), The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898-1918, Penguin, London.
  • [28] McMurray, Jonathan S. (2001), Distant Ties: Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and the Construction of the Baghdad Railway, Praeger, Westport, CT.
  • [29] Mejcher, Helmut (1975), “Die Bagdadbahn als Instrument deutschen wirtschaftlichen Einflusses im Osmanischen Reich”, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 1/4, (447-481)
  • [30] Ortyalı, İlber (1984), “19. Yüzyıl Ankara’sına Demiryolunun Gelişi Hinterlandının ve Hinterlanda ki Üretim Eylemlerinin Değişimi”, Tarih İçinde Ankara, 1, (208-223)
  • [31] Özyüksel, Murat (2013), Osmanlı İmparatoruğu’nda Nüfuz Mücadelesi: Anadolu ve Bağdat Demiryolları, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, İstanbul.
  • [32] Özyüksel, Murat (2016), The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and the Ottoman Empire: Industrialization, Imperial Germany and the Middle East, I.B. Tauris, London.
  • [33] “Rechnitzer Family Tree”, https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kormend/Rechnitzer_family_tree.html (accessed August 12, 2020).
  • [34] Rose, Andreas (2011), Zwischen Empire und Kontinent: Britische Aussenpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, R. Oldenbourg, Munich.
  • [35] Rüger, Jan (2011), “Revisiting the Anglo-German Antagonism”, Journal of Modern History, 83/3, (579-617).
  • [36] Sleightholme-Albanis, Elisabeth (1990), “Sir Ernest Cassel and Anglo-German Relations before the Outbreak of the First World War”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 4/2, (36-43).
  • [37] Soy, H. Bayram (2004), Almanya’nın Osmanlı Devlet Üzerinde İngiltere İle Nüfuz Mücadelesi (1890-1914), Phoenix, Ankara.
  • [38] Thane, Pat (1986), “Financiers and the British State: The Case of Sir Ernest Cassel”, Business History, 28/1, (80-99)
  • [39] Wilson, Keith (2003), Problems and Possibilities: Excersises in Statesmanship 1814-1918, Tempus, Stroud and Charleston/SC, 2003)
  • [40] Wolf, J.B. (1973), The Diplomatic History of the Bagdad Railroad (1936), Reprint, Octagon, New York.
  • [41] Ziegler, Philip (1988), The Sixth Great Power: A History of One of the Greatest Banking Families, the House of Barings, 1762 – 1929, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Gentlemanly Capitalism and the Baghdad Railway, 1888 –1914: ‘Cosmopolitanism’ vs. ‘Patriotism’

Year 2021, , 118 - 140, 15.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.38000/juhis.1004940

Abstract

According to the interpretation of Cain and Hopkins, British imperialism was driven by a social stratum they dub ‘gentlemanly capitalists’. This refers to the financial and service sector based in south-eastern England. This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on Cain’s and Hopkins’s approach by exploring how far it can shed light upon the stance of British business and political elites towards the German-dominated Baghdad railway project in the Ottoman Empire. Represented by Deutsche Bank, German interests started to construct railway lines in Anatolia from 1888 onwards. In 1903, they secured a concession to build a railway connecting Ankara with the Persian Gulf (the Baghdad railway). For the British, this raised the question of whether it was better to oppose or participate in that project. The latter option was pursued by a group of London-based financial interests. However, a competing group consisting of British railway and shipping interests vociferously opposed the plan of a German-French-British joint venture as inimical to British interests, thereby forcing the British government to reverse its previous support for the project. This was followed by years of abortive British-German-Ottoman negotiations. In 1913-14, a compromise was found: The British traded their acceptance of a German-controlled Baghdad railway against a number of concessions involving the Persian Gulf, railways, shipping and, crucially, oil. On the British side, the main winners of this agreement were the very same railway and shipping interests that had wrecked the previous plan. All the financial, railway and shipping interests involved in this affair can indeed be characterized as ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ in the vein of Cain and Hopkins. However, the findings of this article also show that the ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ were not as coherent a group as Cain and Hopkins would have it: There was a deep split between the ‘cosmopolitanism’ of some financial circles and the more narrow ‘patriotism’ of the railway and shipping interests.

References

  • [1] Allfrey, Anthony (2013), Edward VII and his Jewish Court (1991), Reprint, Thistle, London.
  • [2] Bickel, Benno (2003), “Zeittafel Bagdadbahn”, in Jürgen Franzke (Ed.), Bagdad- und Hedjazbahn: Deutsche Eisenbahngeschichte im Vorderen Orient (160-162), W. Tümmels, Nuremberg.
  • [3] Bilgin, Mustafa Sıtkı (2004), “The Construction of the Bagdad Railway and its Impact on Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1902-1913”, Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi, 16, (109-129)
  • [4] Burk, Kathleen (1990), Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • [5] Burman, John (2009), “Politics and Profit: The National Bank of Turkey Revisited”, Oriens, 37, (225-236)
  • [6] Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G. (1993a), British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688 – 1914, Longman, London.
  • [7] Cain, P.J. and A.G. Hopkins. A.G. (1993b), British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction 1914 - 1990, Longman, London.
  • [8] Cassis, Youssef (1994), City Bankers, 1890-1914, Transl. Margaret Rocques, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • [9] Conlin, Jonathan (2016), “Debt, Diplomacy and Dreadnoughts: The National Bank of Turkey, 1909 – 1919”, Middle Eastern Studies, 52/3, (525-545)
  • [10] Cottrell, P.L. (2016), “Financing the Bagdadbahn: Barings, the City, and the Foreign Office, 1902-3”, in A.K.B. Evans and J.V. Gough (Eds.), The Impact of the Railway on Society in Britain: Essays in Honor of Jack Simmons (2003), (77-98), Reprint, Routledge, London and New York.
  • [11] Dilley, Andrew (2018), “Elisions and Elusions of Gentlemanly Capitalism”, History of Global Arms Transfer, 5, (37-48).
  • [12] Earle, Edward Mead (1924), Turkey, the Great Powers, and the Bagdad Railway: A Study in Imperialism, Macmillan, New York.
  • [13] Ediger, Volkan Ş., and Bowlus, John W. (2020), “Greasing the Wheels: The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and Ottoman Oil, 1888-1907”, Middle Eastern Studies, 56/2, (193-206)
  • [14] Francis, Richard M. (1973), “The British Withdrawal from the Bagdad Railway Project in April 1903”, Historical Journal, 16/1, (168-178).
  • [15] Grunwald, Kurt (1969), ”’Windsor-Cassel’ - The Last Court Jew: Prolegomena to a Biography of Sir Ernest Cassel”, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 14/1, (119-161)
  • [16] Hamilton, K.A. (1975), “An Attempt to Form an Anglo-French ‘Industrial Entente’”, Middle Eastern Studies, 11/1, (46-73).
  • [17] Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü (2008), A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.
  • [18] Heller, Joseph. British Policy towards the Ottoman Empire 1908-1914 (1983), Reprint, Routledge, London and New York.
  • [19] Jones, Stephanie (1989), Trade and Shipping: Lord Inchcape 1852-1932, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
  • [20] Kennedy, Paul M. (1987), The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism 1860-1914, Ashfield Press, London and Atlantic Highlands/NJ.
  • [21] Kent, Marian (1975), “Agent of Empire? The National Bank of Turkey and British Foreign Policy”, Historical Journal, 18/2, (367-389)
  • [22] Kießling, Friedrich (2002), Gegen den “großen Krieg”? Entspannung in den iternationalen Beziehungen 1911-1914, R. Oldenbourg, Munich.
  • [23] Kumar, Ravinder (1962), ”The Records of the Government of India on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway Question”, Historical Journal, 5/1, (70-79)
  • [24] Lynn-Jones, Sean M. (1986), “Détente and Deterrence: Anglo-German Relations, 1911-1914,” International Security, 11/2, (121-150)
  • [25] McLean, D. (1976a), “British Finance and Foreign Policy in Turkey: The Smyrna-Aidin Railway Settlement 1913-14”, Historical Journal, 19/2, (521-530)
  • [26] McLean, David (1976b), “Finance and ‘Informal Empire’ before the First World War”, Economic History Review, 29/2, (291-305).
  • [27] McMeekin, Sean (2011), The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898-1918, Penguin, London.
  • [28] McMurray, Jonathan S. (2001), Distant Ties: Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and the Construction of the Baghdad Railway, Praeger, Westport, CT.
  • [29] Mejcher, Helmut (1975), “Die Bagdadbahn als Instrument deutschen wirtschaftlichen Einflusses im Osmanischen Reich”, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 1/4, (447-481)
  • [30] Ortyalı, İlber (1984), “19. Yüzyıl Ankara’sına Demiryolunun Gelişi Hinterlandının ve Hinterlanda ki Üretim Eylemlerinin Değişimi”, Tarih İçinde Ankara, 1, (208-223)
  • [31] Özyüksel, Murat (2013), Osmanlı İmparatoruğu’nda Nüfuz Mücadelesi: Anadolu ve Bağdat Demiryolları, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, İstanbul.
  • [32] Özyüksel, Murat (2016), The Berlin-Baghdad Railway and the Ottoman Empire: Industrialization, Imperial Germany and the Middle East, I.B. Tauris, London.
  • [33] “Rechnitzer Family Tree”, https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kormend/Rechnitzer_family_tree.html (accessed August 12, 2020).
  • [34] Rose, Andreas (2011), Zwischen Empire und Kontinent: Britische Aussenpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, R. Oldenbourg, Munich.
  • [35] Rüger, Jan (2011), “Revisiting the Anglo-German Antagonism”, Journal of Modern History, 83/3, (579-617).
  • [36] Sleightholme-Albanis, Elisabeth (1990), “Sir Ernest Cassel and Anglo-German Relations before the Outbreak of the First World War”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 4/2, (36-43).
  • [37] Soy, H. Bayram (2004), Almanya’nın Osmanlı Devlet Üzerinde İngiltere İle Nüfuz Mücadelesi (1890-1914), Phoenix, Ankara.
  • [38] Thane, Pat (1986), “Financiers and the British State: The Case of Sir Ernest Cassel”, Business History, 28/1, (80-99)
  • [39] Wilson, Keith (2003), Problems and Possibilities: Excersises in Statesmanship 1814-1918, Tempus, Stroud and Charleston/SC, 2003)
  • [40] Wolf, J.B. (1973), The Diplomatic History of the Bagdad Railroad (1936), Reprint, Octagon, New York.
  • [41] Ziegler, Philip (1988), The Sixth Great Power: A History of One of the Greatest Banking Families, the House of Barings, 1762 – 1929, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
There are 41 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Christian Lekon 0000-0002-5127-1076

Publication Date December 15, 2021
Submission Date October 5, 2021
Acceptance Date November 22, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2021

Cite

APA Lekon, C. (2021). Gentlemanly Capitalism and the Baghdad Railway, 1888 –1914: ‘Cosmopolitanism’ vs. ‘Patriotism’. Journal of Universal History Studies, 4(2), 118-140. https://doi.org/10.38000/juhis.1004940

23283 Journal of Universal History Studies © 2018 by Sabit Dokuyan is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0                                     open access ile ilgili görsel sonucu             


Dergi'nin Yer Aldığı Platformlar ve Sosyal Medya Adresleri