Treaty of Balta Liman
The trade policies imposed upon the Ottoman Empire, after the Treaty of Balta Liman, were some of the most liberal, open market settlements that had ever been enacted during the time.
Mehmet Ali had not been given the territory that Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud II, had promised him, after he showed military expertise in defeating Greek rebels in 1824.
Tensions between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, along with fears of Russian intervention, gave London an incentive to negotiate with Constantinople, to gain the upper-hand in trade agreements.
[4] His administration also tackled important infrastructure issues, including the construction of the Mahmoudiya Canal, which allowed water access to the port of Alexandria from the Nile River.
Mahmud II acknowledged the skills of Mehmet Ali's army and offered him the pashaliks of Syria and Morea (which was the name for the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece), in return for aid in suppressing Greek revolts.
[7] After a few years of fighting, Mehmet Ali was never granted the land promised to Egypt after helping aid Ottoman efforts to end the Greek rebellion.
He had a growing ship industry and needed more natural resources in order to meet demand, and he felt the Ottomans would soon attempt to exert their power over him.
Ultimately, Mehemet Ali came out of the peace negotiations – agreed upon at the Convention of Kütahya – with all of Egypt, Syria, Jeddah, Crete, Adana and Sudan.
On the other hand, as payment for Russian support, the Ottoman Empire had to agree to close the Dardanelles, the passage between the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean, to warships if Russia was ever attacked.
[10] This agreement did not state any new treaties, though it made a public display of the powers' unity on issues concerning the Ottoman Empire, which appeared to be in its final decline.
After 1834 neither party wanted to renew the original agreement as it stood; so, Reşit Pasha (advisor to the Sultan), David Urquhart (an English diplomat), Lord Posonby (the British Ambassador) and Counsel General John Cartwright, worked to form the Treaty of Balta Liman.
He published articles in Istanbul's newspapers, listing the benefits of free trade markets; his propaganda influenced the capital city deeply.
Russia feared losing its newfound Ottoman interests, and the French may have had to consider switching sides if Britain aligned itself with the Sultan against Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt.
Indeed, the French foreign ambassador posted a letter to Louis-Mathieu, Comte de Mole in 1837 stating: I realized with pleasure that for our merchants the main question was not so much the amount of the new duties as their equality and stability.
For what our merchants are requesting is, as far as possible, the abolition of monopolies and prohibitions that have diverted almost the whole export trade into the hands of a small number of favored Barataries.
With new British alliances, fostered through the treaty's economic policy, Mahmud should receive help in ending the Mehmet Ali Pasha regime before the Empire was destroyed.
Factors that helped shape the treaty included the writings of David Urquhart, who had advocated for the abolition of monopolies (of which opium was the most prominent outside of Egypt) in order to bolster further trade with the Ottoman Empire and decrease British dependency on Russian raw materials.
[15] Turkish historian Candan Badem writes: "The Ottomans levied 3% custom duty on imports and 12% on exports, doing exactly the opposite of other states to protect their industries and their domestic markets".
[18] In spite of this, Mehmet Ali continued to govern Syria, and in May 1838 informed both British and French Consulates of that he resolved to declare independence from the Ottoman Empire.
While there was no clear quid pro quo agreement, the treaty's passage helped to ensure British support of Ottoman territorial integrity, a position which had in actuality already been held by Palmerston, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, but was formally declared the following month.
With the British on his side, Sultan Mahmud II would no longer passively stand by while Mehemet Ali of Egypt held Ottoman territory in Syria.
This crushing defeat offered an opportunity for Mehemet Ali Pasha to potentially take control of Constantinople and essentially the entire Ottoman Empire.
Britain, Russia, and Austria all had a considerable stake in the Ottoman Empire, and so they quickly came to the aid of the young Sultan, which led to the 1840 Convention of London.
There are no official trade records for the Ottoman Empire before the year 1878, though it is clear that amount of imports and exports rose shortly after the Treaty of Balta Liman.
[21] The rapid influx of cheap British textiles and no protectionist policies would make industrializing a near impossible task for the Ottoman Empire after the Treaty of Balta Liman.
