Economic policies applied in Turkey Second World War years

The aim of this study is to analyze the economic policies implemented in Turkey within the framework of the literature and some data during Second World War. Under the influence of the war economy, the Second World War was a period of intense state intervention. For this purpose, the National Protection Law was enacted in 1940, providing the government with a wide range of economic intervention capacity, which included the nationalization, mandatory labor force, direct price intervention. This law also formed the basis of the Law on Wealth Tax, 25% Decision, Tax on Soil Products, Bread License and Farmer's Grounding Law during the Second World War. The Wealth Tax, which was enacted in 1942 in order to combat the black market and corruption, to provide income to the treasury, to fight inflation and to tax the income of the riches of the war, has elements contrary to the principles of generalization and equality, certainty and clarity, conformity and impartiality. In this respect, the Wealth Tax has been an extraordinary tax that has been discussed up to the current days. In order to finance the war expenditures and overcome the shortage of food supply, the 25% Decision and the Tax on Soil Products came to the fore as taxes from rural areas. The criticism of this practice are that it resembles the Asar tax, adoption of an on-site measurement method in the tax assessment, the uncertainty of the tax rate and the fact that a significant portion of the tax revenues go to tax expenditures. However, these practices were not sufficient in eliminating food supply shortages, and the interventionist practices based on the National Protection Law led to a gradual deterioration in the supply-demand balance in the markets, particularly in basic necessities, and increased prices and expanded black market, corruption and stocking. Therefore, in order to prevent the increase in grain prices and to meet the basic needs, a bread license card was introduced. As a result of the significant decrease in agricultural production during the war years, the Law on Grounding the Farmer was introduced to distribute land to landless peasants; however, this law has never been applied. As a consequence of the Second World War and intense state intervention contradicting the grounds of economic sciences, Turkey's economy has undergone a severe crisis during years of the war.