Ottoman State-United States commercial relations (Agricultural products 1850-1917)

In this study, the most traded agricultural products in Turkish-American commercial relations from the second half of the 19th century to the First World War are discussed. In the study, besides the local and foreign research works, newspapers and magazines, the Ottoman Archives and the American National Archives were benefited. After the USA gained its independence in 1783, it turned to trade in order to develop and expand. In this context, the first relations started in the Western Hearths. The incident of the burning of the Ottoman navy in Navarin in 1827 brought the Ottoman Empire closer to the USA. As a result of this, a Friendship and Trade Agreement was signed between the two states in 1830, and the USA was given the status of "the most favored state". Thus, official relations began and imperialism, which developed with colonialism in the 19th century, made itself felt in the Ottoman lands. The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, got closer to the USA, thinking that the USA did not have an eye on its territory, in accordance with the "balance policy" it implemented against the west. After the Crimean War the foreign dependency of the Ottoman Empire increased considerably and this situation narrowed the maneuvering area of the state in foreign policy. In this period, we see that the Ottoman Empire was in the position of a state that exports mostly raw materials and imported finished goods. The most traded agricultural products between the two states, except opium, are cereals, cotton, licorice, tobacco, figs and raisins. Trade between the two countries has come to a standstill from time to time due to worldwide economic depressions, wars, epidemics, extreme cold or heat. It has been observed that commercial relations in agricultural products have increased due to the fact that the state did not turn to imports due to the fact that the government incentives bought a lot of crops and the surplus was exported and some states were in a hurry to meet their raw material needs due to the wars and turned to imports.