| Exports from Turkey | ||||
| Year | To United Kingdom Marks | To France Marks | To Italy Marks | To Austria Hungary Marks |
| 1900 | 118,760,000 | 86,220,000 | 22,520,000 | 35,220,000 |
| 1901 | 122,000,000 | 26,120,000 | 31,540,000 | |
| 1902 | 130,520,000 | 83,040,000 | 28,980,000 | 35,580,000 |
| 1903 | 127,400,000 | 81,200,000 | 38,120,000 | 39,900,000 |
| 1904 | 122,760,000 | 73,120,000 | 31,300,000 | 39,120,000 |
| 1905 | 118,960,000 | 80,780,000 | 42,240,000 | 37,640,000 |
| 1906 | 129,440,000 | 91,600,000 | 45,100,000 | 39,300,000 |
| 1907 | 136,600,000 | 95,320,000 | 50,480,000 | 34,640,000 |
| 1908 | 109,220,000 | 70,760,000 | 44,580,000 | 34,360,000 |
| 1909 | 109,320,000 | 79,000,000 | 59,080,000 | 36,600,000 |
| 1910 | 100,660,000 | 77,000,000 | 48,000,000 | 43,340,000 |
Certain important conclusions may be drawn from these statistics:
1. British trade continued during the decade 1900–1910 to dominate the Near Eastern market. With total imports and exports in the latter year of over 277,000,000 marks it was in no immediate danger of being outstripped by its nearest rivals—a German trade of about 172,000,000 marks and an Austro-Hungarian trade of about 150,000,000 marks.
2. France, whose Near Eastern trade in 1900 had proudly held a position second only to that of the United Kingdom, was being obliged to accept a less prominent place in the economic life of the Ottoman Empire. During the first ten years of the new century French merchants obviously were being outmaneuvered by Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and Italians. In spite of a total increase of 17% in exports and imports between France and Turkey it was apparent that French trade was not keeping the pace; during the same period Austro-Hungarian trade showed an increased valuation of 81%, German trade of 166%.
3. Although it continued to dominate the Near Eastern market, British commerce, likewise, was losing ground. Between 1900 and 1910 it showed an increase of only 25% as compared with the Italian record of 172% during the same period. During the decade British exports, although showing an increased valuation, fell off from 35% to 22–1/2% of the total import trade of Turkey; for the same period German exports achieved not only an absolute gain of almost eighty million marks, but also a relative increase from 2–1/2% to 11–1/2% of the whole.
4. The advance of German trade was not equal to the advance of Italian trade in the Ottoman Empire during the same period. This explains, in part, the rapidly increasing political interest of Italy in the Near East and seems to set at rest the notion that the Germans acquired a stranglehold on exports and imports from and to Turkey.
5. Looking at the question from a purely political standpoint, one’s attention is struck by the fact that commercial laurels in the Ottoman Empire were going to the nationals of the Triple Alliance powers. Economically, Turkey was leaning toward the Central Powers. Few international alliances are not based upon coincidence of economic interests; it appeared that a solid foundation was being laid for the eventual affiliation of Turkey with the Triple Alliance.
Sea Communications are Established
Exports and imports, however, are not the only items which enter into the international balance sheet. As has been so amply demonstrated in the experience of the British Empire, ocean freights may constitute one of the chief items in the prosperity of a nation which lives upon commerce with other nations. It was not surprising, therefore, that upon the heels of German banks and German merchants in the Near East closely followed those other great promoters of German economic expansion, the steamship companies. The success of the Deutsche Levante Linie, established in 1889,[30] indicated that there was room for additional service between German ports and the cities of the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Accordingly, in 1905, the Atlas Line, of Bremen, inaugurated a regular service from the Baltic to Turkish ports. One line was to ply between Bremen and Smyrna, with Rotterdam, Malta, Piraeus, Salonica, and Constantinople as ports of call. Another of this same company’s lines was to carry freight and passengers from Bremen to the Syrian city of Beirut. During the same year the North German Lloyd was responsible for the formation of the Deutsche Mittelmeer Levante Linie, providing service between Marseilles and Genoa and Smyrna, Constantinople, Odessa, and Batum.[31] The considerable increase of trade between Germany and Turkey made a very real place for these lines, especially in the transportation of such commodities as could not be expected to bear the heavy charges of transportation by rail through the Balkans and overland to German cities. These lines were put into operation to provide for a traffic already in existence and waiting for them.