France continued to subscribe all the same, from 1903 to 1914, to six of the twelve Turkish loans raised by the Ottoman Government; four others were taken up by Germany, another by England, and the sixth—the 4 per cent. 1908 loan—was issued one-half in France, one-fourth in Germany, and one-fourth in England. In 1914, as a reward for issuing a loan of 800 million francs in Paris—the first slice being 500 million—France obtained the settlement of several litigious cases and new concessions of railways and ports.
At the outbreak of the war, the external debt of Turkey, including the Unified Debt and other loans, amounted to 3½ milliards of francs, whereas the Turkish revenue hardly exceeded 500 million francs. One-third of this sum went to the sinking fund of the external debt, of which, roughly speaking, France alone owned nearly 60 per cent., Germany nearly 26 per cent., and England a little more than 14 per cent.
In addition to this, in the sums lent to Turkey by private companies, the share of France was about 50 per cent.—i.e., over 830 million francs; that of Germany rose to 35 per cent.; and that of England a little more than 14 per cent.
Foreign participation in the great works and the various economic or financial concerns in Turkey may be summed up as follows:
| France. | England. | Germany. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banks | 37·7 | 33·3 | 28·0 |
| Railways | 46·9 | 10·4 | 46·6 |
| Ports and wharves | 67·9 | 12·2 | 19·7 |
| Water | 88·6 | — | 11·3 |
| Mines | 100·0 | — | — |
| Various concerns | 62·8 | 24·1 | 13·0 |
| Total per cent. | 50·5 | 14·3 | 35·0 |
| Capital (million Francs) | 830 | 235 | 575 |
Not only had France an important share in the organisation of Turkish finances, but had opened three banks while the English established but one, the National Bank of Turkey, which holds no privilege from the State, and is merely a local bank for business men. Two German banks—the Deutsche Orient Bank and the Deutsche Palästina Bank, founded almost as soon as Germany began to show her policy regarding Turkish Asia—had turned their activity towards Turkey, as we have just seen.
France incurred an outlay of 550 million francs—not including the sums invested in companies which were not predominantly French, such as the Baghdad Railway—for the building of 1,500 miles of railway lines, while the Germans built almost as many, and the English only 450 miles; and France spent 58 million francs for the ports, whereas the English only spent 10 million francs.
The railway concessions worked by French capital included the Damascus-Hama line, which afterwards reached Jaffa and Jerusalem; the tramways of Lebanon; the Mudania-Brusa line; the Smyrna-Kassaba railway; the Black Sea railways which, according to the 1914 agreement, were to extend from Kastamuni to Erzerum, and from Trebizond to Kharput, and be connected with the Rayak-Ramleh line—viz., 1,600 miles of railway altogether in Syria; the Salonika-Constantinople line.
Before the London treaty, the Eastern railways in European Turkey, representing 600 miles, were worked by Austro-German capital, and the Salonika-Monastir line, 136 miles in length, had a German capital of 70 million francs.
The concessions with German capital in Asia Minor formed a complete system of railways, including the Anatolian railways, with a length of 360 miles and a capital of 344,500,000 francs; the Mersina-Tarsus-Adana line, 42 miles, capital 9,200,000 francs; the Baghdad Railway, whose concession was first given to the Anatolian railways but was ceded in 1903 to the Baghdad Railway Company, and which before the war was about 190 miles in length.