Turkey Ottoman Empire 50000 Livres banknote 1916, Law of 6 August AH1332
State Notes of the Ministry of Finance
Dette Publique Ottomane - Ottoman Public Debt
Obverse: Arabic text on green underprint. Denomination in words is in Arabic and French language. At top - Toughra of Mehmed V, 27th Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate 35th Ottoman Sultan (A tughra is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. It was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted during his reign.)
Reverse: Arabic text on Turkish floral pattern design. Denomination in words is in Arabic and French language.
Specimen, AH1332 (1916), No. 00, unsigned, 'Specimen' in Arabic perforated in five places (P.95s; Gaciroglu RS-4-11).
Pick only lists a price for a specimen, stating that the issue was a deposit note made with the Imperial Ottoman Bank to cover the issues of P.85 (one piastre, AH1332) and P.86 (2-1/2 piastres, AH1332) both released in 1916.
Gaciroglu states that only two examples are known to exist, presumably both specimens given the illustration in his 2011 catalogue. A typed list of denominations and issued numbers that came with this collection reveals only 40 notes were printed.
Banknotes of Ottoman Empire
Dette Publique Ottomane - Ottoman Public Debt
Ottoman Public Debt
The Ottoman public debt was a term which dated back to 24 August 1854, when the Ottoman Empire first entered into loan contracts with its European creditors shortly after the beginning of the Crimean War.
The Empire entered into subsequent loans, partly to finance railway construction and partly to finance deficits between revenues and the lavish expenditure of the Imperial court. Some financial commentators have noted that the terms of these loans were exceptionally favourable to the French and British banks which facilitated them, whereas others have noted that the terms reflected the imperial administration's willingness to constantly refinance its debts.
The Ottoman government declared a sovereign default on its loan repayments with the Ramazan Kararnamesi (Decree of Ramadan) on 30 October 1875. Six years later, as part of the Muharrem Kararnamesi (Decree of Muharrem) on 15 October 1881, which reduced the overall public debt, the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA) was established. This made the European creditors bondholders, and assigned special rights to the OPDA for collecting various tax and customs revenues within the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Empire
- In 1875, the nominal public debt was £200000000, with annual interest and amortization payments of £12,000,000, more than half the national revenue.
- In December 1881, the debt was reduced from £191000000 to £106000000 with the government's concessions to the OPDA.
Republic of Turkey
- During the Paris Conference of 1925, the Republic of Turkey agreed to pay 62% of the Ottoman Empire's pre-1912 debt, and 77% of the Ottoman Empire's post-1912 debt. With the Paris Treaty of 1933, Turkey decreased this amount to its favour and agreed to pay 84.6 million liras out of the remaining total of 161.3 million liras of Ottoman debt. The last payment of the Ottoman debt was made by Turkey on 25 May 1954.
Ottoman Public Debt Administration
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA) (Ottoman Turkish: Düyun-u Umumiye-i Osmaniye Varidat-ı Muhassasa İdaresi, or simply Düyun-u Umumiye as it was popularly known), was a European-controlled organization that was established in 1881 to collect the payments which the Ottoman Empire owed to European companies in the Ottoman public debt. The OPDA became a vast, essentially independent bureaucracy within the Ottoman bureaucracy, run by the creditors and its governing council was packed with European government officials. It employed 5000 officials who collected taxes that were then turned over to the European creditors. At its peak it had 9000 employees, more than the empire’s finance ministry.
The OPDA played an important role in Ottoman financial affairs. Also, it was an intermediary with European companies seeking investment opportunities in the Ottoman Empire. In 1900, the OPDA was financing many railways and other industrial projects. The financial and commercial privileges of the non-Muslim foreigners were protected with the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire.
After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, between 1918 and 1924 Ottoman revenue stamps overprinted O.P.D.A. or A.D.P.O., or stamps printed with those inscriptions, were issued for use in Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon.