Liberalization in Turkey: Does History Repeat Itself?

This study examines the effects of the first globalization on the late period Ottoman economy as well as the impact of the second globalization on the Turkish economy for the last three decades. Since the demand of Western industrial countries for Ottoman agricultural products was high, the production and export of such goods increased. Improved terms of trade had some positive short term impact on the exporting agricultural sector, but resulted in a massive deindustrialization all around the Empire. Again during the second globalization, Turkish foreign trade has increased, and a few manufacturing sectors have shown improvements because of the global competitive forces. However, Turkish agriculture has suffered, and trade and current account deficits have grown persistently, with foreign debt displaying certain similarities with the infamous Ottoman public debt.