The Italian Bank Società Commerciale D’Oriente and Its Business in Ottoman Istanbul (1907-1915)

As Italian economic power increased, Roman imperialism followed an upward trend towards the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. Even if the sense of economic Imperialism was not deep-seated yet, Italian willingness to enlarge its influence was subject to the establishment of credit institutions throughout the Empire, mainly in the Ottoman Rumelia and Anatolia. This paper aims to analyze the role of the eastern branch of Banca Commerciale Italiana: Società Commerciale d’Oriente, from its establishment in 1907 due to the growing interest of Venetian businessmen in having their business managed by a single institution to the moment Italy joined the First World War in 1915. Although Italy was not well-integrated in the Empire’s business network, and even though the Italian bank depended heavily on the Italian government’s support in order to be competitive among foreign banks, Italy tried to extend its activities throughout the whole Empire. This was possible thanks to the initiatives of the bank’s fast-moving management. The managerial dynamism wanted to compensate for the bank’s undercapitalization compared with the biggest foreign investment banks, which had been working in Ottoman territory since the XIX century. This paper wants to fill the scholarly gap concerning Italian financial interests in the Late Ottoman Empire. In order to do so, an analysis will be made of documents from the private archives of Banca Commerciale, the historical archive of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and some records from the National Archives in London