Why Are We Turks Not Good at Trade?

Sometimes when I start doing research on a subject, I first look at the etymology of the words we use in our language.

Trade is an Arabic word, market is Persian, caravan and palace are also Persian. We only have the ancient word for camel. We also have the compound word shopping. 

Even the word money is Persian! Only one of our currencies, the akçe, is Turkish. They call it AKÇE because it is silver. Because it is silver.

Whenever I look at a source on the emergence of the Turks on the stage of history, it starts with a nomadic society engaged in animal husbandry.

However, the historical trade route between China and Europe, which we call the Silk Road, passes through the lands that are our homeland in Asia. If we have dominated these lands for centuries, we are normally expected to have a certain knowledge and experience in trade.

But unfortunately, our knowledge of trade does not go beyond bargaining for rams in the market at the time of the feast.

In fact, when we think of trade, Jews come to mind for some reason. 

They say that when a Jew is broke, he goes through old books.

I also like the famous joke, the story of Mishon and Salamon.

While Mishon was troubled and troubled, his wife asked him in the room and when Mishon said, "I can't pay the rent this month, that's why I'm troubled," his wife opened the window and said to Salamon: "Salamon! Salamon!" I love this joke very much, when the one who lives across the street comes to the window and says, "Salomon, my husband won't be able to pay the rent this month," and closes the window, and then turns to her husband and says, "Stop worrying about it, let him worry about it now!"

Really, Jews are very good at business for some reason. In fact, they are very good at many things. If you take a look at history, you can see that many scientists were Jewish.

But for some reason, they were always expelled from the land they lived in, first the king of Babylon expelled them, then Pharaoh persecuted them, and they themselves migrated across the Red Sea from Egypt. Then they were scattered all over the world. What Hitler did to them I will not write here.

This is not about the history of the Jews, but I mentioned them because they are really good at trade.

During the Ottoman period, the first ones to establish trade relations with us were the Venetians. Venice is a city state. It is also a republic. Even though today it is just a city in Italy under water with a heavy smell of dampness, there was a time when there was no one better than Venice when it came to trade.

For some reason, the Ottomans made concessions to this enterprising city-state in terms of trade. In fact, we fought seven wars between us. Sea wars. The treaties of Carlofça (1699) and Pasarofça (1718) were signed between us at the end of the last two wars. The Venetian city-state, which first appeared on the stage of history in 697, completed its thousand hundred years of life in 1797 and took its place in the dusty pages of history. A thousand hundred years is a very long time for a state.

So why can't we do trade? Are we not smart enough?

Sometimes I think that even in the field we are most skilled at, namely construction, we mess things up after a while. Whenever we enter a country and start building, we have to leave after a while for some reason. Sometimes, okay, there are events that happen outside of the builders, but after things calm down, we can't be as sociable as we used to be. I guess we lose our enthusiasm a little bit.

Everyone I knew in our immediate family was either a teacher or a civil servant. My father worked by the sweat of his own brow. But I don't remember him much either, he passed away early. 

The only one who was engaged in trade was my late uncle. He had a grocery store in Kandıra, first in the bazaar when I was little, and then under their house when I was a little older. He would open the grocery store early every morning after the morning prayers, and the store would be open until late at night.

When I visited him, I would always find him behind the counter reading something. Actually, I don't know how it happened, but he was blind in one eye, one eye was always squinting, but I remember him always reading something behind the counter with that one eye that saw well. I'm not talking about the credit book, I'm talking about thick, thick books.

I mean, apart from my late uncle, we don't have anyone who knows anything about trade either. My uncle was neither long nor short in his life when it came to trade. He was a quiet person in his own way.

Okay, let's say that trade is not in our family genes, but why don't Turks in general understand enough about trade? 

Although there are some of our state elders who at least try to negotiate.

For example, I remember that they tried to negotiate with Bush under the name of "horse bargaining" before the March 1st manifesto. How many years have passed since then? They had already messed that up too.

So even this example proves that we don't understand trade.

What should we do, take an apprenticeship with a Jew?

I think we should learn how to trade. International trade is the future. If we want to get back on our feet as a country, we need to learn the intricacies of this business somewhere and pass it on to our new generations.

If we had developed good relations with China, our first neighbor in history, instead of fighting so many wars with it, we could have been known as a nation that understands trade. China is a world giant in trade even today. It was no different back then. After all, we had great opportunities in those times. I wish we could have utilized them.

I am still amazed that we have not learned how to trade even though we have dominated the Silk Road route for so long. Of course, this cannot be done with only camels. We need elephants too, but even the word elephant is in Arabic!

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow