Greek Trade Coalition in Post-Ottoman Istanbul

This paper investigates how ethnic networks shaped trade among Armenian,Greek, Jewish, and Turkish traders in Istanbul after the collapse of the OttomanEmpire. I draw on a novel micro-dataset of 3,777 transactions extracted frombulletins of the Istanbul Commodity Exchange published in December 1928.These sources provide detailed information on commodity type, geographicalorigin, price, quantity, contract type, and the names of buyers and sellers. Incontrast to much of the trade literature that relies on administrative unit-levelethnic or religious shares, the use of transaction-level data enables a more preciseanalysis of the role of ethnic networks in commerce. Building on the theoreticalframeworks developed by Janet T. Landa (1981) and Avner Greif (1989, 1993,2006), I also test how ethnic homophily operated through certain channels. Theempirical findings reveal the existence of a Greek trade coalition in post-OttomanIstanbul: Greek traders were significantly more likely to transact with one anotherand less likely to trade with Armenians, Jews, or Turks. Greek-Greek transactionsare associated with an average increase of approximately 26% in transaction valuein flour trade. The Greek trade coalition appears to have reduced transaction costsfor its members, equivalent to approximately 10% of the seller's profit. Since Icontrol for flour quality, the findings on transaction value and costs are notconfounded by quality-related variation. Moreover, in long-distance tradeinvolving agricultural imports, Greek traders were more likely to trade with one another.