Out of the traps

摘要

IN 1875 THE Ottoman Empire defaulted on half its foreign debt, a victim of the "first major debt crisis of the developing world", according to one account of the mess. Its creditors, led by the Imperial Ottoman Bank, forced the empire's grand vizier to accept a humiliating solution. Rather than wait to be repaid out of tax revenues, they won the right to collect half a dozen taxes themselves, including stamp duty and duties on alcohol. After 15 years of tax farming, the Imperial Ottoman Bank was comfortable enough to build impressive new headquarters in Istanbul, neo-orientalist in style on one side and neoclassical on the other.