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{{Taxation in the Ottoman Empire sidebar}}
The '''Ottoman Tobacco Company''', also known as the '''Régie Company''' for its French official name '''''Société de la régie co-intéressée des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman''''', was a parastatal company or [[Regie]] formed in the later [[Ottoman Empire]] by the [[Ottoman Public Debt Administration]], with backing from a consortium of European banks. The company had a monopoly over [[tobacco]] production, and its revenue was intended to help overcome the Ottoman state's persistent shortage of income.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Political Economy of Ottoman Public Debt|year=2010|publisher=Tauris Academic Studies|isbn=978-1-84885-298-3}}</ref> The Ottoman Tobacco Company constituted the largest foreign investment in the Ottoman Empire, and it attempted to introduce more efficient production methods – against local resistance.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00567_18.x|publisher=The Economic History Review|title=Book reviews|date=2011-01-04}}</ref>

In 1881, the [[state monopoly]] on salt was incorporated into the Régie Company, which passed revenue from salt taxes ([[tuz resmi]]) to the Public Debt Commission.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Stanford|title=The Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Tax Reforms and Revenue System|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=October 1975|volume=6|issue=4|pages=421–459|jstor=162752|doi=10.1017/s0020743800025368|s2cid=154351228 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a63f/af4df281105b5dfc227563e0aba4a457fce4.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219053330/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a63f/af4df281105b5dfc227563e0aba4a457fce4.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-19}}</ref> As the state (or a parallel state controlled by the government's creditors) now effectively controlled salt production and salt prices, salt smuggling became a problem.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Narin|first=Resül|title=Düyûn-ı Umûmiye İdaresi ve Adapazarı|journal=Karadeniz Araştırmaları|year=2009|volume=6|issue=21|pages=49–59}}</ref> In 1884, the Ottoman government instituted a tobacco monopoly and delegated it to a partly foreign company, the “Regie co-intr$éressée des tabacs de l’Empire ottoman”,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moussakova |first=Svetla |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wdMvADZfrOAC&dq=Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9+de+la+r%C3%A9gie+co-int%C3%A9ress%C3%A9e+des+tabacs+de+l%27empire+Ottoman&pg=PA154 |title=NOUVEAUX VISAGES DE LA FRANCOPHONIE EN EUROPE |date=2012-06-01 |publisher=Academia |isbn=978-2-296-49659-0 |language=fr}}</ref> which relies on a consortium of European banks and on the [[Imperial Ottoman Bank]], also listed in London and Paris. Founded in 1863, the latter<ref>{{Cite web |title=LE CAPITAL FRANÇAIS ET ETRANGER DANS L'EMPIRE OTTOMAN JUSQU'A LA GRANDE GUERRE. Par Jacques THOBIE |url=http://www.gndpta.eu/news_objects/files/ottomans_rapport_historique_jacques_thobie.pdf}}</ref> brought together French shareholders supplementing initial contributions of British funds in 1856. Both had offices in Paris, Place de la Bourse. 

Under the [[Republic of Turkey]], the Ottoman Tobacco Company was nationalised in 1925 and became [[Tekel]], which was sold to [[British American Tobacco]] in 2008.

There are successor companies in other Ottoman successor states. To this day, the state-run tobacco monopolies in [[Lebanon]] and [[Syria]] are known as Régie.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/public_policy/rapp/rapp_research/Documents/economics_of_tobacco_lebanon/Final_Report/The_Economics_of_Tobacco_in_Lebanon.pdf|accessdate=2011-07-24|title=The Economics of Tobacco in Lebanon: An Estimation of the Social Costs of Tobacco Consumption|date=2011-05-23}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Ottoman Bank]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Taxation in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Tobacco companies of Turkey]]
[[Category:Tobacco taxation]]