Pushcart stock exchange pushed aside by times

A center of trade and foreign exchange since Ottoman times, Tahtakale provides Turkey with an old-fashioned face to a global phenomenon. However, the times are a’ changing and trading, more like street haggling, based on trust, credibility and people relations in Tahtakale, is being replaced by computers and contracts

ONUR BURÇAK BELLİ
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Turkey's financial heart has beaten in Istanbul's central Tahtakale area for centuries, but trade based on street haggling – where one doesn't cheat because it would harm one's credibility on the streets – is slowly becoming the latest victim of globalization, with its computers, contracts and international ties.

Istanbul's Eminönü district has been the center of trade ever since Ottoman times. Turkey learned private entrepreneurship and the free market economy there.

Yeni Camii (New Mosque) stands in the heart of this neighborhood, surrounded by a cluster of small sectors that specialize in trading specific goods. Behind Yeni Camii, stands the famous Spice Bazaar. Walking through the Spice Bazaar, the streets to the left open to Tahtakale, which is thought to be the center of the “pushcart stock market,” where the exchange rates of the free market are still determined. On every corner of the small, dark dead-end streets, it is possible to see clusters of people, mainly men, with wireless telephones in their ears, competing for exchange or gold, shouting and negotiating, making it clear why it is called the “pushcart stock market.”

On a Thursday afternoon, Cevahir Kaygusuz, 45, was negotiating with one of the exchange dealers for a huge amount of dollars. The words “I bought” and “Best wishes” filled the street amid the cluster of almost 50 men, however the nervous atmosphere was still there. Kaygusuz took his wireless phone, said, “50 for Friday,” and noted something in his notebook that he took out of his jacket's inner pocket. “Good deal!” he said, however there was no money, no deeds or slips.

“I have been in this since I was wearing shorts. It has been 25 years. If you cannot trust people, or if you are not trusted, you cannot do business here,” he said, explaining he had just bought $50,000 and the dealer would bring the money Friday.

The energy and the mood of the people in Tahtakale are not very different from those shouting on the floor of a stock exchange. Only the surroundings seem strange.

The words “I bought” and “Best wishes” mean an item of business has been completed and there is no way to go back on it. If one party fails to keep their word, he would lose his street credibility. The pushcart stock market has its own rules that are not written or registered. Its members are known to all, even if they have no membership card. No outsiders can join in the fun. And contracts have no place here. Their word is as good as a contract.

Always there when the going is tough:

Tahtakale has always been a center where various imported goods are traded wholesale. Whenever the exchange rates fluctuate, Tahtakale and the pushcart stock exchange come under the media spotlight.

Surrounded by the fresh produce wholesale market, dry foods wholesale market, the first stock exchange building of the Ottoman Empire and commodities exchange building and many other wholesale and retail venues, Tahtakale is utilizing its location to the fullest and has become a key commercial center, said Ege Cansen, economy columnist for daily Hürriyet.

“There are certain addresses in economies, where the buyers and sellers in various numbers come together in a place. So if someone needs foreign exchange or gold in Turkey, they need to go to Tahtakale,” he said.

Before the 1980s, Turkey had a closed economy. The Turkish lira was protected by law and was not exchanged on international markets. Apart from the goods that could be imported via legal means, all other goods would be smuggled and traded in that period.

These under-the-counter-sales were also common but done in secret. For these illegal imports, foreign currency would be needed and that's where Tahtakale stepped in. Needs would pass through whispers and secret purchases would take place in one of Tahtakale's little shops. This is why, when the subject is foreign exchange or gold, it is impossible not to mention Tahtakale.

The dawn of a new age:

Until the 1980s in particular, the pushcart stock exchange operated as an “underground stock exchange” due to the law that restricted imports and foreign currency trade. This underground stock exchange became “pushcart” following the regulations after Jan. 24, 1980 that envisioned a new and comprehensive stability program.

Tahtakale was also a stop for people going overseas. Turks could buy a certain amount of foreign currency by showing their passports and could sell them to banks or the Central Bank. Tahtakale was a good source for them to avoid the paperwork.

However, as the 1980s rolled along and the Turkish economy began to open to the world, the need for Tahtakale started to diminish. In 1986, the government allowed currency exchange offices, with one on almost every street in the country by the 1990s.

“Since then, with the growing number of exchange offices, banks, Internet banking as well as the minor fluctuations in exchange rates due to the condition of the economy, Tahtakale has been losing blood,” said Mehmet Ali Yıldırımtürk, an economy columnist and a shop owner in the Grand Bazaar.

Yıldırımtürk, who has been a member of Tahtakale's trader community for the last 38 years, in his book on the history of Tahtakale and the pushcart stock exchange “Our Wall Street,” tells how Tahtakale lost its significance as the number of banks and exchange offices increased.

“Especially after the foreign exchange bourse was opened under the Central Bank's auspices in August 1988, which was a significant step toward freely determining exchange rates based on supply and demand, Tahtakale was being seen more as the free market,” said Yıldırımtürk, implying it was the first event to signify the danger faced by Tahtakale.

Even though the modern age and globalization have dealt a blow to the fortunes of the traders in Tahtakale over the last 20 years, the battle is far from over. While studies show the number of visitors to Tahtakale has decreased by 50 percent in recent times, both Cansen and Yıldırımtürk, as well as many of the traders in the dead-end dark streets of Tahtakale believe it has not lost its importance for the economy yet.