The Regie Company

Mavi Boncuk |


The Regie Company (French: la Société de la régie co-intéressée des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman) was a parastatal company 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. Revenue from the Regie Company was supposed to help overcome the Ottoman state's persistent shortage of income. The Regie Company constituted the largest foreign investment in the Ottoman Empire, and it attempted to introduce more efficient production methods - against local resistance.


In 1881, the state monopoly on salt was incorporated into the Regie Company, which passed revenue from salt taxes (tuz resmi) to the Public Debt Commission. 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.

In Turkey, the Regie Company was nationalised in 1925 and became Tekel[1], 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 monopoly in Lebanon is known as Regie[2].


Turkish tobacco was an important industrial crop, where its cultivation and manufacture were monopolies under capitulations of the Ottoman Empire. The tobacco and cigarette trade was controlled by two French companies the "Regie Compagnie interessee des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman", and "Narquileh tobacco." 


These companies founded as a monopoly in 1862 by the Ottoman government for the payment of its international debt. Original purpose of the company was to deal with tobacco products. It later became a part of an even greater monopoly, REJI, which controlled all trade, finance, and manufacturing in the empire. For the first time in 1862, via commercial agreements between Ottoman Government, France and Britain, tobacco importation has been prohibited and monopoly has been established. 


In accordance with the “Rusumu Sitte” Decree published in 1879, the monopoly income of salt, tobacco and alcohol have been left for first to foreign bankers and later to “Duyun-u Umumiye (Public Debts)”. Later on, the operation of the Tobacco Monopoly has been transferred to “Memaliki Osmaniye Duhanları Müşterek Menfaa REJI Şirketi”. 


Old Tekel Building now Yunus Emre Institut in Ankara (Ulus)


[1] The duty of performing the “monopoly” tasks regarding Tobacco, Alcohol drinks, Salt, Gunpowder and explosives has been appointed to the Monopolies Public directorate founded in 1932. Tobacco, alcohol drinks and salt have been taken under the state monopoly in the year 1932, gunpowder and explosives in 1934, beer in 1939, tea and coffee in 1942, and matches in 1946. Coffee has been released from the State monopoly in 1946, matches in 1952, gunpowder and explosives and beer in 1955 and tobacco in 1986.


[2] Tobacco cultivation became a state monopoly started under the Ottoman Empire in 1884. The “Societe Anonyme de Régie Co-interessee Libano-Syrienne de Tabacs et des Tombacs” was created in 1935 and given effective legal monopoly of the tobacco trade in both countries. After independence, it became known as the Régie Libanaise des Tabacs et des Tombacs and retained the exclusive trading rights for tobacco imports and exports and local trade. The Régie has been under governmental control since 1991.