The construction of the Anatolian Railways by German capitalists was accompanied by a considerable expansion of German economic interests in the Near East. In 1889, for example, a group of Hamburg entrepreneurs established the _Deutsche Levante Linie_, which inaugurated a direct steamship service between Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, and Constantinople. It was the expectation of the owners of this line that the construction of the Anatolian railways would materially increase the volume of German trade with Turkey—an expectation which was justified by subsequent developments. In 1888, the year of the original railway concession to the _Deutsche Bank_, exports from Germany to Turkey were valued at 11,700,000 marks; by 1893, when the line was completed to Angora, they mounted to a valuation of 40,900,000 marks, an increase of about 350%. Imports into Germany from Turkey during the same period rose from 2,300,000 marks to 16,500,000 marks, showing an increase of over 700%. No small proportion of the phenomenal increase in the volume of German exports to Turkey can be attributed to the use of German materials on the Ismid-Angora railway. In any event, there was no further substantial development of this export trade between 1895 and 1900, although imports into Germany from Turkey reached the high figure of 28,900,000 marks at the close of the century.[13] That German traders should follow German financiers into the Ottoman Empire was to be expected. The _Deutsche Bank_—sponsor of the Anatolian Railways—had been notably active in the promotion of German foreign commerce. From its very inception it had devoted itself energetically to the promotion of industrial and commercial activity abroad, thus carrying out the object announced in its charter “of fostering and facilitating commercial relations between Germany, other European countries, and oversea markets.” By the establishment of foreign branches, by the liberal financing of import and export shipments, by the introduction of German bills of exchange in the four corners of the earth, and by other similar methods, this great bank was largely responsible for the emancipation of German traders from their former dependence upon British banking facilities. The Anatolian Railways concessions marked the initial efforts of the _Deutsche Bank_ at Constantinople. What it had done elsewhere it could be expected to do in the interests of German business men operating in Turkey.[14]