1900 102,920,000 29,800,000 29,720,000 53,440,000 1901 128,220,000 37,880,000 43,800,000 57,100,000 1902 123,980,000 37,200,000 40,400,000 61,380,000 1903 114,020,000 36,640,000 45,360,000 65,120,000 1904 151,960,000 40,880,000 53,280,000 77,600,000 1905 139,300,000 42,420,000 57,200,000 76,660,000 1906 167,040,000 47,300,000 70,900,000 92,620,000 1907 147,380,000 46,380,000 63,040,000 89,920,000 1908 145,260,000 51,600,000 58,700,000 69,240,000 1909 156,280,000 54,600,000 67,740,000 77,040,000 1910 177,160,000 58,400,000 94,000,000 107,300,000 Certain important conclusions may be drawn from these statistics: 1. British trade continued during the decade 1900–1910 to dominate the Near Eastern market. With total imports and exports in the latter year of over 277,000,000 marks it was in no immediate danger of being outstripped by its nearest rivals—a German trade of about 172,000,000 marks and an Austro-Hungarian trade of about 150,000,000 marks. 2. France, whose Near Eastern trade in 1900 had proudly held a position second only to that of the United Kingdom, was being obliged to accept a less prominent place in the economic life of the Ottoman Empire. During the first ten years of the new century French merchants obviously were being outmaneuvered by Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and Italians. In spite of a total increase of 17% in exports and imports between France and Turkey it was apparent that French trade was not keeping the pace; during the same period Austro-Hungarian trade showed an increased valuation of 81%, German trade of 166%. 3. Although it continued to dominate the Near Eastern market, British commerce, likewise, was losing ground. Between 1900 and 1910 it showed an increase of only 25% as compared with the Italian record of 172% during the same period. During the decade British exports, although showing an increased valuation, fell off from 35% to 22–1/2% of the total import trade of Turkey; for the same period German exports achieved not only an absolute gain of almost eighty million marks, but also a relative increase from 2–1/2% to 11–1/2% of the whole. 4. The advance of German trade was not equal to the advance of Italian trade in the Ottoman Empire during the same period. This explains, in part, the rapidly increasing political interest of Italy in the Near East and seems to set at rest the notion that the Germans acquired a stranglehold on exports and imports from and to Turkey.