Oriental Carpet Manufacturers

Historical background

Rugs were traditionally woven in Anatolia. Surviving carpets in Anatolian mosques have been dated back to the 13th century Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. Their depiction in a large number of Renaissance paintings demonstrates that carpets and rugs were already exported to Western Europe from the 14th century onwards, where they were regarded as highly prestigious luxury goods. With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the number of people increased in the Western world who could afford buying oriental rugs. The regions around the towns of Konya and Uşak were the traditional centers of carpet manufacturing in the Ottoman Empire. Until 1870–1880, about 75% of all carpets exported to Western Europe were manufactured in these regions. The Ottoman government promoted the commercial production and export of rugs by setting up rug exhibitions, quality controls, and by establishing schools of arts and crafts in Konya and Kırşehir.

As the demand increased by around 1830, Ottoman as well as European and U.S. American trading corporations expanded their commercial activities. European trading companies in Istanbul and Smyrna established their own manufacturing facilities in competition to the traditional Ottoman rug trading organizations based in Uşak. These companies provided the materials, such as pre-dyed yarns, and issued detailed instructions about the patterns to be woven according to the buyers' taste and market demand. Carpets were woven either by home workers, or in workshops. Working conditions and wages were poor even at that time. Workers in the OCM workshops were working at faster rates, and had lower wages compared to the Uşak manufacturers. By around 1910, the export from the traditional carpet-producing regions was reduced to merely 10% of the total volume of trade.

History of the OCM

Founding and early years

The Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company was officially founded by the amalgamation of six British merchant companies on 16 December 1907 in London. All of the former companies' assets were taken over and rebranded by the OCM on 1 January 1908.

Rumors about a possible monopolisation in the industry appeared in the Smyrniot press as early as February 1907, long before the official founding of the company. Thus, local merchants in Uşak formed the Uşak Ottoman Tapestry Tradehouse (Uşak Osmanlı Halı Ticarethanesi) to compete with the OCM, to no avail.

Despite the fact that the company was registered in the United Kingdom, the company's headquarters and warehouse was located in Smyrna, as well as conducting almost all of its business in the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, despite the company's counterclaims, the company was unrecognized by the Ottoman Empire as a legal entity at all and was regarded as in the outside of diplomatic protections. Therefore any litigation involving the company in the Ottoman courts were formed against the local branch managers and related people, who were Ottoman subjects. The company's legal status in the Empire remained unclear until the end of World War I.

The company had bought high-quality wools from the area surrounding Eskişehir -and probably from towns in the Ankara Vilayet and the Konya Vilayet; such as Sivrihisar, Haymana, Cihanbeyli- on its own. The company also bought wools through its agents and independent merchants in Gördes and Demirci, both in the Aidin Vilayet. The company-owned looms and other technical equipment were procured in Germany and Austria. The first company-owned production facilities were set up in the western Anatolian Manisa Province. Already in 1912, OCM controlled the major part of all looms operating in the Konya Vilayet, where 15–20,000 weavers, mostly women, worked at c. 12,000 looms.

In 1911, OCM expanded their activities to Iran. Arthur C. Edwards established a carpet factory in the town of Hamadan, where the production of traditional Persian carpets had totally ceased at that time.

After World War I and final years

In 1924, Edwards moved to London and became OCM's managing director. He expanded the company's commercial activities in the United States. In order to lower the production costs, he set up factories in India, where wages were lower at that time. OCM shares were still listed at the London Stock Exchange in the 1960s, but came under increasing pressure from other companies which produced low-quality carpets and machine-made rugs at mass-market prices. In 1986, the company was finally dissolved, and sold to the Eastern Kayyam Company, one of its former associates.