140. Today in 1920s Turkey: 26 February 1923 (An Umbrella Solution to Repaying Debts)

Cartoon by Muvaffak, published in Akbaba, 26 February 1923, no. 24, page 3.

Türkçe:
Alacaklıdan Tahaffuz
— Birader bu güzel havada niçin şemsiye açıyorsun?..
— Aman sus, bakkala on lira borcum var, görmesin!

English: Protection from Creditors

— Why do you have an umbrella open in such nice weather, brother?
— Be quite, will you. I owe the corner market ten liras, may he not see me!

Comments:
Today’s cartoon presents an all too familiar scenario for those who owe money around town. Indeed, keeping a running “tab” at your corner market or bakkal has been a time-honored tradition and cherished perk of small-town living in Turkey. The deal between the customer and storekeeper is rather flexible and debts can remain unpaid for months, although waiting that long to pay at least part of the sum would put a strain on one’s relationship with the storekeeper. The storekeeper typically wrote down each transaction in a “notebook” or defter where the daily transactions of each customer (or household) were recorded and tallied.

The awkwardness that emerges when one does not pay their debt is the subject of today’s cartoon. The job of neighborhood shopkeeper is rather relaxed, allowing many to spend their time seated or standing outside of their stores which is where we find the cartoon’s creditor, represented by the man on the right wearing the apron. The joke of the cartoon is obvious as the debtor is pictured hiding his face in his umbrella. The foolishness of the man is underscored by the fact that he is using an umbrella in nice weather — perhaps a small price to pay to “save face” in his own neighborhood. The man’s irresponsible borrowing habits are only further highlighted by the fact that he is dressed in nice clothes which appear fancier than those of the shopkeeper to whom he owes 10 liras.

How much fictional debt is that, you may ask? Well, I crunched the numbers and since inflation and forms of currency have changed between now and then I used some rough markers to estimate what a shameful amount of debt to a local store may look like. Here are the results:

• 1 lira is 100 kuruş: so the man owed the store 1000 kuruş.
• What can you buy with 1000 kuruş in 1923?
• One issue of Akbaba cost 100 para in 1923 and 40 para equals 1 kuruş. Thus, one Akbaba is 2.5 kuruş.
• Therefore, you can buy 400 copies of Akbaba at 2.5 kuruş a piece.

Entire page, Akbaba, 26 February 1923, no. 24, page 3. Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, Beyazıt, Istanbul.

Originally published at https://steemit.com on February 26, 2018.