**3. Cotton in Türkiye**

Türkiye has the advantages of great agricultural potential and diversity. For that reason, the export-creating effect of production increase in agriculture is greater than that in industry [21]. Again, the driving force in cotton exports of Türkiye is the agriculture-based industries. It is a strategic crop for Türkiye and so it is called 'white gold' because of its value-added capacity, rather than its color.

Extension of cotton production in Türkiye was initiated by the events in remote countries. For example, cotton production in the USA, ranking first in global cotton production, decreased and prices increased due to the civil war started in 1861, This event caused a bottleneck for the UK, the most important cotton importer of that time due to the great Industrial Revolution, This bottleneck, of course, caused the British textile industrialists fall into a difficult position, Upon this, the organization of these industrialists, Manchester Cotton Supply Association, MCSA, started to search and develop new cotton production areas.

Adana1 was also one of the areas found to meet the cotton demand. Upon with the cotton demand of UK, the Turkish government of that time in İstanbul issued various incentives to increase cotton production in Adana in 1862 [22]. In this context, it was decided to provide tax relief to farmers for 5 years [23]. Moreover, Sultan issued an edict to provide cotton seeds for the farmers and 165 thousand okkas2 of seeds were brought from Egypt and distributed to the farmers. Again, in addition to all these incentives, UK sold 6000 tons of cotton seeds to the landowners in 1864 [24, 25].

The widespread cotton production in Adana inevitably led to the establishment of the textile industry. Until the 1860s, cotton cleaning and pressing processes were carried out with extremely primitive methods. However, upon the Ottoman Empire made cotton production an official policy, there had been a great increase in the investments of foreign states and important factories were established [26]. As a result, an increase in cotton production from 10 million kilograms to 50 million kilograms was achieved, which caused Adana to develop in agriculture, industry and trade.

Accordingly, it was necessary to take steps to make urban life more modern. However, by the end of the American Civil War, the European states turned to cheaper American cotton, which interrupted the development of Turkish cotton. Nevertheless, this experience formed an important basis for the Republican period. During the Republican period, in Türkiye, the main cotton production areas were

<sup>1</sup> Adana is a province and the sixth largest metropolitan area in Türkiye, located on the Mediterranean coast in the south of the Anatolian peninsula. It is one of the country's leading agricultural, commercial and cultural centres.

<sup>2</sup> Okka was a unit of weight used in Türkiye in the past, equal to 1283 kg in metric system.
