EXPERIENCIA CIENTÍFICA

As it is a well-known fact that the economic situation in a country is one of the main factors for the development of an accounting system. The economic development passes through the quality of enterprises. In this context, the Economy Congresses, held in 1923 and 1948, will be evaluated due to their importance for the development of economy in Turkey. The decisions taken in the first congress held in 1923 are important to a great extent because these were national decisions which could be applied all across the country.

a) Economy Congress (1923)

Milli Turk Ticaret Birligi(Turkish National Union of Trade) was the reporter of this congress held in February 15 of 1923. Nationalism constituted the character of this congress in which Ataturk did the opening speech. In his speech, Ataturk stated that Ottoman Empire did not pay attention on economics and did not get the view of public opinion for the decisions relevant to economics. He added that economic independence and national sovereignty was related to each other to a great extent and economics was directly related to the future of whole nation. (Guvemli, 2001/d: 28-33).

This congress was important because of several reasons and among these, the time of the congress, namely jus after the independence war; the aim of the congress, i.e. Westernization can be listed as the facts.

The economical environment in the period of the congress can be summarized as below:

• There wasn’t any Central Bank that could mint money,

• There wasn’t any bank that could collect deposit and give commercial credits in long term,

• There wasn’t any investment bank that could give long-term credits to industry,

• There wasn’t any bank that could utilize small amount possessions of consumers or give residence credits,

• Capitulations and Duyun-u Umumiye (General Administration of Debts) affected economics negatively,

• Private sector enterprises and industry all belonged to non Muslim communities,

• Transportation system was not advanced,

• The number of education institutions concerning economics, trade and accounting were very limited.

It is hard to explain all the details of this congress in this paper. Among the decisions of the congress, some of them were very important, namely establishment of two banks in order to give credits to merchants and industrialists, foundation of state controlled enterprises, enhancement of trade and industry chambers all across the country, facilitation of establishment of incorporated companies, construction of harbors, formation of cabotage contrary to capitulations, establishment of Istanbul

Ticaret Mektebi Âlisi (School of Trade) which was desired as the

following institution of Hamidiye Ticaret Mektebi (Hamidiye School of Trade) and which constituted the base of Istanbul

İktisadi Ticari İlimler Akademisi (Academy of Economy and

Trade) and Marmara University, formation of stock exchange, giving duty immunity for the imported goods that are used in investment, to take measures to prevent the negative impacts of foreign goods can be listed as the examples.

The decisions made in this congress were based on the aim of economic development and modernization. As a result of this, the need for developing enterprises and accounting became on the agenda.

The decisions of this congress those relevant to economic development and its effects on accounting can be summarized as the following: Establishment of deposit bank contributed to the transformation of insignificant savings to investment which impacted economy in a positive way.

The establishment of Investment Bank facilitated the increase of investment by providing long term credits, thus contributed to the economical development.

The state owned economic enterprises were kind of a guide for the industrial establishments in terms of investments, trading and industry.

The abolishment of capitulations and Duyun-u Umumiye (Council of the Public Debt) encouraged the Muslim Turkish population for commercial activities due to which national economy and industry started to improve.

It was seen that there was a need for accounting; hence the studies on development of accounting were initiated.

On the other hand, modernization in both public life and private life lessened the mysticism due to which scientific approach became influential on many aspects of life, namely on the development of industry, accounting applications and education.

b) Economy Congress (1948)

This congress was held in Istanbul on November 22-27 of 1948. The main topics of this congress were as below:

• State control and state interference • Foreign trade regime

• Tax reform.

Contrary to the decisions taken in the first Economy Congress, the main idea of this congress was to change the role of state in terms of its position in economics that is to say to enable more liberal economy was the main target of this congress.

Nevertheless the decisions relevant to the foreign trade regime could not be put into practice those which came into force after 1980. One of the main results related to accounting of this congress was the Tax Reform formed in 1949. The regulations came into force in 1949, namely the Institutional Tax, Income Tax and Tax Procedure Law, were discussed in this congress.

Furthermore, accounting system, accounting profession and tax reform were among the discussed topics of the congress.

Supporting of private sector instead of state owned enterprises, formation of tax reform which aims to get tax through profit, reducing the limits on foreign trade, improvement of accounting record system and profession were the main results of this congress regarding our topic.

3.2.2 Establishment of Trade and Industry Chambers

Establishment of trade and industry chambers is important in terms of a national economy. A particular regulation about the establishment of trade and industry chambers was formed in 1911. (Guvemli, 2001/d: 63).

Establishment of trade and industry chambers contributed to the development of trade and industry to a great extent. Following this, the need for a developed accounting system emerged.