Tekel and Its Brief History

Spirits and liquors were produced by many small businesses under tax control during the Ottoman period. With the law numbered 790, which entered into force on June 1, 1920, it was stated that production, import and sale were under the monopoly of the government; therefore, the capacity and assets of the existing small-scale producers had to be reported to the monopoly administration and administrative permission had to be obtained in order to continue operating. The state began to take a more active role in monopoly practices since the 1930s, with the increasing importance of factorization and domestic capital accumulation due to industrialization. 

Dissemination of monopolistic management and monopolistic practices based on legal and institutional mechanisms is one of the important policies followed in this period. With the regulations made in the field of agriculture, incentives for domestic production have increased. Basing the monopoly administration on a legal and institutional mechanism and expanding and deepening the monopoly practices became very important policies in this period. With the "Law on the Organization and Duties of the General Directorate of Monopolies," dated 1941 and numbered 4036, the directorate gained its institutional validity and started to be called the "General Directorate of Monopoly" in 1946.

With the establishment of the Monopoly Administration, the production and sale of tobacco and alcoholic beverages became more regulated. The materials and production techniques used in production were standardized. In addition, the sale of alcoholic beverages began to be made only in places with special authorization.