Ottoman Salonika
and hotels. Nazmi Efendi’s favorite café at the quay may have been the
Belle Vue, which, as we learn from ads placed to rent it in the Greek news-
paper Faros tēs Makedonias (Beacon of Macedonia), was owned by a fellow
Kapancı Dönme, Mehmet Kapancı.^45 According to the 1923 – 25 records
of the Mixed Commission for the Exchange of the Greek and Turkish
Populations, set up under the bilateral Treaty of Lausanne on January 30 ,
1923 , which sought to establish the wealth and property of all Muslims
in the city, Duhani Hasan Akif ’s family owned cafés and hotels: the café
of the Olympos Palace Hotel (on what is today Plateia Eleutherias, the
city’s central square) and the Izmir Hotel.^46 Ownership was shared with
Kapancı family members. Ahmet Kapancı’s wife Nefise owned a share
in the Olympos Hotel and Café and its attached stores, as well as in the
Filikia Hotel and Café on Hayri Pasha boulevard on the quay.^47 Yusuf
Kapancı’s son İbrahim and his sister Emine owned the Alhambra Café,^48
its name an ironic product of the “Moorish” craze sweeping North Amer-
ica and Europe at the time, at the Wharf Station tramway stop.^49
The Kapancı were internationally recognized for their economic role
in the city, even in new industries. A 1908 cable to car manufacturers in
Detroit from the U.S. consulate in Salonika called the local market for
automobiles unfavorable, noting that very few people there could afford
one, and that there were only two cars and no automobile agents or agen-
cies in the city.^50 Nevertheless, since the American consul’s aim was to
assist American businesses in foreign markets, the cable mentioned eight
individuals who might be interested in receiving car catalogues, among
them Mehmet Kapancı. His being listed along with Jewish, Levantine,
and Greek notables and members of the city’s military and administrative
elite is evidence of his wealth and high status. Another cable from the
American consulate in Salonika, the following year, identified Mehmet
Kapancı as owner of one of the most important banking houses in the
city.^51 His wealth and broad worldview made it possible for him to con-
sider adopting the new form of private transportation.^52
Cables sent from the French consul in Salonika also note the significant
role Kapancı families played in the city’s trade and finance and their role in
western European trade. The French consul played an important role in as-
sisting his country’s businessmen and in linking French and Salonika-based
capital and interests. French businessmen wrote to him inquiring about
local banks and businesses, and the consul responded with the most up-
to-date information, enabling them to make financial decisions. A cable