THE CALCULATION OF MONEY

Here, the money is calculated as sağ (sound) and çürük (rotten). Usually the type of currency they use is silver coins. Metallic Ura, medjidie, ten kurus, quarter (five kurus) double, and kurus.

They say a paper note for one lira of the money document. • The note lira is twenty-eight kurus for with a kurus account as çürük (rotten), and thirty kurus for a sağ (sound) account. A quatrain, an eight, a quarter, a medjidie would be sound money.

A penny is a kurus, an eight is two kurus. A quarter is five kurus, and a medjidie is twenty kurus.

If it is said with kurus, then it is sound money. If it is said with money, one kurus is fifty money, then it is rotten. For example:

You will buy something that costs three kurus: They call it three fifty, three penny, that is, three kurus means thirty money. However, there is no small money like a penny than kurus. To calculate, they use as sound and rotten.

If they calculate the price of something that costs three kurus with sound money, then the price twelve penny, that is, three quadrant.

In rotten money, one kurus is accepted as fifty money, that is, five pennies. When they say five pennies, then it is understood that the calculation is made with rotten money.

A sound medjidie, that is twenty kurus, corresponds to twenty five kurus in rotten money. Because there is a ten money increase per kurus.

In order to understand whether the medjidie is sound or rotten during the shopping, you should pay attention when they say kurus to medjidie. When they say it is medjidie, then it is sound, if they call it kurus, then it is rotten. For example, they say twenty kurus, then it means twenty five kurus.

The eighteen kurus in rotten money corresponds to twenty seven and a half kurus in sound money. They call the quarter as urup here. Urup is a quarter, that is, five kurus. They do not calculate as sixteen kurus, eighteen kurus during purchase and sell. They say nine eight for a good that costs eighteen kurus. The eights are always considered as sound. Because an eight means eight pennies, as I wrote above, there is no small money. The Republic notes such as ten, twenty, coins, nickels were not circulating back then. These were used only in official procedures. The children used to play with the nickel coins, it is not sure whether they are still valid today or not because I determined these findings in December 1930.
 

THE MEASURES

The measures used are quarter, carat, batman, oka, and dram.

The quarter is equal to one fourth, carat is equal to fiftheen oka, batman equals to two and half oka, oka equals to four hundred dram. Here, they call the places where people sell and buy cereals such as lentils, chickpeas, barley, wheat as arasa (bazaar). This place is quite wide, those who have cereals to sell and the peasants bring their goods here in heaps. When they sell something, they measure the weight with big boxes like tankards. These are made of wood. They fill these boxes with shovels, measure and give. The boxes are of course made with certain measures. These measures are called rubla, carat, and steel. There are fixed scales that we know in grocery stores. They also use steelyard, but it is so few. Because, the cereals are on scales I wrote abouve, so they do not use the steelyard when they are in the bazaars. In grocery stores, they do not have more dirhems than they can sell one and a half, and finally two okas. For example, the villagers bring things such as wood and coal directly on mules or donkeys, the coals are in sacks, and the wood is just loaded and tied up, so they are negotiated and sold as they are, that is, these are never sold on measure, for this reason the steelyard is not that important and is rarely used.

Source: Müşfika Abdulkadir