The Ottoman Empire was one of the most important markets of the nineteenth century for European producers of manufactured goods. European merchants who sought a place in the market increased their chance for success when they adopted certain practices. These included selling inexpensive products, allowing for payment in installments, eliminating the middleman if the market allowed, and if not, working with an appropriate local agent, providing credit opportunities to Ottoman merchants and quoting prices for finished products that included cost, insurance and freight (c.i.f.), using French in transactions and in advertising, taking advantage of commercial travelers and conducting adequate preliminary market research. The merchants of other European countries were more successful than English merchants in adopting these practices. It might thus be suggested that this situation contributed to the increase in the shares of certain other European countries in Ottoman imports at the expense of England during the period under consideration.