This is a paper on the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (OCM) Ltd, established in Izmir/Smyrna in 1907. It is based on the Private Papers of the company; the British financial press; archival documents from the French Ministry of Finance as well as inter-ministerial political and consular correspondence from the French National Archives (Paris) and French Diplomatic Archives (Nantes). Although incorporated abroad the company, which constitutes the biggest local company in the city’s late Ottoman history, represented the interests of local businesses in the manufacturing and commercial sectors. In this manner the company showcases both the economic potential and level of economic development attained by the city at the time. As an Izmir-based successful global company --its business networks extended from India and the Caucuses to Mexico and Argentina-- the OCM engaged economic actors, organized production, used modern business practices and strategy as well as negotiated methods of financing its activities that placed it at the cutting edge of the sector, namely carpet making and retailing, globally. Whether the company was buying raw materials from eastern Anatolia or processing carpets for Macy’s clientele in New York City, it seemed equally adept. Through the economic space OCM dominated locally (Anatolia), and the manner it penetrated and interacted with markets internationally, we can gage the level of modernity and global mindset present in Izmir’s economy and its actors. Although carpet manufacturing has recently attracted attention and the historiography is now turning to the workforce (inter-confessional and mostly female), neither the company itself nor the organization and structure of the city’s carpet and related manufacturing sectors have been systematically studied. Yet OCM is pivotal in understanding the role, strength as well as adaptability together with the ability for innovation present in the city’s capitalists on the eve of WWI, features which have hitherto been erroneously credited only for western-based capitalists and economies. In so doing, the paper challenges the view that modernity came from the West and could not be nurtured locally.