Shared language and culture lowered transaction costs in Turkish-Central Asian trade

Evidence

Cultural commonality smoothed these economic relationships. As one Turkish businessman commented, “The most important thing for success in Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan is finding the right partner. For Turkish people, it is not so difficult. We have the same culture, more or less the same language, and we eat from the same kitchen.” — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 397

Categorization

• DEFINE: A concrete real-world instance of cultural proximity functioning as institutional lubricant, echoing the law-merchant social-capital material I’ve marked before.