Trading with the Ottomans: The Levant Company in the Middle East

363 Pages·2015·3.261 MB·English

by  Despina Vlami

Despina Vlami has a PhD in history and civilisation from the
EuropeanUniversityInstituteinFlorence.SheisSeniorResearcherat
the Academy of Athens where she directs a research programme on
trade and diplomacy in the eastern Mediterranean.

TRADING
WITH THE
OTTOMANS
The Levant Company in the Middle East
D V
ESPINA LAMI
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LibraryofOttomanStudies49
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To Stefania and Maria

CONTENTS
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Part 1 Foundation – Organisation – Dissolution
1. The Foundation of a Chartered Company 13
2. A ‘Body Corporate and Politick’: The Levant
Company’s Organisation 31
3. Later Years: Corporate Organisation, Individual
Interests and National Identity 43
Part 2 Corporate and Individual Strategies:
The Transition from Monopoly to Free Trade
4. British Trade in the Levant: The Historical Background 87
5. New Trade Routes and Itineraries 96
6. New Partnerships: Trading with the Ottomans 157
7. Tariffs and Duties 198
Part 3 Entrepreneurial form and Strategy
8. Entrepreneurial Form 223
9. Strategy: Compliance and Deviation 233
viii TRADINGWITHTHEOTTOMANS
10. Transactions and Interactions in the Levant:
Bartholomew Edward Abbott, Luisa Vernon and the
Constantinople Factory 247
Part 4 Business, Social Identity and Everyday Life
11. The Abbott House 257
Epilogue 274
Notes 283
Bibliography 327
Index 335
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. Officials in the Levant factories in the eighteenth
to nineteenth centuries 63
Table 3.2. Destination of outward correspondence
of the Levant Company, 1790s–1825 77
Table 4.1. Balance of British trade with Turkey, 1793–1825 93
Table 5.1. Arrivals and departures (Constantinople–Malta),
February–April 1810 105
Table 5.2a. Cargoes of ships arriving at Constantinople from
Malta, February–April 1810 106
Table 5.2b. Cargoes of ships leaving Constantinople
for Malta, February–April 1810 109
Table 5.3. Preliminary sketch of the Black Sea navigation
and trade, by Alexander Straton, 1803 125
Table 5.4. Consular duties paid to the British consulate
in Salonica, April 1813–January 1814 136
Table 5.5. British consulate in Salonica: manifests of
cargoes, 1813–18 140
Table 5.6. Cargo of the Telemachus 150