Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:20:19.258Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Capitulations and Western trade

from PART V - MAKING A LIVING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Suraiya N. Faroqhi
Affiliation:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
Get access

Summary

Western trade in the Ottoman Empire: questions, issues and sources

The issue of Western trade and that of its legal framework, the capitulations, has always been viewed as crucial in the understanding of certain transformations undergone by the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The implicit argument behind these statements is that, in the long run, Western trade and economic presence in the Levant has worked towards the gradual integration of the Ottoman Empire into an economic system that came to be dominated by Western powers. This integration, in turn, has generally been described in rather negative terms, ranging from (Ottoman) passivity to signs of an impending domination of the Ottoman economy by the commercial and industrial supremacy of Europe. In that sense, it is rather striking that most scenarios concerning the evolution of Western trading activity in the eastern Mediterranean basin tend to reinforce the often-criticised vision of decline applied to the Ottoman Empire as a whole and, more particularly, to its military and diplomatic performance against the growing power of Western nations. Political and diplomatic in essence as it may have been, the Eastern Question is inextricably linked to the outcome of over three centuries of commercial interaction between Europe and the Ottomans.

This, one may argue, is even truer of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While the sixteenth century is generally associated with the emergence of the Ottoman capitulatory regime and the granting of the first commercial ‘privileges’ to the French and the English, the implicit understanding is that these treaties were granted out of a combination of a self-assured magnanimity and a desire to forge durable political alliances with certain Western powers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aghassian, Michel and Kévonian, Kéram, ‘Le commerce arménien dans l’Océan indien aux 17e et 18e siècles’, in Marchands et hommes d’affaires asiatiques dans l’Océan indien et la mer de Chine: 13e–20e siècles, ed. Lombard, Denys and Aubin, Jean, Paris, 1988Google Scholar
Arbel, Benjamin, Trading Nations: Jews and Venetians in the Early Modern Eastern Mediterranean, Leiden, New York and Cologne, 1995Google Scholar
Bağış, Ali İhsan, Osmanlı ticaretinde gayri Müslimler. Kapitülasyonlar – Avrupa tüccarları-beratlı tüccarlar–Hayriye tüccarları (1750–1839), Ankara, 1983Google Scholar
Barkan, Ömer Lûtfi, ‘The Price Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: A Turning Point in the Economic History of the Near East’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (1975)Google Scholar
Bosscha-Erdbrink, Gerard R., At the Threshold of Felicity: Ottoman–Dutch Relations During the Embassy of Cornelis Calkoen at the Sublime Porte, 1726–1744, Ankara, 1975Google Scholar
Carrière, Charles, Négociants marseillais au XVIIIe siècle, 2 vols., Marseilles, 1973Google Scholar
Carrière, Charles and Courdurié, Marcel, ‘Un sophisme économique: Marseille s’ enrichit en achetant plus qu’elle ne vend (Réflexions sur les mécanismes commerciaux levantins au XVIIIe siècle)’, in Histoire, Economie et Société, 3,1 (1984)Google Scholar
Carrière, Charles, Courdurié, Marcel, Gutsatz, Michel and Squarzoni, Rene, Banque et capi-talisme commercial. La lettre de change au XVIIIe siècle, Marseilles, 1976Google Scholar
Carter, Francis W., Dubrovnik (Ragusa): A Classic City-State, London and New York, 1972Google Scholar
Cernovodeanu, Paul, ‘The General Condition of English Trade in the Levant in the Second Half of the 17th and at the Beginning of the 18th Century’, Revue des Etudes Sud-Est Européennes 5, 3–4 (1967)Google Scholar
Çizakça, Murat, ‘Incorporation of the Middle East into the European World Economy’, Review 8, 3 (1985)Google Scholar
Çizakça, Murat, ‘Price History and the Bursa Silk Industry: A Study in Ottoman Industrial Decline (1550–1650)’, Journal of Economic History 40, 3 (1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling, Linda T., ‘Capitulations’, in The Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, 4 vols., ed. Esposito, John L., Oxford, 1995, vol. IGoogle Scholar
Davis, Ralph, ‘English Imports from the Middle East, 1580–1780’, in Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East, ed. by Cook, Michael A. (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar
Davis, Ralph, Aleppo and Devonshire Square: English Traders in the Levant in the Eighteenth Century, London, Melbourne and Toronto, 1967CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldem, Edhem, French Trade in Istanbul in the Eighteenth Century, Leiden, 1999Google Scholar
Eldem, Edhem, Goffman, Daniel and Masters, Bruce, The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir and Istanbul, Cambridge, 1999Google Scholar
Epstein, Mark Alan, The Ottoman Jewish Communities and their Role in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Freiburg, 1980Google Scholar
Faroqhi, Suraiya, ‘The Venetian Presence in the Ottoman Empire, 1600–30’, in The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy, ed. İslamoğlu-İnan, Huri, Cambridge, 1987Google Scholar
Frangakis-Syrett, Elena, The Commerce of Smyrna in the Eighteenth Century (1700–1820), Athens, 1992Google Scholar
Fukasawa, Katsumi, Toilerie et commerce du Levant, d’Alep à Marseille, Paris, 1987Google Scholar
GenÇ, Mehmet, ‘Osmanlı iktisadî dünya görüşünün ilkeleri’, İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyoloji Dergisi 1 (1989)Google Scholar
GenÇ, Mehmet, ‘Osmanlı Imparatorluğu’nda devlet ve ekonomi’, V. Milletlerarası Türkiye sosyal ve iktisat tarihi kongresi. Tebliğler, Ankara, 1991Google Scholar
GenÇ, Mehmet, ‘A Study of the Feasibility of Using Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Financial Records as an Indicator of Economic Activity’, in The Ottoman Empire and the World-Economy, ed. Islamoğlu-İnan, Huri, Cambridge, 1987Google Scholar
Genç, Mehmet, ‘18. yüzyılda Osmanlı sanayii’, Dünü ve Bugünüyle Toplum ve Ekonomi 2 (September 1991)Google Scholar
Genç, Mehmet, ‘A Comparative Study of the Life Term Tax Farming Data and the Volume of Commercial and Industrial Activities in the Ottoman Empire during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century’, in Les villes balkaniques et sud-est européennes et la révolution industrielle de l’Europe occidentale, Sofia, 1976Google Scholar
Goffman, Daniel, Britons in the Ottoman Empire 1642–1660, Seattle and London, 1998Google Scholar
Goffman, Daniel, ‘The Capitulations and the Question of Authority in Levantine Trade 1600–1650’, Journal of Turkish Studies 10 (1986)Google Scholar
Goffman, Daniel, Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550–1650, Seattle and London, 1990Google Scholar
Inalcik, Halil, ‘The Ottoman State: Economy and Society, 1300–1600’, in An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914, ed. Inalcik, Halil and Quataert, Donald (Cambridge, 1994)Google Scholar
Inalcik, Halil, ‘Ottoman Galata, 1453–1553’, in Première rencontre internationale sur l’Empire ottoman et la Turquie moderne, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales; Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 18–22 janvier 1985. I:Reachers sur la ville ottomane: Le cas du quartier de Galata. II: La vie politique, économique et socio-culturelle de l’Empire ottoman à l’époque jeune-turque, ed. Eldem, Edhem, Istanbul, 1991Google Scholar
Inalcik, Halil, ‘When and How British Cotton Goods Invaded the Levant Markets’, in The Ottoman Empire and the World-Economy, ed. İIslamoğlu-İnan, Huri, Cambridge, 1987Google Scholar
Kafadar, Cemal, ‘A Death in Venice (1575): Anatolian Muslim Merchants Trading in the Serenissima’, Raiyyet Rüsûmu. Essays Presented to Halil İ nalcık on his Seventieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students. Journal of Turkish Studies 10 (1986)Google Scholar
Khachikian, Levon, ‘Le registre d’un marchand arménien en Perse, en Inde et au Tibet (1692–1693)’, Annales 22, 2 (March–April 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, Paul, Histoire du commerce français dans le Levant au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1896Google Scholar
Masson, Paul, Histoire du commerce français dans le Levant au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1911Google Scholar
Masters, Bruce, The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East: Mercantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo, 1600–1750, New York, 1988Google Scholar
Morineau, Michel, ‘Naissance d’une domination. Marchands européens, marchands et marchés du Levant aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles’, in Commerce de gros, commerce de détail dans les pays méditerranéens [XVIe–XIXe siècles]. Actes desjournées d’études. Bendor 25–26 avril1975, Nice, 1976Google Scholar
Ohsson, Ignatius Mouradgea d’, Tableau général de l’empire othoman, 7 vols., Paris, 1787–1824; also 3 vols., Paris, 1787–1820Google Scholar
Pamuk, Şevket, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge, 2000Google Scholar
Panzac, Daniel, Commerce et navigation dans l’empire ottoman au XVIIIe siècle, Istanbul, 1996Google Scholar
Paris, R., Histoire du commerce de Marseille, vol. V: De 1660 à 1789. Le Levant, Paris, 1957Google Scholar
Pélissié du Rausas, G., Le régime des capitulations dans l’Empire ottoman, 2 vols., Paris, 1902Google Scholar
Roure, C., ‘La réglementation du commerce français du Levant sous l’ambassade du marquis de Villeneuve, 1728–1741’, in Filippini, J.-P., Meignen, L., Roure, C., Sabatier, D. and Stéphanidès, G., Dossiers sur le commerce français en Méditerranée orientale au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1976Google Scholar
Sagredo, Agostino and Berchet, Federico, Il Fondaco dei Turchi in Venezia, Milan, 1860Google Scholar
Steensgaard, Niels, ‘Consuls and Nations in the Levant from 1570 to 1650’, Scandinavian Economic History Review 15 (1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoianovich, Traian, ‘The Conquering Balkan Orthodox Merchant’, Journal of Economic History 20 (1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoianovich, Traian, ‘Land Tenure and Related Sectors of the Balkan Economy’, Journal of Economic History 13, 4 (1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoianovich, Traian, ‘Pour un modèle du commerce du Levant: économie concurrentielle et économie de bazar, 1500–1800, Istanbul à la jonction des cultures balkaniques, méditerranéennes, slaves et orientales’, AIESEE Bulletin 12,1 (1974)Google Scholar
Svoronos, Nicholas, Le commerce de Salonique au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1956Google Scholar
Vandal, Albert, L’Odyssée d’un ambassadeur. Les voyages du marquis de Nointel (1 670–1680), Paris, 1900Google Scholar
Veinstein, Gilles, ‘Ayan de la région d’Izmir et le commerce du Levant (deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle)’, Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 20, 2 (1975)Google Scholar
Veinstein, Gilles, ‘On the Çiftlik Debate’, in Landholding and Commercial Agriculture in the Middle East, ed. Keyder, Çaǧlar and Tabak, Faruk, Albany, 1991Google Scholar
Vercellin, Giorgio, ‘Mercanti turchi e sensali a Venezia’, Studi Veneziani 4 (1980)Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel, Decdeli, Hale and Kasaba, Reşat, ‘The Incorporation of the Ottoman empire into the World-Economy’, in The Ottoman Empire and the World-economy, ed. İslamoğlu-İnan, Huri, Cambridge, 1987Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×