Bruce Masters teaches history at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 06459, U.S.A.

Author's note: The research for this article was conducted with the support of an Islamic Civilization research grant provided by the Fulbright Program. I would also like to thank the staff of the Başbakanlik Arşivi in Istanbul and that of the Syrian National Archives in Damascus for their help and assistance.

¹ Bruce, Masters, The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East: Mercantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo, 1600–1750 (New York: New York University Press, 1988), 186–213.Google Scholar

² This is a subject that could use a modern study. For the basic research, see Nasim, Sousa, The Capitulatory Regime of Turkey: Its History, Origins and Nature (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1933).Google Scholar See also Peter, Sugar, “Economic and Political Modernization: B. Turkey,” in Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey, ed. Robert, Ward and Dankwart, Rustow (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964), 154–55;Google ScholarStanford, Shaw, Between Old and New (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), 177–79.Google Scholar

³ For a discussion of the problem see İhsan, Ali Bağiş, Osmanli Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler (Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi, 1983), 39–70.Google Scholar

⁴ lstanbul, Başbakanlik Arşivi (hereafter BBA), Cevdet Maliye 4332, Cemaziyevvel 1217/September 1803; Cevdet Maliye 18893, Müharrem 1222/ March 1807.

⁵ Avrupa tüccan, literally “Europe's merchant,” was an Ottoman abbreviated form of the official title, Avrupa ve Hindistan ve Acem tüccari (Europe, India, and Iran's merchant) while the term hayriye tüccari (merchant of goodness) was derived from the Ottoman phrase ehl-i hayr, people of goodness, that is. Muslims. I use an English plural of both terms rather than the Ottoman plural tüccarlari.

⁶ Bernard, Lewis, “Beratli,” Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2d ed. (El 2);Google ScholarThomas, Naff, “Ottoman Diplomatic Relations with Europe in the Eighteenth Century: Patterns and Trends,” in Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History, ed. Thomas, Naff and Roger, Owen (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1977), 103.Google Scholar

⁷ These were more often obtained from nations newly established in the Levant, rather than from the historic regional powers, Britain and France; see Reşat, Kasaba, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy: The Nineteenth Century (Albany: State University of New York, 1988), 71.Google Scholar The United States, for example, was said to have had 70,000 of its citizens resident in the empire by the time of the First World War. Gülnihāl, Bozkurt, Gayrimüslim Osmanli Vatandaşlarinin Hukukî Durumu (Ankara: Türk Tarihi Kurumu Basimevi, 1989), 152.Google Scholar

⁸ Quoted in Charles, Issawi, The Economic History of Turkey, 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 91.Google Scholar

⁹ lbid., 104–6.

¹⁰ Bozkurt, , Gayrimüslim Osmanlt Vatandaşlarinin Hukukī Durumu, 142;Google ScholarMübahat, Kütükoğlu, Osmanlt-lngiliz İktisâdî Münâsebetleri, I. (1580–1838) (Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştirma Enstitüsü, 1974), 73.Google Scholar

¹¹ Bağiş, , Osmanli Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler, 92. The orders establishing the institution in Aleppo were dated 15 Safer 1230/28 January 1815, Syrian National Archives, Damascus, series Aleppo/Awāmir al-Sulṭāniyya (henceforth Aleppo AS), 36:50–52.Google Scholar

¹² BBA, Kepici, Cizye Mühasebesi Defteri 3838. I was unable to see this particular register and am relying on the abstract presented in Bağiş, , Osmanlt Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler, 129–41.Google Scholar

¹³ BBA, Cevdet Maliye 27501.

¹⁴ BBA, Maliyeden Müdevver (henceforth MM) 21192, Müsvedde-i Rüsum-u Berevat.

¹⁵ An example of the patents establishing an Avrupa tüccarl, was published in Documents turcs pour l'histoire macedonienne, vol. 5 (Skopje: Institut de l'Histoire Nationale, 1958), 164–67.Google Scholar I thank Aleksander Fotić for the citation. The conditions of the patents are also discussed by Kütükoğlu, , Osmanliİngiliz iktisâdi Münâsebetleri, 73;Google ScholarMusa, çadirci, “II. Mahmut Döneminde (1808–1839) Avrupa Ve Hayriye Tüccarlari,” in Social and Economic History of Turkey (1071–1920), ed. Osman, Okyar and Haul, Inalcik (Ankara: Meteksan Limited Şirketi, 1980), 237–41.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Carter, Findley, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980), 24.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The term used in these documents was hizmetkâr, which is usually translated as “servant,” but it is clear from the description of the duties involved with the position that “agent” is a more appropriate translation.

¹⁸ See for example, BBA, Ecnebi Defter 106, doc. 117:50–51 (dated Evail-i Zilkade 12547sol;January 1839), in which an Avrupa tüccarl named Yusuf Veled Nasri applied to replace the lost firman of his agent Antepli Minas. The document was issued, but only after records for both the merchant and his agent were consulted and noted, and affidavits supporting the merchant's story were collected.

¹⁹ BBA, Ecnebi Defter 106, doc. 14, evasit Rebiyelevvel 1251/July 1835.

²⁰ John Barker, the British consul in Aleppo, had a different view. He saw the creation of imperially sponsored merchants as an attempt by the Porte to divert to the imperial coffers the large fees minority merchants were paying the European consuls for their be rats. Syria and Egypt Under the Last Five Sultans of Turkey, ed. Edward, Barker (London: Samuel Tinsley, 1876), 1:45–47.Google Scholar

²¹ There are many such cases recorded. See for example BBA, Cevdet Iktisâdî 1152, dated 7 Cemaziyelahir 1232/25 May 1817 on an overcharge on goods sent between Aleppo and Baghdad; Ecnebi Defter 106, docs. 100 and 127, for overcharges in Volos and Diyarbekir, respectively.

²² şevket, Pamuk, The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820–1913 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 29.Google Scholar

²³ BBA MM 21192:10. A copy of a patent issued in September 1839 and recorded in the same register had repeated the same formula that only a tax of 3 percent could be collected on imports or exports and all other imports by whatever name were strictly illegal.

²⁴ Aleppo, AS 45:13, dated Gürre Zilkada 1243/15 May 1828.

²⁵ See, for example, BBA. Cevdet Maliye 3530, 28 Cemaziyelahir 1237/22 March 1822.

²⁶ Charles, Issawi, “British Trade and the Rise of Beirut, 1830–1860,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 8 (1977): 91–101;Google ScholarTurgay, A. üner, “Trade and Merchants in Nineteenth-Century Trabzon: Elements of Ethnic Conflict,” in Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, ed. Benjamin, Braude and Bernard, Lewis (New York; Holmes & Meier, 1982), 1:287–318.Google Scholar

²⁷ BBA MM 21192:150, 156.

²⁸ Kütükoğlu, , Osmanli-Ingiliz lktisâdî Münâsebetleri, 71.Google Scholar

²⁹ BBA Ṣehbender registers. Findley, , Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 128–29.Google Scholar

³⁰ çadirci, “Avrupa Ve Hayriye Tüccarlari,” 239; Mehmet, Zeki Pakalin, Osmanli Deyimleri ve Terimleri (Istanbul: Milli Eğitim Basimevi, 1946), 1:782; this condition was listed in each individual's be-rat, for example, that establishing Rakabizadah al-Sayyid Muhammad çelebi in 1830; Aleppo AS 45:236.Google Scholar

³¹ Aleppo, AS 47:64.

³² See, for example, the berat establishing Hajj Ahmad walad ʿAbdullah; Aleppo AS 50:62–63.

³³ Masters, , Origins of Western Economic Dominance, 93–99.Google Scholar

³⁴ Necdet, Kurdakul, Osmanli Devleti'inde Ticaret AntlaŞmalarl ve Kapitülasyonlar (Istanbul: Döler Neƿriyat, 1981), 107–21, for text of the agreement.Google Scholar

³⁵ Kāmil, al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-dhahab fi tāʿrikh Ḥalab (Aleppo: Matbaʿʿah al-Kathulikiyya, 1923–1926), 3:311.Google Scholar Inalcik has traced the source of this to the histories written by Cevdet Paşa and Mustafa Kesbi. Halil, Inalcik, “lmtiyazat,” El 2.Google Scholar

³⁶ See for example the list from 1793, reproduced by BağiŞ, , Osmanli Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler, 111–15, which gives eighty-four names.Google Scholar

³⁷ Among others Aleppo Court Records, 45:75, 85:131–32; 87:216–17; Aleppo AS 42:53–54. Typical government responses are preserved in BBA, Cevdet Maliye, nos. 4332 and 18893.

³⁸ BBA, Cevdet Hariciye, 2514.

³⁹ BağiŞ, , Osmanli Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler, 84.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid., 85–86.

⁴¹ BBA Cevdet Hariciye 2784.

⁴² In an order issued in 1828, calling for more taxes to be levied in Aleppo, it was stated that the state of lawlessness that prevailed in Rumeli and the attacks upon the empire by Russia, Britain, and France required it. Aleppo AS 45:5.

⁴³ Aleppo AS 39:93 and 145; AS 43:21; AS 45:4, 134–37.

⁴⁴ AS 47:122.

⁴⁵ BBA, Maliye Nezarati Varidat (ML.VRD.) 1206.

⁴⁶ Aleppo AS 45:2 10.

⁴⁷ We learn this in testimony given to the qadi by one of the vekils. Aleppo AS 47:9.

⁴⁸ John, Bowring, Report on the Commercial Statistics of Syria (reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1973), 80.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Aleppo AS 50:71; AS 54:38–39.

⁵⁰ Aleppo, Court Records 236, 103.

⁵¹ BBA, ML.VRD. 399.

⁵² Aleppo AS 42:28: AS 44:128: AS 46:91–92; AS 47:21.

⁵³ Faruk, Tabak, “Local Merchants in Peripheral Areas of the Empire: The Fertile Crescent during the Long Nineteenth Century,” Review 11 (1988): 178–214.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ lssawi, , “British Trade and the Rise of Beirut, 1830–1860,” 98.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Damascus AS 2:120, 124.

⁵⁶ Bowring, , Commercial Statistics of Syria, 91.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Leila, Fawaz tells this story in Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth Century Beirut (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ The exclusion of Muslims was not universal. In the listing of illegal protégés drawn up in Aleppo in 1845, one Muslim merchant was identified as having Sardinian protection and another enjoyed that of the Netherlands.

⁵⁹ BBA, Ecnebi Defter 32:49, 77, 84.

⁶⁰ BBA MM 21192:57; Ecnebi Defter 106:107, 110, 116.

⁶¹ BBA MM 21192:35.

⁶² Fawaz, , Merchants and Migrants, 91–94.Google Scholar

⁶³ Bowring, , Commercial Statistics of Syria, 56.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ lssawi, , Fertile Crescent, 1800–1914, 269–70, 273.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Bozkurt, , Gayrimüslim Osmanlt VatandaŞlarinin Hukukî Durumu, 113.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ London, FO 861:82. Correspondence from Consul Werry to Ambassador Canning, 2 February 1850.

⁶⁷ BBA lrade Meclis-i Valâ 10164.

⁶⁸ Consul Skene to Sir H. Bulwer, 4 August 1860, contained in Bilâl, Şimşir, British Documents on Ottoman Armenians (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1982), 1:29–39.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ BBA, Kamil Kepeci Mühtelif 135, Genel Sayisi 852.

⁷⁰ BBA, Ecnebi Defter 43:45/doc. 142, 48/154, 51/161, 59/151, 76/253.

⁷¹ For a stimulating discussion of this disjuncture, see Feroz Ahmad, “Vanguard of a Nascent Bourgeoisie: The Social and Economic Policy of the Young Turks 1908–1918,” in Social and Economic History of Turkey (1071–1920), ed. Osman Okyar and Halil Inalcik.