The factories of the Levant Company, english territorial dependencies in the empire of the Great Turk
Résumé
Founded by a charter of Queen Elizabeth the first in 1592, the Levant Company received at
its creation a commercial monopoly on the eastern part of the mediterranean sea. This
Company is a regulated corporation, that means, every merchant trades for his own account.
In order to allow its merchants to trade in the Levant, the commercial company did create
some trade posts in the main ottoman cities like Smyrna, Aleppo and Constantinople. These
English commercial places in the ottoman world have a name, factories. Two questions may
arise :
What was the relationship between the factories and the cities and territories of the Ottoman
Empire ?
What was the relationship of the English merchants with the local ones ?
To answer the first question, in terms of urban space, the factories are fully integrated inside
the ottoman cities. Most of them are near the harbor, for example, the factory of
Constantinople is in Pera, and the one in Smyrna is near the docks, the exception is the factory
of Alep, for obvious reason, it cannot be near the sea, so the company did buy a warehouse in
Scanderone in order to bring the merchandises in Aleppo. The factories, for the biggest one
of them are a neighborhood which are articulated around the house of the consul (the actor
who supervises the factory and the merchants in it, he is appointed by the commercial
company, his house belongs to the company). The other buildings of the factory are the
church, the warehouses and the houses of the different merchants and their apprentices. A
factory is both a place to trade and to live.
For the question of the relationship between English merchants and the local ones, the
Levant Company as it was said, every merchant trades for his own account with his own
capital. So most of them, or their apprentices who work in the Levant are in contact with the local merchants. They are directly doing business with them, even if, most of the time, it is
limited to Greeks and Armenian merchants. These dealers are the brokers that allow the
English merchants to sell their clothes (the main product sold by the English in the Levant)
and to obtain in exchange silk or spices. The contacts between them are however quite
limited to the business relations. Most of the time, the English merchants stayed in the
factory. But there are exceptions, some Englishmen marry local women (even if he does so, is
no longer protected by the English privilege.)
To conclude, the factories are some English neighborhoods inside the ottoman cities. From
these places, they are trading with the ottoman brokers, but they are also living next to them,
but not with them.