The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, as she was eager to maintain trade and political alliances with the Ottoman Empire.[1] Its initial charter was good for seven years and was granted to Edward Osborne, Richard Staper, Thomas Smith and William Garrard with the purpose of regulating English trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Levant. The company remained in continuous existence until being superseded in 1825. A member of the company was known as a Turkey Merchant.[2][3]
The origins of the Levant Company lay in the Italian trade with Constantinople, and the wars against the Turks in Hungary, although a parallel was routed to Morocco and the Barbary Coast on a similar trade winds as early as 1413.[4] The collapse of the Venetian empire, high tariffs, and the ousting of the Genoese from Scio (Chios)[5] had left a vacuum that was filled by a few intrepid adventurers in their own cog vessels with endeavour to reopen trade with the East on their own accounts.[6] Following a decline in trade with the Levant over a number of decades, several London merchants petitioned Queen Elizabeth I in 1580 for a charter to guarantee exclusivity when trading in that region.[7] In 1580 a treaty was signed between England and the Ottoman Empire, giving English merchants trading rights similar to those enjoyed by French merchants. In 1582, William Harborne, an English merchant who had carried out most of the treaty negotiations in Constantinople to French protestations, made himself permanent envoy. But by 1586 Harborne was appointed 'Her Majesty's ambassador' to the Ottoman Empire, with all his expenses (including gifts given to the Sultan and his court) to be paid by the Levant Company.[8]
The company had no colonial aspirations, but rather established "factories" (trading centers) in already-established commercial centers, such as the Levant Factory in Aleppo, as well as Constantinople, Alexandria and Smyrna. Throughout the company's history, Aleppo functioned as the central hub for the entire Middle East operations. By 1588, the Levant Company had been converted to a regulated monopoly on an established trade route, from its initial character as a joint-stock company. The prime movers in the conversion were Sir Edward Osborne and Richard Staper.
In January 1592, a new charter was granted and by 1595 its character as a regulated company had become clear.[9] In the early days of the company there were threats not just from Barbary pirates but also from Spain during the 1585 to 1604 war. In that conflict however the company with its heavily armed ships managed to repel the Spanish galleys intent on capturing the cargo in a number of pitched naval battles, in 1586, 1590, 1591 and 1600[10] The company as a result surrendered some of their ships to the English Crown and were used during the Spanish Armada campaign proving their worth.
James I (1603–25) renewed and confirmed the company's charter in 1606, adding new privileges.[11] However he engaged in a verbal anti-Turk crusade and neglected direct relations with the Turks. The government did not interfere with trade, which expanded. Especially profitable was the arms trade as the Porte modernised and re-equipped its forces. Of growing importance was textile exports. Between 1609 and 1619, the export of cloth to the Turks increased from 46% to 79% of total cloth exports. The business was highly lucrative. Piracy continued to be a threat. Despite the anti-Ottoman rhetoric of the king, commercial relations with the Turks expanded. The king's finances were increasingly based on the revenues derived from this trade, and English diplomacy was complicated by this trade. For example, James refused to provide financial support to Poland for its war against the Turks.[12]
During the English Civil War (1642–1651), some innovations were made in the government of the company, allowing many people to become members who were not qualified by the charters of Elizabeth and James, or who did not conform to the regulations prescribed. Charles II, upon his restoration, endeavored to set the company upon its original basis; to which end, he gave them a charter, containing not only a confirmation of their old one, but also several new articles of reformation.[citation needed]
Organisation in 1661
By the charter of King Charles II in 1661, the company was erected into a body politic, capable of making laws, under the title of the Company of Merchants of England trading to the Seas of the Levant. The number of members was not limited, but averaged about 300. The principal qualification required was that the candidate be a wholesale merchant, either by family, or by serving an apprenticeship of seven years. Those under 25 years of age paid 25 pounds at their admission; those above, twice as much. Each made an oath, at his entrance, not to send any merchandise to the Levant, except on his own account; and not to consign them to any but the company's agents, or factors. The company governed itself by a plurality of voices.[13]
The company had a court, or board at London, composed of a governor, sub-governor, and twelve directors, or assistants; who were all actually to live in London, or the suburbs. They also had a deputy-governor, in every city and port where there were any members of the company. This assembly at London sent out the vessels, regulated the tariff for the price at which the European merchandise sent to the Levant were to be sold; and for the quality of those returned. It raised taxes on merchandise, to defray impositions, and the common expense of the company; presented the ambassador, which the King was to keep at the port; elected two consuls for Smyrna and Constantinople, etc. As the post of ambassador to the Sublime Porte became increasingly important, the Crown had to assume control of the appointment.
One of the best regulations of the company was not to leave the consuls, or even the ambassador, to fix the impositions on the vessels for defraying the common expenses—something that was fatal to the companies of most other nations—but to allow a pension to the ambassador and consuls, and even to the chief officers—including the chancellor, secretary, chaplain, interpreters, and janissaries—so that there was no pretence for their raising any sum at all on the merchants or merchandises. It was true that the ambassador and consul might act alone on these occasions, but the pensions being offered to them on condition of declining them, they chose not to act.
In extraordinary cases, the consuls, and even ambassador himself, had recourse to two deputies of the company, residing in the Levant, or if the affair be very important, assemble the whole nation. Here were regulated the presents to be given, the voyages to be made, and every thing to be deliberated; and on the resolutions here taken, the deputies appointed the treasurer to furnish the required funds. The ordinary commerce of this company employed from 20 to 25 vessels, of between 25 and 30 pieces of cannon.
The merchandises exported there were limited in quality and range, suggesting an imbalance of trade; they included traditional cloths, especially shortcloth and kerseys, tin, pewter, lead, black pepper, re-exported cochineal, black rabbit skins and a great deal of American silver, which the English took up at Cadiz. The more valuable returns were in raw silk, cotton wool and yarn, currants and raisins, nutmeg, black pepper, indigo, galls, camlets, wool and cotton cloth, the soft leathers called maroquins, soda ash for making glass and soap, and several gums and medicinal drugs. Velvet, carpets, and silk were bought by the traders.[14]
Membership began declining in the early eighteenth century. In its decline the company was looked upon as an abuse, a drain on the resources of Britain. The company's purview was thrown open to free trade in 1754, but continued its activities until dissolution in 1825.
The name of the bird called 'turkey' came from the Turkey merchants.[17][18]
Turkish opium was bought by the Levant Company.[19][20]
The Levant Company encompassed American merchants before 1811 who bought Turkish opium. These merchants would sell the opium to the Chinese, beginning in 1806. Among these American Turkey merchants were members of the famous Astor family.[21][22]
Heraldry
Flag of the Levant Company
The arms of the Levant Company were: Azure, on a sea in base proper, a ship with three masts in full sail or, between two rocks of the second, all the sails, pennants, and ensigns argent, each charged with a cross gules, a chief engrailed of the third, in base a seahorse proper. * The crest was: On a wreath of the colours, a demi seahorse saliant.
↑ privateer merchant ships recorded as setting out from England included, Anne (1446), Katherine Sturmy (1457), (Lipson, Economic, I, p. 505); Antony (1478), Mary de Toowre (1482), (Power and Postan, p. 45.); Jesus of Lübeck (1552), Mary Gonson (1552), Williamson, (Maritime Entreprise, p. 223)
↑ The London Port Books from the 1560s and 1570s do not record any shipments by English merchants to or from the Levant, when Venice filled the role of intermediary and Antwerp retained its position as entrepôt. (Willan 1955:400ff.)
↑ Michael Strachan, "The life and Adventures of Thomas Coryate", OUP, 1962.
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References
Manuscripts
Fawkener, W (19 October 1790). Add MSS Memorandum (ff. 80–97): from the Office of the Committee of the Privy Council for trade) to the Dukes of Leeds on the Turkey Company trade.
Harley MSS, 306 Standing Ordinances of the Levant Company (ff. 72–74) c. 1590
Lansdowne MSS. 60 Petition of the Turkey and Venice Merchants to be incorporated into one body (f.8) c. 1590–91
MSS Bodleian Library Folio 665, (i List of the Membership of The Levant Company, 1701 (ff. 97–98)
British Museum, 1718. Paragraphs of Some Letters to Prove the Reasonablness of The Levant Company 's late order to carry on their trade by general ships, Bodleian Pamphlets, Folio 666, ff. 288–89.
1718–1719, The Case of The Levant Company, British Museum. 351–356, 6(40)
1825, Proceedings of The Levant Company respecting the Surrender of their Charters, BM6/6259
Sources
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian 1581–1591
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic 1547–1580
Bent, J. T. (October 1890). "The English in The Levant Company". English Historical Review. 5.
Epstein, M. (1908). The Early History of the Levant Company. London; New York: George Routledge & Sons; Dutton. Retrieved 23 October 2017. Covers the years of the periodic charterers, 1581–1605 and the permanent charter to 1640.
Eysturlid, Lee W. (Winter 1993). "Where Everything is Weighed in the Scales of Material Interest: Anglo-Turkish Trade, Picary, and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean during the Jacobean Period". Journal of European Economic History. 22 (3).
Lans-Poole, S. (1833). The Life of Stratford Canning. Vol.2 vols. London.
Mather, James (2009). Pashas: Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World. Yale University Press. ISBN978-0300170917.
Laidlaw, Christine (2010). The British in the Levant: Trade and Perceptions of the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century. Library of Ottoman Studies. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN978-1848853355.
Paterson, James (2003). "Levant Company". Literature of Travel and Exploration. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN1579584241.
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