OTTOMAN MERCHANTS IN DISPUTE WITH THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE AT THE END OF THE 16TH CENTURY: SOME GLANCES ON THE CONTESTED REGIME OF THE CAPITULATIONS (original) (raw)
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Résumé/Abstract Les traités («'ahdnames») entre l'Empire Ottoman et la Pologne au 16 ème siècle présentaient les conditions de sécurité et de protection pour le commerce et les commerçants des deux parties signataires. Ces traités leur assuraient un accès protégé par terre et mer, la sécurité de la personne et de la propriété, la liberté et la sécurité du commerce et certians privilèges juridiques. Les commerçants polonais bénéficiaient d'un statut spécial et d'un régime de faveur.
In the Modern Age from the 16th to the 18th c. international trade between Venice and Istanbul was not exclusively in Venetian hands. Ottoman ships sailed the Mediterranean and the Adriatic and foreign merchants used to buy and sell goods on the Rialto market and to frequent Dalmatian ports. Having so many contacts with Europeans, Ottoman merchants too began to become acquainted with the other’s legal institutions. They began to appoint agents or even consuls to represents themselves, to go to notaries instead of kadı to make wills or to sign proxies, to go to Venetian law courts to support their rights in cases of quarrels or inheritances and, last but not the least, also to take out an insurance to protect their goods or ships from the accidents that could happen at sea. Using Venetian documents kept in the Venetian State Archives this paper aims to present some example of deeds of this kind made by Ottoman Muslim subjects.
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The aim of this paper is to study the presence of Muslim merchants in Venice in the Modern Age with a special focus on the maritime insurances they made to protect their goods. First of all we must stress the fact that, in the 16th and 17th c., the Ottomans who traded in Venice were not alone but could make reference to a real commercial network. Moreover, to regulate their business they could go to kadıs, before leaving their country, but also, later, to Venetian notaries. Notarial deeds give us information on shipping partnerships, family companies, grandees involved in international trade and on companies of merchants both in Istanbul and Venice. The oldest witness of an insurance made by an Ottoman Muslim dates back to 1559: it was made by the agent of the great admiral Piyale pasha, the money was paid in Ancona but it was made by Venetian insurers. Other documents dating back to the following period show that Ottoman merchants were more and more involved in insurances and that, in the 18th c., to ensure goods became quite common when they decided to go to Venice. In his book about business partnership Murat Çizakça (A Comparative Evolution of Business Partnership. The Islamic World and Europe, with Specific Reference to the Ottoman Archives, Brill, Leiden, 1996) states: “In the Ottoman case, it can be presumed that an effective maritime insurance did not exist. Certainly, not a single document has been found to indicate the contrary.” Documents still kept in the Venetian State Archives tell us that Ottomans could use Venetian insurers and also agree to make insurances in front of a kadı. Ancient historiographical theories say that in the Modern Age Ottoman Muslims were not interested in international trade and that they left it completely in Christian and Jewish hands, but documents tell us a completely different story, a story of contacts, exchanges, and even confidence and friendship. (paper presented to EBHA - Ancona 2018 but not delivered because I could not attend to the conference)
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