North African merchant networks of the western Mediterranean: New approaches to the nineteenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines recent attempts to write the history of Moroccan merchant networks in the western Mediterranean corridor in the nineteenth century. Morocco was not formally colonized until 1912, but the second half of the nineteenth century was a period of rapid political, cultural, and economic change in Morocco as European imperial powers intensified their rivalry for commercial and political predominance on the southern shore of the western Mediterranean. This is particularly true following a series of new treaty agreements with European powers in the 1850s and 1860s and after a disastrous military defeat by Spain in 1860 that plunged the Moroccan state into debt. The historiography of the period, however, has tended to focus on the role of European consuls and merchants to the neglect of their Moroccan counterparts. Looking at a variety of North African merchant families situated in several Mediterranean port cities, this article highlights their role in weaving Morocco more tightly into global and regional patterns of trade. It also points out still existing gaps in our historical knowledge of these influential groups and suggests a few avenues for future study.