Smyrna, Venice, and the Rise of Statute in Trade Regulation, 1619–1647

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the Levant Company’s developing presence in Smyrna in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1620s, 1630s, and 1640s. Working at the fringes of Ottoman state authority with the enthusiastic support of an immigrant community of brokers, the Sephardic dragomen, the Levant Company was able to deny the English state access to a resource of funding that it had an unquestioned right to. By working with local Sephardic Jewish merchants in Smyrna, the Levant Company merchants were able to expand their trade. As a regulated company, the Levant Company enjoyed a flexible structure that enabled members to pursue their own trades overseas. These members resorted to the corporate structure of the Company to protect the infrastructure of their trade and outmanoeuvre competition. They used the unsettled position of the English monarchy at home and the distance of the sultan in Istanbul to gain commercial advantage. Designed to facilitate the international aims of the English state, the Levant Company instead circumvented the political authority of both the English and the Ottoman states to advance its commercial career. By thwarting the English state’s attempts to sequester the Company’s taxes, the Levant Company worked to challenge the king’s long-held control over customs revenues. This set a precedent for shifting fiscal control of overseas trade from crown to parliament. The dragomen therefore protected the freedom of the Levant Company against the extractive instincts of the English crown and set a precedent for parliamentary intrusion into overseas trade regulation.