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The Legal Foundations of the Commercial Relations Between The bilig SPRING 2014 / NUMBER 69 53-74 The Legal Foundations of the Commercial Relations between The Ottomans and Neapolitans Mehmet Demiryürek Abstract Having gained the ahdname, ahdname-i hümâyûn or capitula- tion, a European nation was permitted to establish an embassy in Istanbul and consulates in the ports of the Ottoman Em- pire. In 1740, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies gained an ahdname as a result of the attempts made by her king. The aims of this study are: to evaluate the capitulation of 1740 granted to Sicilyateyn, to identify the early ambassadors of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and their dragomen in the Ot- toman capital and to explain the concept called hadd-i itidal concerning the dragomen from the Ottoman point of view in the 18th century. The evidence used is derived principally from the records of the Nicosia qadi’s court and of the Otto- man Prime Ministry archives in Istanbul. Keywords Cyprus, Ottoman, Neapolitan, trade, dragoman, capitulation Introduction There were five main actors as regards the commercial relations between the Ottomans and the European nations in the 18th century; capitulations, ambas- sadors, consuls, dragomen and dragomen’s servants. The capitulations were granted by the Ottomans. Ambassadors were appointed by the European kings and the rest of the actors were commissioned by the ambassadors in the Ottoman capital. This study will focus on the Neapolitan ambassadors and their dragomen in the Ottoman capital in the 18th century. Therefore, it is the _____________ Prof. Dr., Hitit University, Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of History – Çorum / Turkey [email protected] 53 • bilig SPRING 2014 / NUMBER 69 • Demiryürek, The Legal Foundations of the Commercial Relations between… • aim of the present study to describe the main legal structure of the commer- cial relations between the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Ottomans in the 18th century. For this reason, an attempt has been made to reveal the legal foundation of the Ottoman-Neapolitan commercial intercourses, on the basis of the capitulation of 1740, as they appeared from the Ottoman point of view. This period is of considerable interest in the economic history of the Mediterranean, in that the new European actors, such as Sweden, the King- dom of the Two Sicilies, Denmark, Prussia, Russia and Spain began to enter the Mediterranean world and played an important role in both the economic and political life of the Mediterranean world, by gaining capitulation from the Ottomans, founding their own consulates in the Ottoman ports, and conse- quently sharing an interest in Mediterranean trade. The European nations gaining capitulation in the 18th century were Sweden (1737), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1740), Denmark (1757), Prussia (1761), Russia (1774) and Spain (1782). Boogert (2005: 7) added the Habsburg Empire (1718) and Tuscany (1747) to the list. These European nations instituted their own con- sulates in some Ottoman ports such as Smyrna, Aleppo (via Alexandretta), Larnaca (Cyprus), Durres, Morea, Chios, Salonika and Athens. When the European merchants visited these ports and encountered a problem, they used to apply to their consulate and the consul or vice-consul used to solve their problems. The merchants visiting those ports had to pay a tax to the consul, called konsülato (consulage) (Wood 1964: 209). The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the third European nation gaining capitulation from the Ottomans in the first part of the 18th century and began to found its own consulates in Ottoman ports under the ahdname of 1740. These developments were the result of the attempts of her King, Don Carlos (Subhi 2007: 618). The capitulation granted to Naples also had a significant and different structure owing to its articles. The prior capitulations granted to France, England, the Netherlands and Sweden were not bilateral, but the Naples capitulation was. Therefore, the Naples capitulation of 1740 seems to us to be the first ahdname providing similar privileges for both a European nation and the subjects of the Ottoman bilaterally, except for the Venetian capitulation of 1718. In addition, this capitulation treaty was published by Francesco Ricciardi and Gabriel Noradounghian in Italian and French respectively (D’amora 2004: 717). As far as is known, it has not been published or summarized in English yet. Therefore, it has been attempted to summarize the Naples capitula- tion of 1740 in English and to compare it with the Sweden capitulation of 1737, and the Denmark capitulation of 1757 and the Germany (Prussia) capitulation of 1761 on the basis of bilateralness. On the other hand, 54 • bilig • Demiryürek, The Legal Foundations of the Commercial Relations between… • SPRING 2014/ NUMBER 69 Turan’s (1993) and D’amora’s researches (2004) are important. The first examines the diplomatic relations between Naples and the Ottomans in the mid-18th century on the basis of the visiting Naples by the representa- tive of the Ottomans, Hüseyin Efendi, and the second contained the Gümrük Tarife Defterleri (customs tariff registers) dated 1801 and 1851. Although Uzunçarşılı’s (1983) study revealed some significant findings related to the diplomatic relations between the Ottomans and Neapoli- tans, it does not include commercial relations and therefore, it can be said that it was a useful short introduction to the diplomatic relations between the two states. One can see very little findings germane to the commercial relations between the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and Ottoman Empire and dragomen of European Embassy in Istanbul in Çiçek’s (1996), Çevikel’s (2000), Erdoğru’s and Özkul’s (2005, 2011 and 2013) researches. The article called “İmtiyazât” by İnalcık (1986) was not included any state- ment of the Neapolitan Capitulation of 1740. It is clear that very little is known regarding commercial relations between the Ottomans and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Therefore, it is of interest to find out the legal foundation of the commercial relations between the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Ottomans under the ahdname of 1740. In this re- spect, in this present study the ahdname granted by the Ottoman sultan to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1740 relating to commerce and the privileges of the consuls will be examined. The Ottomans and Neapolitans Prior to 1740, the Neapolitan and Sicilian merchants traded under the French, Dutch and Austrian flag in the Levant in the 16th, 17th and 18th cen- turies respectively. Although the French capitulation of 1569 did not include any article concerning the Neapolitan and Sicilian merchants, a new article was added in 1581. According to it, the Sicilian merchants could trade under the French flag in the Ottoman ports (İnalcık 2000: 244). The French capitu- lation of 1673 also emphasized this right (MM, vol.1, 2008: 13). However, according to a registration in the Felemenk Ahkâm Defteri (the Netherlands Register) in the Ottoman Archives, the merchants from Çiçilya and Messina traded under the Dutch flag in Albanian ports and they paid the customs tax like the Dutch. (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Düvel-i Ecnebiye Defterleri (hereafter BOA, DED), Defter no: 22/1, p.71, hüküm no: 271). The records of the French consulate in Cyprus also confirm that there were commercial relations between Cyprus and Naples and Sicily in the latter half of the 17th century (Louzidou 1991: 276, Louzidou 1995: 90, 146, 153, 307, 359). In 1707, the Ottoman Sultan sent a rescript to the qadi of Smyrna so that the Sicilians and Messinians could trade under the French flag in Smyrna and pay 55 • bilig SPRING 2014 / NUMBER 69 • Demiryürek, The Legal Foundations of the Commercial Relations between… • the customs tax like the French merchants (İE.HR, Dosya no: 7, Gömlek no: 675). The Neapolitan, Sicilian and Messinian merchants traded under the Austrian flag in Ottoman ports throughout the 18th century (Elibol 2011: 181,186). The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its capital, Naples, was founded in 1734 (D’amora 2004: 718, Salvatorelli 1982: 584). Having gained its independence, the new king, Carlo di Borbone, attempted to develop the economic structure of the new state and on 7 April 1740, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies gained an ahdname from the Ottomans as a result of the attempts made by her king (D’amora 2004: 719, Turan 1993: 82, Uzun- çarşılı 1983: 239). Finocchietto, who conducted the peace negotiations between the Ottomans and Neapolitans in 1739-1740, was sent to Istan- bul by the king of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Don Carlos, as the first ambassador to Naples in 1740 (Uzunçarşılı 1983: 239). The central or local Ottoman sources called the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies generally Sicilyateyn (MM, vol: 1, 2008: 55; KŞS, Defter no: 17, p.6). In addition to this, the capitulation of 1740 called the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies İtalya Krallığı (The Kingdom of Italy) (MM, vol. 1, 2008: 63). On the other hand, the Ottoman rescripts made use of the name of Italian flag and Italian noblemen for Naples’ flag and Neapolitan consuls in the Ot- toman ports respectively. To illustrate, according to a rescript dated 29 October 1740, the Neapolitan consul in Smyrna was an Italian nobleman and his duty was to deal with the problems of merchants and subjects coming with their ships under the Italian flag (İtalya bayrağı altında gemil- eriyle gelen tüccâr ve reayasının umûr ve husûsların görmek) (BOA, A.DVNS.DVE.d, Defter no: 96/1, p.81, Hüküm no: 17). However, prior to the 19th century, Italy was not a single state or nation. It was the name of a country (Richards 2002: 4-5, 121) which included many states, such as Genoa, Venice, Tuscany and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
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