the British Levant: Trade and Perceptions of Ottoman Empire Eighteenth Century in Bloomington, MN

For more than two centuries following its formation in 1581, the Levant Company enjoyed a monopoly of British trade with the Ottoman Empire and provided Britain's diplomatic representation at the Sultan's court and throughout the Ottoman territories. Rather than focusing on 'the Turkey trade' itself, or on the merchants who engaged in it, Christine Laidlaw examines the supporting cast of Britons - officials, clergymen, physicians and accompanying family members - who lived and worked alongside the merchants at the Company's three principal trading posts at Istanbul, Izmir and Aleppo during the eighteenth century. This unique perspective will be invaluable for historians of the eighteenth century and the Ottoman Empire.