The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

144 ~ THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WORLD AROUND IT ~
the notorious storms of the Black Sea. 50 Those who planned to visit Anatolia or
Aleppo might avoid the costs of a stay in Istanbul by transiting through the Black
Sea ports of Trabzon, Samsun or Sinop. But the considerable funds that such
merchants carried might make them vulnerable targets: thus in 984/1576–7, the
Ottoman authorities struggled to clear up a case of robbery and murder whose
victims were two Polish merchants carrying gold coins and woollens to Aleppo.
Apparently the richness of these goods had struck the brother of the customs official
in the port of Sinop, who seems to have found himself partners in crime
among some merchants and truant medrese students. It would be good to know
where the stolen woollens, which were retrieved at least in part, had been manufactured,
but our texts are of no help in this matter. 51 A certain number of the
merchants importing textiles into Poland were domiciled in the Ottoman Black
Sea port of Kefe/Kaffa/Feodosia. Judging from the names, some of them were
Slavs, while others seem to have been German-speaking; we do not know
whether these men had started out as subjects of the king of Poland, but it is
possible. 52
~ Merchants from the lands of a (doubtful) ally: France
Ottoman sultans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were interested in
friendly relations with rulers perceived as actual or potential allies in the struggle
against the Habsburgs. 53 Capitulations granting privileges to foreign merchants
were typically issued in this context. In a sense, this was applicable even to Venice,
whose government in this period felt particularly threatened by the Spanish
presence in Naples and Milan, and thus was interested in a modus vivendi with
the Ottoman Empire. 54 But the first Christian partner of the Ottomans in western
Europe was King François I of France, whose alliance with Süleyman the Magnificent
included provisions for the safety of French merchants on Ottoman
territory. 55 Several times in the seventeenth century, the ‘understanding’ between
the French and Ottoman rulers showed signs of considerable strain. 56 Yet conflict
was contained, and in the period under discussion here, there never was any war
between the Ottoman Empire and France.
However, in the sixteenth century, and even during the first half of the seventeenth,
there were not many French merchants who actually availed themselves
of the opportunities provided by the Franco-Ottoman ‘special relationship’. At
first the so-called wars of religion and the civil war following the extinction of
the royal house of Valois ruined the trade of Lyons, at that time the commercial
centre of France. As a result the Italian bankers who had financed Lyons’ economic
activities either returned home or else sought assimilation into the French
aristocracy. 57 Once Henri IV of the Bourbon dynasty had gained recognition as
king of France, there was a brief period of commercial revival, reflected in a
renewal of the capitulations (1604/1012–13). But the murder of this ruler in