Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

Europe and Algiers. 112 More, as neutral carriers, they even reversed the pre-war
tendencies when they became trusted carriers between the different European
ports. Hamdan Ben Uthman Khodja, a native of Algiers from Turkish origins,
is illustrative of that flourishing and wealthy new merchant class. Besides
carrying between Algiers and Europe, he even succeeded in establishing a
small caravan of ships that linked the different southern European ports from
Leghorn to Cadiz passing by Marseille. 113
Unfortunately, such commercial activity was condemned to failure not
because of incompetence on the part of Algerian merchants but because, once
peace reestablished after the Napoleonic wars, the Europeans renewed their
centuries-old hostility towards Muslims. Quickly, Muslim merchants faced a
new kind of warfare: commercial warfare. Administrative troubles, abusive
taxes, sequestration of merchant ships, confiscation of freight, or simply
official denial of access to European ports of Muslim merchant ships acted as a
shield to prevent Muslim access to European markets. 114
All were hostile
measures meant for discouraging Muslim commerce. Meanwhile, commerce of
other Ottoman but Christian regencies continued undisturbed. Greek maritime
trade, for example, which emerged at the same period as that of Algiers,
developed spectacularly because it was not submitted to similar troubles. 115
112 Tuchscherer, “Daniel Panzac,” p. 487.
113 He set up a ‘caravan of ships’ that was active along the southern coast of Europe from Leghorn to
Cadiz. Amine, “Commerce Extérieur et Commerçants d’Alger,” pp. 339-41.
114
Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, pp. 217-20; Delmasso, “La peur des corsaires barbaresques,” p.
52.
115 Gelina Harlaftis and Sophia Laiou, “Ottoman state policy in Mediterranean Trade and Shipping,
1780-1820: The Rise of the Greek-Owned Ottoman Merchant Fleet,” in Mark Mazower, ed. Networks
of Power in Modern Greece (New York: Hurst, 2008), pp. 1-31.
153