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

2. The Advent of Americans: Traders and Privateers
2. 1. American Mediterranean Trade
Stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar in the west to the shores of Asia
Minor in the east, the markets on both flanks of the Sea were particularly
profitable for European traders. They were even more lucrative for North
American merchants and shipowners who were shielded by the treaties of
England with the regional powers. By the second half of the 18 th century, time
at which Great Britain closed its imperial markets to American trade, the
Muslim ports situated on the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean
represented few of the world’s free markets that remained open to American
merchants. Those ports had not yet fallen to the domination of any of the major
European colonial powers even though the latter had largely infiltrated the
region since the 16 th
and early 17 th century. The various capitulations had
offered generous concessions and privileges to France, England, and The
Netherlands. 46
They made trade even more advantageous for Europeans,
especially if we know that the maritime carriers and merchants were
exclusively Christians and that the local brokers were non-Muslims—
particularly Jews in the case of Algiers—because Muslim ships were forbidden
from flying their national flag in European ports. 47
By the time of the Declaration of Independence, the Americans had
already developed a substantial trade in the Mediterranean, an area where they
46 Harlaftis, “Ottoman State, Finance and Maritime Trade,” p. 17.
47 Daniel Panzac, “International and Domestic Maritime Trade in the Ottoman Empire during the 18 th
Century,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 24: 2 (May, 1992), p. 193-94.
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