European merchants in l6th century Aleppo
Syria, History, 1/11/1999

At the beginning of the Turkish occupation of Syria, there were three thousand taxable villages in the region, then named 'Pashalik" of Aleppo, about three hundred years later there remained only four hundred.

Syria was thus entering a period of profound economic decadence when the French and English merchants began to arrive, a decadence which their activity counteracted only at specific places. The European trade which had brought them to Syria had also arisen to satisfy a taste for eastern luxuries developed during the Crusaders era, it only later came to be regarded as an indispensable channel for the outlet of western goods.

The traffic initially had been in the hands of the Italian maritime powers where Venetian merchants in the fourteenth century penetrated even to Hama. It was with the seventeenth century that the greater share of the trade fell to the French and English. Jacques Coeur, that enterprising merchants prince and ambassador, came out to survey the ground for the French as early as the fifteenth century and the French later established a monopoly of trade at Sidon, where the Shrewd Lebanese Emir Fakhreddine lodged then in the "magnificent Khan" which still exists today.

So important was their business there that many French travelers commemorated the French trade presence in Syria and recorded their experiences with great pride. The English did not appear until after the foundation of the Levant company by Queen Elizabeth in 1581, and then they opened their main trade counter at Aleppo. At the terminus of the annual eastern caravan from Basra and the depot for Persian silks, Aleppo was the most important European market in Syria and the English found the Venetian and French already entrenched there. In due course they outstripped their rivals, and the "English factory" as it was called became in the seventeenth century the most important in the place. It numbered in 1662 about fifty merchants. They were represented by a consul whose salary at about that time amounted to a high sum exclusive of special allowances, and they enjoyed the services of a chaplain.

The trade was considerable, and the value of the goods which these merchants sent home to England via the port of Alexandretta ( now ceded by Turkey), brought them a comfortable profit. One Merchant, John Verney, returned to England a rich man after twelve years' trading, and Sir Paul Prinder, who was consul in Aleppo from 1606-1610, built up in the Levant the basis of that fortune.

Previous Stories:
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  A trip into the heart of ancient civilizations   (12/30/1998)
  New finds in the Euphrates archaeological sites   (12/6/1997)

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