Mavi Boncuk |
Picknick mit den Paschas: Aleppo und die levantinische
Handelsfirma Fratelli Poche
Author Mafalda Ade[1]
Publisher Beirut and
Würzburg: Ergon Verlag
Pages 261
ISBN 9783899139631
Reviewed by Metin Atmaca
Reviews | Insight Turkey Spring 2014 / Volume 16, Number 2
Studies on the Europeans who lived in the Ottoman Empire
have been mostly conducted through the Ottoman and European state archives. Few
works on the social history are based on private papers, such as Beshara
Doumani’s work, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal
Nablus, 1700-1900 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1995). As scholars of the Ottoman social history focus on the ethnic and
religious minorities, foreigners, merchants, peasants, and women, such archives
have become more precious than ever in order to reconstruct the story of
understudied subjects. Ade’s book takes its power from this background, as she
skillfully uses the private archives of Poche and Marcopoli families, which
were discovered in the 1990s. Comprised of two separate folios, the trade firms
of both families kept chronologically archived accounting books, daily
payments, warehouse books, and deadline records of payments from 1853 until
1921. Apart from family papers, there are memoirs, the archives of European
vice-consulates, accounting and trade books, and documents from state archives
in Aleppo, Istanbul, Paris and Nantes.
After the Ottomans took over Aleppo, the city became a trade
terminus for the mercantile coming from the Asia and a maritime link for
European merchants. In a few decades time, most European consular
representations and trade companies moved their centers from Damascus and
Tripoli to Aleppo, which became the third largest urban center in the Ottoman
realm after Istanbul and Cairo. Aleppo was not only in the middle of the empire
but also a major city in the Arab territories on the cultural boundary of the
Turkish and Arab population, which was made up of Kurds, Arabs, Turks,
Christians, Jews and Bedouins. The city kept its status as one of the most
active trade centers in the Eastern territories of the Ottoman Empire until
late 19th century.
Established with this background, this work focuses on the
business career of the Marcopoli and Poche families in Aleppo during the second
half of 19th century, when the effects of the Tanzimat reforms were felt more
in the provinces. These reforms brought new regulations for foreign tradesmen
as well as their Muslim and non-Muslim partners. Through the story of the Poche
and Marcopoli families in Aleppo and other cities in the region, Ade examines
the practice of these trade law regulations and the representation of Europeans
in the newly established commercial and mixed courts.
The book is divided into three parts. It took some time for
European tradesmen to create a trade network and become familiar with the
market in the region. The first part, thus, is focused on the relocation of
European tradesmen in Aleppo and the formation of a network amongst them.
During the early period, Europeans remained part of a separate society and
abstained from mixing with the local population. However, in time they were
integrated into Aleppine society and started to settle in hans in the city center.
The Poche family came in to this milieu of the city in early 19th century.
After some time, their European identity evolved through generations and became
more settled.
The second part is more focused on the family’s trade
network in the region. It shows how the trade company of the Poche family from
the mid-19th century onwards started to expand its network from Aleppo to the
rest of the region, as far as Baghdad, Mosul, Harput, Diyarbekir, Urfa, Maraş,
Mersin, Latakia and Homs. The traffic of correspondence from the company to
local partners in the region demonstrates in which cities the company was more
dominant. Through this communication, one can see what products were more
important, i.e., wool from Urfa and yarn from Diyarbekir, and how diverse the
local partners (Muslims, Armenian Christians and Jews) were. Ways of dealing
with local partners were important for the company in order to retain account
stability and transfer of funds. In some places they exchanged European goods
with local ones. They also gave small loans to local partners in order to
secure the production of goods.
The third and last part of the book, which is the most
interesting part, surveys the instruments of payments (Kambiyale: promissory
notes; police: bills of exchange) and collecting debts (protesto; emirname:
written order, decree). After Tanzimat was declared in 1839, commercial courts
were established in 1847 and the trade law (1850-60) became more common in
provinces in the Ottoman Middle East. Until this period, European tradesmen
employed numerous informal ways to deal with debtors. Once the new law was
implemented, formal methods of handling debt were adopted, but the informal
methods did not disappear because accounts were not always closed on time. In
fact, local partners utilized more informal channels, which worked better for
them. Besides, lenders did not always want to go through the court since they
did not wish to pay fees. In some cases, when the Poche Company took the legal
steps, the debtor would declare bankruptcy. Thus, instead of using such methods
which were unsuccessful and tarnished their reputation in the eyes of local
partners, they waited for the debtor to improve the situation.
The Poche Company used the power of the European
vice-consulates when the trade courts were unable to collect debts. As some
Poche-Marcopoli Company members and partners started to work in the consulates,
such as Frédéric Poche as the American vice-consular in Aleppo, their company
became more prestigious among the elite and the local population. Important
posts helped the Poche family deal more formally with local partners and
lenders. Despite the position they held, over time the Poche Company applied
more frequently to the Ottoman authorities for the collection of their debts as
the trade courts became more functional. In the 1870s, informal ways of dealing
with debtors were still a dominant issue, but formal methods gradually became
more common both among the European and Ottoman tradesmen. During this period,
the Poche family put more pressure on Ottoman officials to process the decision
of the court. In time, relations between the Poche family and provincial
governors became so intimate (as the title suggests) that family members
started to be appointed to court positions.
Ade’s work is a great contribution to the history of
European tradesmen and their role in reforms in the Middle East during the last
period of the Ottoman Empire. The outcome of Tanzimat varied in every province
and the progress in each area of administration was different. Therefore, the
case taken into consideration here does not reflect the big picture, but
presents a well-written case in order to understand the changes in the second
half of the 19th century. For scholars focusing on the effects of reforms, this
book presents an excellent case through the story of the Poche family. However,
since this work is dominated by the archives of the Poche-Marcopoli family and
European vice-consulates, it is limited to the view of Europeans in the Ottoman
lands. Therefore, one has to wait for more comparative studies on Ottoman
Muslim tradesmen (Hayriye Tüccarları) and European tradesmen (Avrupa
Tüccarları) in order to have a better idea of the change and continuity of both
groups’ status after reforms.
Reviews | Insight Turkey Spring 2014 / Volume 16, Number 2
ALEPPO AND THE LEVANTINE TRADING COMPANY FRATELLI POCHE
(1853-1880)
Mafalda ADE[1]
ISBN: 978-975-428-718-9
Foreword Foreword to the English Translation Note on
transliteration List of Illustrations
Introduction The Poche-Marcopoli Archive Structure and
Content
Part I: Trading Colonies and the “Khan Aristocracy”
1. From Temporary to Permanent Residence Aleppo as an
Ottoman Commercial Metropolis Rise and Fall of the Trading Colonies The
Europeans and the Local Population Becoming Residents Khan Society
2. The Poche Family: A Changing Identity Gaining a Foothold
Ties with Europe The Arab-Ottoman Milieu
Part II: The Fratelli Poche Company and its Network
3. Conquering the Hinterland of Aleppo Aleppo in the First
Half of the Nineteenth Century The Entry into Regional Trade The Birth of the
Fratelli Poche Company Outgoing Correspondence: An Overview Building a Regional
Network The Wool Centre Urfa Diyarbekir and the Sale of Yarns The Struggle for
Consular Posts
4. Credit and Payment Transactions Limiting Financial Risk
Bills of Exchange Kambiyale as a Basic Credit Instrument Poliçe as a Means of
Payment and Money Transfer Which Law for Bills of Exchange?
Part III: Ways and Means of Settling Debt Cases
5. The Balancing Act: Informal Means vs. Official Procedures
Of Threatening and Flattering The Case of Bakos Küçük Usta The Case of Mahmud
Saʿatçi Involving Influential Figures An End to Patience The Case of
Bedduş Demirci
6. The Development of the Mixed Commercial Court of Aleppo
Prelude to the Tanzimat Reforms From Meclis to Mahkeme The Directeur des
Affaires Extérieures The Consolidation of the Aleppo Commercial Court Between
Rival Authorities
7. Continuity and Change in Commercial Conflict Resolution
Delay and Ineffectuality The Use of Government Orders Dealing with Ottoman
Officials the Fratelli Poche Company and the Tanzimat Reforms in Practice
General Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index
She completed her PhD at the University of Tübingen in
2009; her book Picnic with the Pashas: Aleppo and the Levantine Trading Company
Fratelli Poche (1853-1880) was published in 2013 by the German Orient-Institut
in Beirut. Since 2013, she has been part of a French-based research group,
Mediterranean Reconfigurations, as a postdoctoral fellow. Her own project deals
with the institution of, and the practice in, commercial tribunals in the
Ottoman Empire during the 19th century reform period.
Mafalda Ade is a member of the Turkish and Ottoman
Studies Group and a lecturer at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
She was previously an associate researcher at the French Institute of the Near
East in Aleppo and is now continuing her research on commercial courts in the
Ottoman Empire as part of the ERC project Mediterranean Configurations.
