Commercial treaties called Capitulations structured European trade with the Ottomans

Evidence

Conditions of trade within the Ottoman sultanate were regulated by commercial treaties known as the Capitulations. The French were granted Capitulations in the Ottoman empire as early as 1535. In the second half of the seventeenth century Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the chief minister of Louis XIV, was particularly interested in promoting France’s commercial interests in the Levant. (He also sponsored hunts for Oriental manuscripts and antiquities.) A Levant Company was founded at Marseilles in 1671. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 195

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Capitulations, the treaty framework for Levant commerce.