“The Levant Company did me ye honour of appointing me consul of this place, Negropont and all Greece”: The Institutional Appearance of the British in Salonica

Abstract

From 1581 to 1826 the Ottoman-British commercial and political relations were administrated by the Levant Company. The British ambassador to Istanbul and the British consuls who were established in the Ottoman dominions were representing both the Levant Company and the British government. Based on the Ottoman and British archival documents, this study examines the foundation of the British consulate in Salonica and the activities of its first consul, Richard Kemble, in the early years of the eighteenth century. In doing so, it seeks to reveal the establishment of the British consulate in Salonica and its side effects including multiple outcomes, and emphasize the importance of a comparative evaluation of the documents in different archives in order to form a more comprehensive and rational historical research and to achieve a more profound understanding of human activities in the past. The evidence used is derived principally from the records of the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies in Hertfordshire and the Ottoman Prime Ministry Archives in Istanbul and the National Archives in London (Kew).