The Silk Road to Leytonstone By David Boote
The Levant Company was first granted a royal charter in 1581 and held a government-enforced monopoly in the cloth trade with the Ottoman Empire. Its main Middle East base was at Halab.
The Levant merchants were more Whig than other liveries. The original East India Company in the last quarter of the 17th c took business away from the Levant Company by importing silks from Persia and India. Although William III’s war with France harmed trade with the Levant in the short term 5 the Turkey traders were the second largest group of subscribers to a rival New East India Company, and to the Bank of England which provided vital finance for William III’s war with France.
The Levant merchants were more Whig than other London Livery Companies. The original East India Company in the last quarter of the 17th century took business away from the Levant Company by importing silks from Persia and India. Although William III’s war with France harmed trade with the Levant in the short term 5 the Turkey traders were the second largest group of subscribers to a rival New East India Company, and to the Bank of England which provided vital finance for William III’s war with France.
Goods had to be transported by camel between Halab and its port 80 miles to the north-west, Iskenderun (Iskandarun, Iskanderoon or Alexandretta). Letters took 2 months to go between Halab and London 6 . The Levant Company’s ships sailed together once a year to Iskenderun.
Samuel Bosanquet remained an active City businessman. He became deputy governor of the Levant Company. The trade between London and the Levant was in decline from 1730. The Bosanquets and their connections persisted and the trade had better times again between 1749 and 1756. There was a temporary respite for the weak English trading position in the Levant. Supply of silk from Bengal was disrupted from 1749 to 1756. The East India Company turned to China for alternative supplies but, before this brought London silk prices back down and before the full effect of the world market prices was felt in the Turkish trading cities, there was an opportunity for importers of silk from the Levant to make extraordinary profits.
5 A fractured society: the politics of London in the first age of party 1688-1715 by Gary Stuart De Krey (1985)
6 Aleppo and Devonshire Square : English traders in the Levant in the eighteenth century by Ralph Davis
