Back شركة المشرق Arabic لوانت شیرکتی AZB Levant Company German Αγγλική Εταιρεία της Ανατολής Greek Levant Company French חברת הלבנט HE Compagnia del Levante Italian Companhia do Levante Portuguese Левантийская компания Russian Levant Şirketi Turkish

Levant Company

Levant Company
Company typePublic chartered
IndustryInternational trade
Predecessor
  • Venice Company
  • Turkey Company
Founded11 September 1592[1]
FounderSir Edward Osborne
Defunct19 May 1825
FateDissolved by the Dissolution of Levant Company Act 1825 (c. 33 6 Geo. 4); consular establishments taken over by the Board of Trade
Headquarters
Number of locations
Various across Europe and Near East
Area served
Eastern Mediterranean
ProductsRum and spices; cloth: cottons and woollens, kerseys, indigo, gall, camlet; tin, pewter, maroquin, soda ash.
ServicesTrade and commerce
Total assetsMerchant shipping
Total equityJoint-stock capital company
Owner
  • Government of England (until 1 May 1707)
  • Government of Great Britain (1 May 1707 – 31 December 1800)
  • Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1 January 1801)
Number of employees
6,000
ParentEnglish/British Crown
DivisionsTurkish, Levantine, Venetian littoral

The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, as she was eager to maintain trade and political alliances with the Ottoman Empire.[1] Its initial charter was good for seven years and was granted to Edward Osborne, Richard Staper, Thomas Smith and William Garrard with the purpose of regulating English trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Levant. The company remained in continuous existence until being superseded in 1825. A member of the company was known as a Turkey Merchant.[2][3]

  1. ^ a b Kenneth R. Andrews (1964), Elizabethan Privateering 1583–1603, Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Mather, James (May 2011). "The Turkey Merchants". History Today. 61 (5).
  3. ^ Searight, Sarah (June 1966). "The Turkey Merchants: Life in the Levant Company". History Today. 16 (6).

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