Levant Company

Timeline

1. 1592London, England · LondonIn 1592 Elizabeth I merged the previously separate Turkey Company (1581) and Venice Company, issuing a new charter to establish the Levant Company and granting it a monopoly on trade with all Ottoman dominions; the company set up resident consulates in Constantinople, Aleppo, and elsewhere, establishing a British trade and diplomatic network in the eastern Mediterranean.
2. 1671–1690Aleppo, Syria (Ottoman Empire) · AleppoIn the 1671–1680s the Levant Company maintained resident consuls in Aleppo, Constantinople (now Istanbul), and Smyrna (now Izmir), continuously exporting British woollens and importing silk, cotton, dyes, and Turkish carpets. During this period British ambassadors renegotiated the capitulations with the Ottoman sultan, further consolidating the company's privileged position, with annual trade estimated at over £200,000.
3. 1720–1825London, England · LondonIn the 18th century, amid intensifying French and Dutch competition, internal Ottoman turmoil, and the rise of British free-trade thinking, the Levant Company's trade volume steadily declined and its membership shrank sharply; Parliament legislated in 1825 to revoke the charter and formally dissolve the company, with British trade in the eastern Mediterranean thereafter handled by private merchants and consular agents.