On February 18th 2019, Center for Turkish Studies will host Ü. Serdar Serdaroğlu* under the discussions theses-articles. Serdaroğlu will deliver a speech about “The Evolution of Commercial Institutions and Business Networks in the Ottoman Empire: “British Merchant Families and Individual Merchants in the Levant Trade in the 18th Century”** based on his thesis.***

"This thesis has been written with the purpose of contributing to the existing general
literature on the Levant trade while at the same time being informed by recent advances
in research on Ottoman business history. Our aim in this thesis was to study the effect
of institutional and organizational change that the Levant Company underwent in the
18th century on the evolution of individual business networks. This thesis is based on an
examination of British and Ottoman archival documents and Lloyd’s Lists and Registers,
which have served as our main source of data and information for the purpose of
identifying the initiatives undertaken by individual merchants that led to the creation of
new business networks after the year 1753.
The variables on which this change in the character of trade depended most and the
areas in which the impact of such change was experienced most intensely is revealed
during the course of our study. This thesis demonstrates the distinctive character of
relationships between family merchants on the one hand and individual merchants on
the other in different phases of the early, middle and late 18th century. Furthermore, it
confirms the effects that the liberalization and easing of access to trade that the Levant
Company introduced in the period between 1744 and 1753 as part of a broad
institutional as well as legislative transformation. The character and scope of business
activity undertaken by Levant merchants changed significantly in consequence. This
thesis departs from the current historiography with its network analysis in favour of highlevel
programming language (Python). It also marks a departure in showing the trade
iv
routes of the Levant Company with web-based data visualization and analytical apps
(Plotly) through utilising shipping registers for the 18th century."

*Dr., Istanbul University

** PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham, Department of History, 2018

*** The speech will be conducted in Turkish.