Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

3. 3. Economic Difficulties
One of the lesser known facets of Ottoman Algeria is its commercial
activity which culminated in the emergence of a small but enterprising
merchant fleet. For a long time, it had often been argued that Algiers was an
exclusively corsairing state; and corsairing has been the subject of all kinds
“fantasies that were conveyed through a caricatured vision based on the idea of
confrontation between the Cross and the Crescent.” 109 During the last thirty
years or so, however, revisionist studies have unveiled the existence of a
genuine trading activity that started developing since the 1770s even though
timidly. 110 That nascent activity probably explains in part the decline of the
corsairing fleet. Up till then, seaborne trade was exclusively controlled by
European and Jewish carriers and brokers. 111 By 1806, Algerian Muslim traders
took their affairs at hand which put an end to foreign monopoly over Algerian
external commerce and maritime transportation.
Exploiting the chaos caused by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe which
generated desperate needs for Algerian grain to supply the starving populations
and armies on the battlefields, Algerian merchants showed a real capacity of
adaptation to the new international conditions. In the first decade of the 19 th
century, they were controlling more than 50% of trade carrying between
109 Michel Tuchscherer, “Daniel Panzac,” Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 95-96-97-
98 - Débats intellectuels au Moyen-Orient dans l’entre-deux-guerres, April 2002, pp. 486-88.
(Accessed 6 March 2008). http://remmm.revues.org/document2463.html
110 See for example, Mohammed Amine, “Commerce Extérieur et Commerçants d’Alger à la Fin de
l’Epoque Ottomane (1792-1830).” 2 vol. Thèse de Doctorat. Aix-en-Provence, 1991; Panzac,
Corsaires barbaresques, pp. 137-62 ; Krieken, Corsaires et marchands, pp. 190-91, 199.
111 Rosenstock, “Bakri and Busnach,” pp. 343-64.
152