Discussion Paper 004
Entrepreneurship and relational capital in a Levantine Context: The Abbott of Salonica (18th–19th century)
Academy of Athens
The paper explores the entrepreneurial strategy and tactics of a British merchant who traded in the port of Salonica from the late 18th to the first decades of the 19th century. Bartholomew Edward Abbott was a Levant Company's Freeman who was also involved in the Company's internal affairs as an appointed interim consul of the Company's factory in Salonica. Abbott's strategy intertwined with his family life and relatives and with his rights, duties and commitments as a Freeman. The origin and performance of his relational capital —comprising kin, Freemen, and businessmen from the local society— shows how his activity was sustained by overlapping and, at times, opposing identities. His case allows us to get another glimpse inside a great chartered trade company and examine, even briefly, its operation and corporate identity. Through the brief study of the connection between the overlying administrative mechanism, the apparatus of officials appointed in the factories and the Company's Freemen, it is possible to get an idea of the barriers distinguishing the activity of a Freeman from that of an independent entrepreneur, the aspirations of a merchant from those of an officeholder of the Company.
Despina Vlami is a researcher in the Research Center for Medieval and Modern Greek Studies of the Academy of Athens. Her research interests comprise Entrepreneurship and Mediterranean Trade (18th--19th centuries), the Greek Diaspora (18th-19th centuries), the Levant Company (16th-19th centuries).
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