Where do modern corporations trace their roots to?  How do corporations such as: Blockbuster, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks know where to put locations?  Modern corporations use surveys and questionnaires about local attitudes and income to decide when and where to place a business.  It seems one cannot go to any town and not see a Wal-Mart or see a: Blockbuster, McDonalds, or Taco Bell on ever corner.  What did early corporations use to decide where to set up a factory or shop?  This paper will examine the Levant Company, a precursor to today’s modern corporation, and how a simple Chaplin, such as Henry Maundrell, can still play an important role in such a large corporation.

            Henry Maundrell is most notable for his travel from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1696.  The Maundrell took this journey  to be in the holy land for the annual Easter festival.  Maundrell was a college educated man from Exeter College, Oxford.  While attending college he became fluent in Greek and Latin, and was made a fellow at Exeter.  He taught at Exeter for a while and then decided to switch from education to the clergy.  He began his clerical career as a curate in Brumley, England.  Where he comes into our story, is that soon after becoming a curate, he is elected to post of the chaplaincy in Aleppo, as part of the Levant Company.  Aleppo, which is in modern day Syria, was a major hub of economic trade coming out of the Levant, especially at the time that Maundrell was there.  The Levant Company played a large role in Elizabethan trade, and this paper will describe the role that this company had in history and connect it with Maundrell.

            To start, what is the Levant?  The Levant is the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.  It encompasses modern day Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon.  It also includes the island of Cyprus.  The Levant has always been known as an economic trade hub.  It is an important crossroads for the Eastern Hemisphere, because it is where many African, Asian and European cultures collide.  A wide variety of goods, including: pepper, spices, salt, silk, coffee, cotton, drugs (illegal and legal), indigo and currants, as well as religions and cultures filtered through this area.[1] Large exports of mohair yarn, goat’s hair, dyes and fruits; to England were common as well.[2]  English visitors prior to the 1580’s must have marveled at all of the wonderful goods that they could get in the Levant, which they could not have gotten in England.  This demand for new goods and products probably was what inspired the founders of the Levant Company.

            The Levant Company was founded because of British interests in the Ottoman Empire.[3] London merchants, eager to gain prestige and wealth, petitioned Queen Elizabeth I, for a charter to begin trading in the Levant exclusively in 1580.[4] To secure this charter for the English Levant Company and insure no hostilities Queen Elizabeth used gifts to establish trade and relations with the Sultan of Turkey, Murad III.[5] With out this established early relation, the Levant Company would not have been nearly as profitable as it had been. The Levant was also a very important part of the trade connections in the Mediterranean Sea.[6] Britain realized the economic importance of trade in the Mediterranean and set up the Levant Company to cash in on the wealth being created by trade with the Middle and Far East.  The official right to exclusive trade was given to the company by Queen Elizabeth in 1581.[7] The Queen granted this charter because Elizabethan England did not want to be left out of the Levantine trade that the French and other nations were starting to enjoy.[8]  The establishment of a company with a permanent residence in the Levant had other advantages besides economic gains.  The establishment of trade centers, such as the Levant Factory in Aleppo, helped to open up more avenues for religious pilgrims.[9]  As the journey that Maundrell undertakes clearly demonstrates, these economic trade cities were stepping stones for pilgrims to get to the Holy Land and back.  All along the coast, one can travel from trade city to trade city and eventually arrive in Jerusalem.  The three most important cities held by the company were: Aleppo, Stumboul, and Smyrna.[10]  Aleppo was the most important, but I will develop more on Aleppo latter.  Stumboul was an important place to have a Company location because it was the chief consuming center of Turkey at this time.[11] Smyrna was in important place to have a Company location because it had prime access to Persian silk.[12]  Other cities that English religious pilgrims made there way through that had Levant Company factories and merchants, were cities like Acre and Tripoli that Maundrell visits and stops in on his pilgrimage.  The Levant Company also had offices in: Cairo, Angora, Izmir, and Constantinople.  Constantinople, in particular, was a great area for England to set up a trading post.  As Edhem Eldem describes:

“Istanbul (Constantinople) was basically a parasitic giant which sucked in large proportions of the production of the Empire.  The basic necessities and the feeding of a population of some 300,000 was in itself a major challenge to logistic capacities of the state and always constituted one of the major concerns of the government.  Since its immediate hinterland was quite incapable of supplying the city, the state had to organize a network of trade which would ensure a continuous provisioning of the city in basic commodities.”[13]

 It was this necessity for trade that England was trying to tap into and the reason why the factory in Constantinople was one of the most important economic hubs of the Levant Company.

Although Constantinople was bigger Aleppo was the main station of  the English Levant Company in the Levant.  Bruce Masters, in his essay about Aleppo, starts with a quote by an eighteenth-century Englishman named Alexander Russell.  Russell states:

“Aleppo, the present metropolis of Syria, is deemed, in importance, the third city in the Ottoman dominions.  In situation, magnitude, population, and opulence, it is much inferior to Constantinople and Cairo; nor can it presume to emulate the courtly splendors of either of those cities.  But in salubrity of air, in the solidity and elegance of its private buildings, as well as the conveniences and neatness of its streets, Aleppo may be reckoned superior to both…”[14]

Aleppo may not have been the biggest city in the Ottoman empire, or the most cosmopolitan, but what it lacked in these areas it made up in importance and cleanliness.  The Levant Factory in Aleppo was set up for pooled trading facilities and acknowledgment and protection from the Turks.[15]  Aleppo’s primary function to the whole company from beginning to end, 1581-1825; was to serve as the headquarters for the whole company in the Middle East.[16]  In the 1610’s they set up a sister factory in Izmir, but it lacked in importance and prestige.[17]  There were also factories in Constantinople, Acre, etc, but these lacked the commerce that Aleppo brought in.  As Masters says: “Aleppo’s importance as a commercial center in the Ottoman period arose from both the geographical and historical developments.”[18] Aleppo is nearly equidistance form the Mediterranean and the river Euphrates giving it a strategic position for both trade and war.  Large caravan routes connected to Aleppo.  Aleppo had trade coming in from many areas.  It had goods coming out of Africa, through Cairo, and ending up in Aleppo.  The Silk Road started or ended in Aleppo, depending on which way one was headed.  Traders from the Caspian Sea and modern day Russia would come down to Aleppo to trade.  The Mediterranean countries use Aleppo as a trade hub to both export and import goods.  And most importantly, European countries, primarily in the latter half of the sixteenth century, began to trade for exotic spices and goods in Aleppo, otherwise not directly available in England or other European countries.  In the second half of the seventeenth century, Aleppo alone accounted for over half of the total imports coming to England.[19]  For all of the positives, Aleppo also had a downside.  Aleppo was notorious for being a place of death and sickness to Europeans.  The shift in climate from a foggy London, to an arid Aleppo, left many Europeans open to dysentery, plague and malaria.[20] Also, the lack of sanitation and adequate hospitals meant that if one got sick in the Levant, one did not usually make back to Europe alive.  As was the case with Henry Maundrell.  He had gone on his journey in 1696, and returned to Aleppo just fine.  He then went on subsequent journeys in 1699.  It was toward the end of one of these journeys that he became ill.  He held on for two more years, but alas, dies in 1701, supposedly of a disease that he picked up on his travels.  To my knowledge, it was nothing sexual, although that was very common at this time since prostitution was still a very licit trade in the Levant. 

            Beside disease, the merchants of Aleppo faced a variety of other obstacles.  The most ubiquitous problem that the merchants had was the Turks.  They rejected all foreign influence, even aid.[21]  An example of this was after the Aleppo factory was already established, the then current governor of the Levant Company offered to build a bridge over the Euphrates River to both benefit his trade and improve travel in general in Aleppo.[22] The governor of Aleppo rejected this plan, even though it would have benefited them, because the Turks rejected foreign aid.  Imagine traveling 2,000 miles, or the equivalent of two months by boat, to go to land where they speak a different language, worship a different god and generally have a different culture and way of life than yours.  Then imagine being one of the Turks.  Strange people come into your land, literally set up shop, and begin to take business and resources that you were used to enjoying away from you.  This would create conflict and tension as more merchants showed up and more profits were lost.  The Turks would harass, discriminate, oppress, and kidnap factory workers who did not mind their own business or wandered around at night.[23]  Bandits, robbers, and thieves, all hoped to take advantage of the poorly protected merchants and their caravans to Alexandretta, the port that Aleppo used to ship to England.  Then once the goods were on ships, they faced a variety of sea dangers.  The most notable of these sea dangers was the Barbary Corsairs.  The Barbary Corsairs were pirates out of Algiers that would often take slaves as well as loot from the English Merchant ships traveling to and from Aleppo.[24]  Another sea obstacle that the British faced in their sailing was harassment by other nations, especially during war time.  The Spanish had a monopoly on the Mediteranean, because every ship going to and from Aleppo had to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar.  This convenient bottle-neck forced English vessels to pass dangerously close to the shores of Spain.  Spanish armada ships would lie in wait for merchant vessels and attack them.  The French, the historical antagonist of England, also provided sufficient competition.  They had set up their own trade in the Levant and were competing for Far Eastern goods in the Levant.  However, constant conflicts between these two nations led to a constant ebb and flow of trade.  The outbreak of war between England and France in May, 1689, led to a decline in trade.[25] The English had suffered tough losses in the Strait of Gibraltar at the hands of the French this time, and had lost control of the Mediterranean.  England increased its naval force to cope with this new threat, and by 1698, the war was over and English Admiralty had regained control of the Mediterranean. [26] England also had to compete with itself at times.  With the outbreak of the English civil war (1642-1648), this created entangling alliances as Levant merchants are torn between King Charles I and parliament.[27]  The Levant merchants tended to be independent businessmen, and sided with Parliament. However, they realized that by going against the King, they faced losing their charter.  The biggest competition the Levant merchants faced was by far from the Dutch East Indies Trading Company.  [28] One of the main reasons that England always seemed to be chasing the Dutch, is that they were unable to gain a foothold in Iran and compete with the Dutch East Indies Company there.  The main trade in broadcloth created the conflict between both sides for the entirety of their business.[29]This broadcloth was very important to trade because it is what was used for currency instead of specie.[30]They would use this broadcloth to barter or sell silk with.   The Dutch had moved in early to Iran, and were able to cut off England in trying to set up in Iran.  This allowed for the Dutch to be able to circumvent Aleppo, a primarily English controlled township.  This was such a problem that by 1750, under heavy political pressure from American rebels, that England is forced to alter caravan lined from the Far East because the Dutch would cut off all caravans in Iran and not allow them to make it to Aleppo.  Because of the political pressure put on England, the Crown is unable to reinforce its trade routes because resources are being transferred to America.  There will be more about America and English hostilities later when I discuss the decline of the Levant Company, but for now further competitors.  Another nation that was eager to get its hand in the cookie jar of the Levant was the Venetians.  As Masters points out: “In 1545, the Venetians transferred their consul for Syria from Damascus to Tripoli, closing down their direct operations in Damascus, and from Tripoli to Aleppo in 1548.  This move came in recognition that pepper and other spices from the East Indies were increasingly following the Persian Gulf\ Euphrates route, rather than using the Red Sea passage that had favored Damascus.”[31]  However, the main reason for this change was that the English in Aleppo were starting to corner the market on silk, and the Venetians did not want to be left out of the economic opportunities blossoming in this market.  The English, however, faced many different types of silk competition.  The English developed their own silk in the Levant Factories, but I will develop that later.  The English faced silk competition from large factories in: Persia, China, Spain (primarily al-Andulas), and Bengal.[32]  Many of the merchants from these counties would try to circumvent the whole Mid East trade market and try to deal directly with merchants in the countries themselves.  This led to a growth in privateers, another competition that the English Levant Company faced.  English Privateers were kind of the pirates of legitimate trade.  They would run merchandise to and from England without the official consent of the royal charter.[33]  They would often run the goods and spices at a discount rate to the merchants because of the illegal action.  If one was caught by the English Royal Navy it could be considered treason for going against the crown.  These privateers continued none the less and took legitimate gains from the Company.  One of the main users of these privateers was Jews.  The Levant Company was made of only Protestant business men and Hebrews of any sort were not allowed in the Company.[34]  The Jews were allowed to handle financial deeds associated with the Company like money changing and loans.  This exclusion of Jews creates two problems.  The first problem is that by not being allowed to control anything but the money, they begin to be associated with corruption and greed that follows from having money.  This false prejudice creates discrimination, the second problem, and anti-Semitic sentiments begin to root and are still prevalent today. 

            How was the company and factory life organized?  The factory life was very hierarchical.  There was a hierarchy to the company and to the individual factories.  The hierarchy of the company was a governor, who was elected, followed by a deputy governor and 18 council assistants.  The governor and his nineteen underlings, had salaries based on business not preset limits.[35]This meant that unlike today’s CEOs, there salaries were based on the profits gained or lost by the company.  There was also a husbandman and a treasurer.[36]  The factory itself was much like this; however it only had a consul.  There were other assistants under them and they ran every day life.  They dealt with the paychecks, mail, people who died, inheritance, the moving of persons to and from the homeland and residence security.[37]  There was also a treasurer and a chancellor under the consul and his assistants.  The treasurer handled money, while the chancellor handled records of tariffs, levies, payments and trades.[38]Under these was the last terrace before lowly factory worker and that was Henry Maundrell’s position, Chaplin.  The chaplaincy in Aleppo started in 1599, as trade in the Levant increased requiring more workers.[39]The Chaplains received a nice residence, usually with the consul himself or another high terrace, like the treasurer.  He received more pay than the normal factory worker.  In order to become a Chaplin in the Levant, one had to be elected by the higher council in London, just like the consul.  Maundrell, after some tensions as a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford, decided to change careers and join the clergy.  He begins by getting a job in Bromley, England, as a curate.  With help from his Uncle Sir Charles Hedges, and another prominent Levant Company council man, Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester; he is elected by the Levant Company higher council to the Chaplaincy in Aleppo.  This higher council had originally been made up by small traders who, in 1540, were still being constantly harassed by pirates; especially the Barbary Corsairs.[40] These small merchants wanted help from the crown in order to insure their shipments to and from the Levant.  With the official charter being handed down by the Queen in 1581, a more structured and authentic company was formed.  The first governor had been Edward Osborne, and he and Richard Stuper created the company.[41]The original name of the company had been: “The Governor and Company of Merchants of England Trading into the Levant Seas.”[42]  The informal title that the company is most associated with is the English Levant Company.  To quote Davis: “The Levant Company had been founded to provide permanent machinery for securing the observage of such terms, which had just been negotiated with the Ottoman Empire.”[43] What this means is that the Levant Company had been created to secure the business interests that the English Merchants were establishing in the Levant.  By having there own factories in the Levant, and also being protected by the Royal Navy, allowed for the company to prosper.  This initial success and predisposed prejudices allowed for a monopoly of trade to form.  The Levant Company was accused on many occasions of being an exclusive company that was hard to infiltrate.  As Davis explains: “The Levant trade, like others of its time, needed not only capitol but also specialized skills and connections, which could only be acquired under the wings of merchants already engaged in it.”[44]   Dominated by such families as the Radcliffes, who monopolized the Levant Company for 25 years (1707-1735), if one was not: white, protestant, and rich; one could most likely not be able to join the Levant Company’s exclusive society.  The Levant Company tried to further monopolize shipping by only allowing ships approved by the company to carry goods.[45]  This led in a rise in the Privateers that I talked about earlier, and this rise in Privateers would help in the decline of the company that I will discuss later.  The most common form of membership is if a father, brother, or in Maundrell’s case an uncle; took out a loan, made good on it and prospered, then left it to a male inheritor.[46]  The inner circle mainly recruited members for the council from among their own circle of elites.  The longest of these merchant dynasties lasted was usually only one or two generations after the initial merchant who had prospered in the Levant.[47] However, one merchant could usually build a good size fortune in seven to ten years.[48] The company held a monopoly on trade and realized it, so they tried to implement a “mere merchant” enrollment policy.[49] The company was founded to try to allow anyone who could pay the admittance fee and was at least 26 years old, had an equal chance to trade and prosper.[50] However, there were accusations of an “inner ring”, that controlled who could and could not be allowed in.[51] This inner ring had anti-Semitic sentiments and was quick to disbar Jews.[52] Also if one was not of a family of notable stature, the likelihood of getting accepted, even with the admittance fee, was slim.  The people who usually became members were sons or nephews who were well connected and wanted to break in and try their hands at becoming a gentleman.  This is what happened with Maundrell.  His uncle’s high connections allowed for him to easily be elected to the Chaplaincy in Aleppo. Maundrell had hoped to work his seven to ten years, and then return to England, marry; and retire as a gentleman.  Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to enjoy his wealth and retirement.  If one was not connected like Maundrell, in order to be allowed in, it required a consignment of two years of wealth in order to secure a place in the company and get started trading.[53] Even though this seemed high at first and membership was low, the company eventually expanded to include as many as 400 merchants in 1690.[54] Although membership after that fluctuated, that would be the peak membership of the company.  These wealthy and elite merchants all banded together and lived in the same area in England.  This place is still around today in England, and it is know as Devonshire Square.[55] These rich merchants preferred to associate only among other rich merchants like themselves and tried to seclude themselves from much of the decay that surrounded them in London. The Radcliffes were one of the most prominent family that lived there, and they held onto a monopoly of the townhouses in Devonshire square as well.[56] These were obviously the merchants that had gambled and prospered, not the average Englishman who went to the Levant to be a factory worker.

            How then, did the menial factory worker live?  To quote Abraham Marcus: “The city was for them but a temporary business station, an alien place where they lived comfortably but sighed for home.”[57] The English merchants and factory workers never went to the Levant expecting to live there for the rest of their lives, and in Maundrell’s case, certainly not to die.  They are much like modern Hispanic immigrants coming from Mexico to the US.  These immigrants do not come to America to assimilate and become American; they come to make money and return to there families in Mexico.  This is much the same as the merchants and factory workers that visited the Levant.  They did not blend into the Arab culture, nor even try to assimilate.  They were discouraged from marrying local women, and this led to further alienation.[58] They came to make their fortunes and wealth and return to England gentleman and retire.  None of these merchants ever planned to make the Levant their home.  The factory workers, however, did live for extended periods of time (7-10 years) in the Levant and it was home for them.  They lived in the “Great Khan”, which was the Levant equivalent of Devonshire Square.[59]  All the factory workers, consuls, treasurer, chancellor, and Chaplin, live in this Great Khan.  Some of the accommodations were better than others, and these better rooms and townhouses were reserved for the upper terraces of the company.  Factory life in the Levant revolved around two things, the Racolta and Londra.  The Racolta was harvest of silk cocoons.[60]The rest of the time was spent processing silk and exchanging it for incoming Londra, which was London’s chief export.  Londra, coming from London, was the English broad cloth that was used for barter for the silk.[61]After the exchanges took place, they would spend the rest of the time worrying about shipping the different imports and exports coming through the factory.  The factory workers started out at under the modern day equivalent of just under 5, 000 dollars a year.  The merchants could make up to as much as 12,000-15,000 a year.  Working that for seven to ten years back then was definitely enough to retire on.[62]  But, these amounts fluctuated from year to year as well.  The going price of silk in England was what determined the supply and demand; and the amount that the factory workers and individual merchants were making.[63] When not working factory workers relaxed, and incoming guests or retiring officials always led to a party.  As Wood continues: “The arrival of any traveler was invariably an excuse for a banquet.”[64]The infrequency of new faces and the lack of other excitement led to this common practice of feasting the new fellow.  Factory workers also enjoyed hunting, fishing and exploring.[65] They were also very religious.  Since death was a common occurrence in the Levant, church played a large role as well.  Maundrell would not have had a job if this had not been true.  To survive the journey to the Levant and the change in climate required prayer just to begin with.  Then not to be able to see one’s family for seven to ten years would require prayer to be with one’s friends and relatives.  It was this extensive journey and long stay that may also have played a role in the decline of the company.

            The decline of the Levant Company had many other factors as well.  For one, as time steadily progressed there was a decline in membership as safer means of trade became available.  The peak membership had been 400 in 1690, but by 1731, it had been reduced to 42.[66] It would continue to decline until May 19, 1825, when the company finally relinquishes trade rights back to crown.[67] No doubt a rise in technological advancements, as well as the Industrial Revolution, played a role in this decline.  The lack of expansion by the company also played a role.  Wood explains further: “… the general court of the Company in England did try to curb attempts at expansion and to discourage the opening of new markets.  A resolution in November 1683 shows that in theory at least the Company disclaimed responsibility for all trade outside of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Aleppo, and that such factors as engaged in it lived at their own hazard and expense, the consuls and vice-consuls being bidden to give them the utmost protection at their own charge.”[68] This discouragement helped to limit the company’s responsibilities for merchants in the Levant that were not affiliated with the company.  However, this also cut down on the area that they controlled and left open vulnerable trade opportunities to other companies like the Dutch East Indies Company.  It also left them available to other nations like the French, who begin to control more of the Mediterranean Sea.[69] The war with America was also a large contributor to the decline of the company.  As money and resources are diverted to the Western Hemisphere, adequate protection for trade vessels going to and from the Levant becomes a problem.[70] Without protection for there shipments, merchants and loaners begin to stop investing.  Without initial investments the whole gamble of Levant trade could not continue.  Also loss of land rights due to pressure from the Black and Caspian Sea become a factor.  Russian power rises as Peter the Great conquers land surrounding the two seas mentioned above.[71]  Another grubby hand to stick into the Levant cookie jar and create competition for the company.  Once again English Privateers come into play.  Privateers were willing to ship at lower costs than the company and the average merchant investor, afraid to lose his goods in the now unprotected Mediterranean, would rather run the risk of losing less money if the ship comes under attack or raid.[72]One last important factor was the lack of strong families.  Rich families like the Radcliffes had begun to abstain from joining the company.  Late in the eighteenth century, factories and hubs began to close up.  By 1783, Aleppo as an official factory had closed down, but independent English merchants remained.[73] With the official disbandment in 1825, the company had existed for over 244 solid years and had been an instrumental player in establishing bonds of trade and culture.[74] The company had introduced cotton, coffee, coffeehouses, to England and opened political negotiations between countries.

            So in conclusion, What makes a corporation?  How do empires and corporations compare and contrast?  The English Levant Company was a precursor to today’s modern corporation. But, instead of being able to pass out questionnaires and decide regional incomes, the Levant Company had to rely on word of mouth knowledge of the surrounding areas.  Henry Maundrell, in his trip from Aleppo to Jerusalem accomplices this.  He gathers valuable information about the Levant as he makes his pilgrimage to and from Jerusalem.  By noticing business relations and noting distances by hours traveled, he was able to gather adequate information about his surroundings.  Not only did he benefit the greater good of the company by doing this, he also fulfilled his religious piety by performing a religious pilgrimage.  How do large corporations such as Blockbuster stay afloat?  By having normal, everyday people performing their duties to the greater good of the corporation.  Henry Maundrell fulfilled this small role in the larger part of the Levant Company.  By being a good Chaplin, and going on an exploratory religious pilgrimage he fulfilled his obligation to the greater good of the Levant Company.

            Works Cited

Anderson, Sonia P.  An English Consul in Turkey: Paul Rycut at Smyrna, 1667-1678.  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

This source offered another outlook from an English traveler.  It also allowed me to compare and contrast Aleppo with Smyrna.  This source was also helpful in describing the conditions of the Levant Company hierarchy and I used this source to point out a key difference between today’s corporation and the Levant Company.

Damiani, Anita.  Enlightened Observers.  Beirut: American University at Beirut, 1979.

This book helped to gain other perspectives of the journeys that other English travelers had.  It also helped in gaining background information on the formation of the Levant Company like when it formed and who were some of the original members of the early company.  It also allowed me to find further research on the Barbary Corsairs.

Davis, Ralph.  Aleppo and Devonshire Square: English Traders in the Levant in the Eighteenth Century.  London: MacMillan, 1969.

This source and the one by Wood were the most utilized in my paper.  Davis gives lots of details on factory life.  He also mentions the locations of many of the different Levant Company outposts.  He develops the “inner ring” monopoly theory, and explains its role in the company.  He discusses the generations that it took to build a merchant family dynasty.   

Edhem, Eldem; Goffaman, Daniel; and Masters2, Bruce.  The Ottoman City Between East and West.  Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1999.

This is the second source with Bruce Masters, and he combines brilliantly with the other two authors to produce a very cohesive reproduction of the Middle East through three different cities.

Lane-Poole, Stanley.  The Story of the Barbary Corsairs.  New York:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894.

This source provided all the information I needed to know about the Barbary Corsairs, and their interaction with the Levant Company.  Things such as their location of origin and piracy, were very helpful in defining them as a problem for the company.

Marcus, Abraham.  The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity.  New York: Colombia Press, 1989.

As the name suggests, this work focuses on the shift from old ways to more modern ways in the Levant, roughly about the time Maundrell was there.  This book was helpful to my paper in that it provided more details on the Levant factory life, like lack of marriage to locals and factory workers sentiments toward the Levant.

Masters, Bruce.  The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East.  New York: New York University Press, 1988.

This is the first source that I use that has Bruce Masters in it.  He had done extensive research on the Levant, especially Aleppo.  He gives extensive details on the trade going on it Aleppo.  Develops important aspects of the Levant Company like its beginning and competitors. 

Maundrell, Henry.  A Journey form Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697, Easter.  Beirut: KHAYATS, 1963.

This is the journal that I used and the traveler that I researched.  This led to my topic the English Levant Company.  It helped me to begin my research on my topic and gave information about the company at the time of Maundrell.  It also helped to stress the importance of Aleppo in my topic.  This is a reprint of an 1810 original publication.

Rosedale, Reverend H.G.  Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company: A Diplomatic and Literary Episode of the Establishment of our Trade with Turkey.  London: Oxford University Press, 1904.

This source provided very useful information on the early establishment of trade with Turkey by the Levant Company.  It also had lots of wonderful pictures as well as lists and itineraries.  This source also helped me to gain more background information on Queen Elizabeth I.

Wood, Alfred C.  A History of the Levant Company.  New York: Barnes and Noble, 1964.

This book was very helpful in writing my paper.  It goes over: the reasons for the start of the company, the hierarchy of the company and factories, competitiors, important families in the company, more on the monopoly, and imports and exports.  Was instrumental in describing the decline of the Levant Company for my paper.  Explained a lot of the everyday aspects of merchant and factory life that other sources seemed to have missed.