Tous ces consuls de bazard - French Consulates and Greek Staff in the Aegean, 17th-18th Centuries

Long overshadowed by ambassadors and other high-ranking diplomats, consuls are now gaining attention for their role in early modern trade, the life of merchant communities settled abroad, and the rise of state institutions and control. France is a case in point, as Greek Ottoman subjects would often serve as French consuls in some of the more remote consular posts in the Eastern Mediterranean. This book explores their motives and careers, as well as France's interest in relying on these peculiar agents. At a time when consular services became part of a complex process of definition of state sovereignty, the way their multiple, allegedly exclusive loyalties were articulated, sheds new light on issues of 'foreign' and 'national' in the making of early modern political identities.