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Sir Robert Ainslie

Id: 0336
Category: Letter
Language: English
Archive: Foreign Office and predecessor: Political and Other Departments: General Correspondence before 1906, Ottoman Empire
Collection: FO: Records created or inherited by the Foreign Office
Reference: FO 78
Folder: FO 78/2 1781
Page range:140-145
Dispatch date: 26-06-1781
Dispatcher: Ainslie Robert (Sir)
Recipient: Earl of Hillsborough (The Right Honorable)
Tags: Middle East     International     Europe and Russia     

Abstract:

•     Επιστολή Αρ.14 του Robert Ainslie (Κωνσταντινούπολη, 26 Ιουνίου 1781) προς τον The Right Honorable The Earl of Hillsborough με την οποία τον ενημερώνει μεταξύ άλλων σχετικά με την πληροφορία που ήρθε μέσω Βιέννης, πως το Παρίσι σκέφτεται – όπως το είχε πράξει και στους προηγούμενους δύο πολέμους – να αφήσει ελεύθερο το εμπόριο στον Λεβάντε για τους ξένους, κάτι που κατά τον Ainslie έχει προκαλέσει μεγάλη ανησυχία στους Γάλλους εμπόρους στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, και θεωρειται πως οι εννέα στους δέκα οδηγούνται στην καταστροφή.
Χαρακτηριστικά γράφει ο Ainslie:
The last Vienne post, My Lord, brought us a piece of intelligence, which corroborates this speculation. The Court of Versailles, unable or unwilling to furnish convoys for protecting the French navigation in the Levant Seas, has determined to throw the trade open to foreigners, as was practiced in the two last wars. This resolution has been formerly announced to the French merchants here, who are alarmed beyond measure; but the Arrest de Conseil is not yet come to hand. It is said the late Controller General had adopted a plan to leave this trade open in future (reserving only the sale of cloth to French subjects) provided it be carried on in French bottoms; and should it take place must infallibly ruin nine tenths of the French merchants at present established in Turkey. But the reserve in favor of the French flag, at least during the present war, gains little credit. […]



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