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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 French 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.
About the author
Mathieu Grenet is an associate professor of early modern history at the University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, France. He has extensively published on migrations, intercultural contacts and identity construction in the early modern Mediterranean.
