The Avowed Friend of the French & the Irreconcilable Enemy of England The House of Bacri & Busnach and the Intl. Community in Ottoman Algiers

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1 The Avowed Friend of the French & the Irreconcilable Enemy of England The House of Bacri & Busnach and the Intl. Community in Ottoman Algiers Caitlin M Gale, DPhil Candidate, University of Oxford This paper examines the position of the Jewish community in Ottoman Algiers during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by looking at the merchant house of Bacri and Busnach. The Jewish position within the Barbary States was an important one; they were necessary for trade and governance and as intermediaries between Christians attempting to negotiate with North Africa and the region s Muslim leaders. Even after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the major European powers in the late seventeenth century, the Jewish community continued their role of negotiator, relying on extensive family and trade networks spanning both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic world. Lois Dubin and David Sorkin, among others, have looked at the nature of cosmopolitan, Sephardic, Port Jews in the early modern period, both in the Atlantic world and the Mediterranean. However, the role of Port Jews in North Africa has yet to receive such treatment despite the close ties between the Jewish communities of Gibraltar, Marseilles, Livorno and the North African states. The House of Bacri and Busnach was comprised of two prominent Jewish families who worked with the British, Swedish, Spanish, Americans, and the French (whose debt to the Bacri s was a key reason behind the fly-swatter incident in 1827 that led to French colonisation). Yet little scholarly work has been done on them, much less their relationship with the international community in Algiers. This study will move the House of Bacri and Busnach beyond the traditional British view of their being French agents and instead demonstrate their interconnectedness and necessity to the international diplomatic community in Algiers as well as to the wider Muslim society during the Napoleonic wars by looking at diplomatic and military correspondence, archival documents, and published contemporary accounts. The House of Bacri and Busnach had a wide-ranging effect on the Algerine society in which they lived and the wider Mediterranean world in which they operated, diplomatically, economically, and socially. Faculty of History University of Oxford George Street Oxford, OX1 2RL United Kingdom Oxford OX1 2RL

2 C Gale, 1 The Avowed Friend of the French and the Irreconcilable Enemy of England This is how John Falcon, British Consul to Algiers, described the Jewish merchants, Nephtali Busnach and brothers Joseph, Jacob, Solomon and David Bacri in a letter to the Duke of Portland in Since the late seventeenth century, Sephardic Jews from Livorno had been emigrating to North Africa and gaining increasing importance in the economic and political life of the Barbary States. Under the Ottoman capitulation system, these Jews fell outside the dhimmi laws and under the authority of the European consuls; they were Free Jews and faced none of the restrictions the Ottoman Jewish populations did. The Free- Jewish position within the Barbary States was an important one; they were necessary for trade and governance and as intermediaries between European Christians attempting to negotiate with the region s Muslim leaders. These Barbary Jews did not operate solely in North Africa. They utilized extensive family and trade networks spanning both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic world. David Sorkin defined Port Jews as those Sephardic or Italian Jews of the early-modern period who lived in port-cities of the Atlantic World, and to a lesser extent the Mediterranean. He specifically mentions, Livorno, Venice, Trieste, London, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Jamaica, Surinam, and Recife. Sorkin further argues that Port Jews are distinct from Jews in port cities because Port Jews were able to operate in climates of relative toleration and civil inclusion. I would argue that the Free Jewish population of the Barbary States merits the label of Port Jew, as demonstrated by the merchant House of Bacri and Busnach. 1

3 C Gale, 2 Barbary was comprised of four North African states, the Ottoman Regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli (all based around their principle ports of the same name), and the Kingdom of Morocco. By the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the Jewish population was the second largest group in North Africa. Kheireddin Barbarossa, who conquered Algiers and brought North Africa into the Ottoman Empire, had a Sephardic Jew named Sinan as his second in command; he was known as the Great Jewish Pirate. Mordecai Noah, American consul in Tunis and a Jew himself, estimated the entire Jewish population of Barbary as 700,000 in 1819, and in most urban centres they constituted roughly 10 per cent of the population. The Jewish communities of North Africa were well placed to act as intermediaries in both trade and diplomatic endeavours between the Turks, Moors and Europeans drawing upon language skills and family networks extending into Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the New World. It was not uncommon for Jews to be appointed as viceconsuls for European consular agencies or act as consul themself for the North African states in Gibraltar. Though Spain originally tried to prevent any Jews living in British Gibraltar, the 1729 treaty specifically granted the right for Moroccan and Jewish merchants to reside there. By 1753, nearly one third of Gibraltar s civilian population was Jewish. The Busnach family emigrated from Livorno to Algiers in the 1720s and the Bacri family in the 1770s. The four Bacri brothers went into business together in 1782 and Nephtali Busnach joined the business in 1797, and the families were soon tied by marriage. The business was expanding, with Jacob Bacri moving to France to oversee their warehouses in Marseilles and extending into the neighbouring regency of Tunis. The House of Bacri and Busnach held a monopoly on exporting grain from Algiers. They were involved in Algiers maritime pursuits; they exported an estimated $2,500,000 worth of 2

4 C Gale, 3 goods to Europe annually, were major ship-owners (frequently purchasing corsair prizes and refitting them as merchant vessels), and yes, even involved in the famed Barbary piracy (though really corsairing or privateering) as corsair ship owners and outfitters. They also had a lucrative trade in overseeing the sale of prizes taken in both Algiers and Tunis. Despite a tendency in most Barbary literature to dismiss the last forty years of their existence as a mere pirate base waiting to be conquered, Barbary was still going strong and Algiers was the most active port. Not only was the corsair institution, and it s ancillary tribute system whereby foreign nations arranged treaties and payments to keep their ships from being attacked by corsairs, still going strong, the North African states had been increasing their participation in inter-mediterranean trade over the course of the eighteenth century what Lemnouar Merouche called the century of grain. Those mercantile practices increased with the importance of Barbary to the navies and nations participating in the Napoleonic wars. As a mark of their importance, when Mustafa b. Ibrahim ascended to the Deyship in 1798, he appointed Nephtali Busnach as his Khaznadji, or treasurer. The two had been close since the early 1790s when Mustafa was a regional Bey and Busnach had financially supported him in times of crisis. However, one of the main reasons why so much information on this particular merchant house has survived is due to their truly impressive involvement in international diplomacy. Arranging for treaties of peace and friendship, the mainstay of the tribute system, required a network of consuls to communicate with the local governments and their own, and the various armed forces increasingly present in the Mediterranean. The House of Bacri and Busnach provided assistance through loans either for consular gifts or to redeem captives bank draughts on lending houses in Europe, translation, and personal contacts with the Dey 3

5 C Gale, 4 of Algiers. They were critical to the young United States first diplomatic efforts in Algiers, but also worked with the Spanish, Swedish, British, and French. And those are just the records that have survived. However, in the tense climate of the late French Revolutionary war, the House of Bacri and Busnach s willingness to work with both France and Britain, and their interests in Marseilles, drew the ire of British consul John Falcon. Falcon had been the previous consul s secretary and succeeded him at the post in 1799, despite Algerine protestations that Falcon had rendered himself obnoxious during his previous time. Later accounts call Falcon the mad consul daughter of future British consul, Henry Blanckley, recounts a story that horrified Algerine society, Turkish, Moorish and Western alike: Falcon decided to break with propriety and assert British superiority over the French by pushing the French consul down a flight of stairs then racing into the Divan s council hall. (Normally the consuls of even warring nations operated with a certain degree of civility, as their community was a small one.) From the first, Falcon s letters show a hatred of the Jewish community in Algiers that increasingly bordered on paranoid. His anti-semitism was exceptional even for his time. In the same letter that Falcon called the merchant house, the irreconcilable enemy of England, he wrote that it was his duty to employ every possible means for the destruction of their credit with the Dey. In the end Falcon destroyed himself. He was found to be at the heart of a political and sexual scandal in 1803 and expelled from the Regency. Admiral Horatio Nelson himself spent the last two years of his life trying to undo the damage Falcon did to the British position in Algiers. The Regency and Britain actually had a diplomatic break during The situation intensified in early 1805 as Algiers had a grain crisis for which the House of Bacri and 4

6 C Gale, 5 Busnach still held the monopoly. Dey Mustafa s intransigence during the crisis with Britain led to his increasing unpopularity and his closeness to Busnach led further public anger in their direction. Yet it was neither of these things that led to Nephtali Busnach s assassination in June 1805, though it di lead to the assassination of the Dey and anti-jewish riots in Algiers. Busnach is unfortunately assassinated by a Turkish Janissary who the day before he had refused to hire. It is important to note, however, that the Bacri s and their staff took refuge in the new British consuls house during those riots. The House of Bacri continues to be influential and important in Algerine politics, business, and diplomacy following the death of Busnach. Various members of the family rise to the position of Mokadem head of the Jewish community in Algiers. They continued to hold the grain monopoly, trade with Europe, and assist the consuls in their dealings though none would rise as high as Busnach. Jacob Bacri remained Mokadem from 1811 until 1830 and French colonization an event that they were also an integral part of. On 30 April 1827, problems dating to the very start of the French Revolutionary War finally came to a head between France and Algiers. In what is known as the coup d éventail or the fly-swatter incident, the Dey struck French consul, Deval, with his fan for which France blockaded Algiers for three years before finally invading in The background to this incident involved the Bacri s. Between 1793 and 1798, France purchased vast amounts of grain from Algiers to feed its starving populace and armed forces. The Republican Government could not afford to pay, however, and France borrowed Fr. 1,000,000 from the Bacri s. They continued to provide assistance to the French government, until the debt reached Fr. 8,000,000 in 1802, some of which was paid off. Yet by 1815 further loans had brought the total back to Fr. 7,000,000. Shortly after arriving in Algiers in 1815, Deval 5

7 C Gale, 6 promised Bacri repayment. Another agreement was reached in 1819, reaffirming the commitment to the debt, but no money was forthcoming. Jacob Bacri was forced to ask the British for a loan in It was insufficient to cover Bacri s debts and he was imprisoned, with the Dey assuming the rights to the Fr. 7,000,000 French debt. The Dey, upset over delays to pay off the debt he was now owed, demanded France repay the debt and remove Deval for his failure. In 1827, French ships arrived off Algiers in support of the French consul. Thus, when the Dey received an unsatisfactory answer from Deval regarding the debt and struck the consul in anger, the French used this as an excuse respond. France issued an ultimatum to Algiers, requiring a public apology, the punishment of pirates, the return of France to most-favoured nation status and the Dey s public declaration the debt had already been liquidated. Unsurprisingly, the Dey refused to accept those terms, and in mid-june, the French blockade of Algiers began. The Bacri family returned to Livorno following the French invasion and with French colonisation great changes came to Algerine society and many Algerine Jews moved to other parts of Barbary. Yet while Algiers was part of the Ottoman Empire, the House of Bacri and Busnach demonstrated that the Free Jew population of Algiers is deserving of the Port Jew label. They were Livornese Jews operating in a port-city of the early-modern period, granted all the rights of Europeans residing in the city and not restricted by dhimmi laws and allowed freedom of movement. They were active in government and could rise as high as anyone not a Turkish janissary could. And there reach was global. 6