Very rare and possibly the first printed edition of the Capitulations agreed upon by a French envoy on behalf of King Louis XV of France and by a grand vizier on behalf of Sultan Mahmud I of the Ottoman Empire on 4 Rabi al-Awwal 1153 AH (30 May 1740 CE). We have located only three other copies: one in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, one in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek and one in Harvard's Houghton Library. This particular agreement consisted of eighty-five articles nearly all of which concerned the granting of trade, economic and legal capitulations to France.
The Capitulations are a type of treaty by which foreign people are given certain privileges, mostly relating to trade and transportation, over or even at the expense of native citizens. These treaties did facilitate mutually beneficial commercial and financial contracts for the parties involved, considering an evolving global marketplace, for example by minimizing the transaction costs, taxes etc. of their exchanges. The foreign power often bought their influence from which local government officials would benefit, partially at the expense of the actual native people they were supposed to govern.
"The Ottoman-French Treaty of 1740 marked the apogee [the high point or climax] of French influence in the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century. In the following years the French had an unchallenged position in Levant trade and in transportation between Ottoman ports." (Olson p. 75).
Binding shows signs of wear, slight foxing throughout, otherwise in good condition. Europeana (1 copy, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek); WorldCat 612814438 (1 copy, Harvard) and 165919643 (1 copy, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). On the treaty: Olson, Robert. "The Ottoman-French treaty of 1740: a year to be remembered?", in: Imperial meanderings and republican by-ways: essays on eighteenth century Ottoman and twentieth century history of Turkey. (Piscataway, NJ, USA, Gorgias Press, 2010) pp. 75-82.