List of Tables Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 Part 1 Foundation - Organisation - Dissolution 1. The Foundation ot a Chartered Company 13 2. A 'Body Corporate and Politick': The Levant Company's Organisation 31 3. Later Years: Corporate Organisation, Individual Interests and National Identity 43 Part 2 Corporate and Individual Strategies: The Transition from Monopoly to Free Trade 4. British Trade in the Levant: The Historical Background 87 5. New Trade Routes and Itineraries 96 6. New Partnerships: Trading with the Ottomans 157 7. Tariffs and Duties 198. Part 3 Entrepreneurial form and Strategy 8. Entrepreneurial Form 223 9. Strategy: Compliance and Deviation 233 VIII. TRADING WITH TIII OTTOMANS 10. Transactions and Interactions in the Levant: Bartholomew Edward Abbott, Luisa Vernon and the Constantinople Factory 247 Part 4 Business, Social Identity and Everyday Life 11. The Abbott House 257 Epilogue 274.