Peyssonnel's Treatise on the commerce of the Black Sea (1787)
A French consul's account of the trade and government of the Crimean khanate in the 1750s.
Full title Treatise on the commerce of the Black Sea (2 vols, 1787): trade of the Crimea, Kuban, Circassia, Abkhazia and the Danube ports, with an account of the Crimean Tatar khanate’s economy
Charles de Peyssonnel
Charles de Peyssonnel served as French consul to the Crimean khan from 1753 to 1757 and later at Smyrna. He drew this two-volume treatise, published in 1787, from his consular memoranda. It covers trade in Crimea, the Kuban, Circassia, Abkhazia and the Danube ports, and the economy and administration of the Crimean Tatar khanate shortly before Russia annexed it. The atlas does not hold the text: the corpus knows a Paris 1787 copy only through a Gallica record and an e-rara copy, and nothing is stored.
- How they knew
- Part eyewitness
- Who “Tartar” means here
- The Crimean Tatars of the khanate, which the card calls Little Tartary, with the Nogais on its borders.
- Why read it
- The fullest eighteenth-century account of how the Crimean khanate earned its living and was governed, and of what Tartary meant in Black Sea trade.
- Watch out
- It was published thirty years after his stay, so some figures belong to the 1750s. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
firsthand observation and official record: Peyssonnel served as consul to the Crimean khan (1753-1757) and at Smyrna; the treatise is drawn from his consular memoranda
Research notes
- Published thirty years after the Crimean residence; some data refers to the 1750s. Gallica viewer unreachable from this environment during the pass: technical failure, not restriction.
- Next action: open e-rara landing page and Gallica ark when reachable; check for tome 2.
Why it matters
The most detailed eighteenth-century account of the economy and administration of the Crimean khanate (Little Tartary) just before Russian annexation; useful for what "Tartary" meant on the Black Sea in commercial practice.
Places named
Crimea; Kuban; Circassia; Abkhazia; Black Sea coast; Danube delta
Peoples named
Crimean Tatars (khanate); Nogai; Circassians; Abkhaz; Ottoman ports; Cossacks