Osmanlı sosyal, siyasî, askerî ve iktisadî hayatında önemli bir kırılma noktası olan ve yeni bir dönemin başlangıcı olarak kabul edilen Tanzimat Dönemi, aynı zamanda Osmanlı Devleti'nin, ülke içi ticaret yanında, Avrupa merkezli olmak üzere uluslararası piyasalarla ticari ilişkilerin finansal piyasaları geliştirici olarak arttığı bir dönem olmuştur. Tanzimat sonrası hukukî alanda yapılan düzenlemeler ve değişikliklerle birlikte, Osmanlı'nın iç ve dış ticaretinde levanten tüccarların etkisi ve ağırlığı da artmıştır. Osmanlı ticaretinde etkili olan bu levanten tüccarlar içinde, ticari ilişkileri ve iktisadi-finansal faaliyetleri ile İngiliz kökenli bir Levanten aile olan Hanson ailesi özellikle dikkat çekmektedir. Bu doğrultuda ilk defa 1825 yılında ticaret amaçlı olarak İngiliz Levant Kumpanyasının bir üyesi olarak İstanbul'a gelip yerleşen Charles Simpson Hanson (1803-1874) ve bir sonraki kuşak olarak, İstanbul doğumlu oğlu Henry James Hanson (1838-1935) finans alanından demiryolları yapımına, ticari anlamda ihracat-ithalat faaliyetlerinden gemi yapımına kadar pek çok alanda ticarî faaliyette bulunmuştur. Hanson ailesi bu geniş iş alanı nedeniyle Osmanlı Devleti’nin 19. yüzyıl ticaretinde anahtar bir rol oynayan tüm levanten tüccarlar içinde ön plana çıkmıştır. Bu önemli aileye yönelik, gerek Türkçe gerekse İngilizce literatürde ise büyük bir boşluğun olduğu görülmektedir. Bu boşluğun doldurulmasına bir katkı sunmayı hedefleyen bu makale çalışması ise, Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, İngiliz Ulusal Arşivi ve Oxford University-Middle East Center Saint Anthony's College Arşivinde tespit edilen birincil kaynaklar ile döneme ait Türkçe ve İngilizce süreli yayınları bir araya getirerek Hanson ailesinin Osmanlı iç ve dış ticaretindeki yerini ve ozellikle Istanbul’da gelişen poliçecilik faaliyetleri ışığında finansal yeni kurumların bu tüccar aileler eliyle nasıl yürütüldüğünü ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Bu çalışma sayesinde; ticari-finansal faaliyetler üzerinden Osmanlı Devleti’nin son yüzyılı içerisindeki bir takım iktisadi kurumların işleyişi hakkında bilgi edinileceği gibi, levanten tüccarların Tanzimat ve sonrası dönemde Osmanlı topraklarındaki faaliyetleri, dış ülkelerle olan bağlantıları da ortaya konulmakla beraber ve dönem itibariyle Osmanlı ticaret ve finansal hayatına bir ışık tutulacaktır.

The period after 1839 is known as the Tanzimat (restructuring) era. The significance of this era is that the initiative for modernization came from government officials with the compliance of the sultan. Economically, the Tanzimat, which marked the beginning of one of the most important turning points of Turkish-Ottoman history, has been intensively discussed after its proclamation in 1839. The second half of the Ottoman nineteenth century observed clear “Eurocentric Business Enterprises” in Ottoman economic and commercial life, consisting mostly of railway projects, as European centred commercial relations within international markets expanded. Reforms and changes in the commercial law system after the Tanzimat saw an increase in market efficiency of Levantine merchants in Ottoman domestic and foreign trade. Among these Levantine merchants, who were effective in Ottoman trade life, one the Hanson family, of English origin, attracted attention with their commercial relations and economic activities. Accordingly, Charles Simpson Hanson (1803-1874) who came to Istanbul for the first time in 1825 and settled for the purpose of commerce, along with his son Henry James Hanson (1838-1935), who was born in Istanbul, together engaged in several commercial fields namely finance, railway construction, imports and exports. Due to their wide range of business interests, the Hanson Family and their company became prominent among all the Levantine merchants that played a key role in 19th century Ottoman trade. This presentation examines different business practices within which Levantine merchants were involved in order to understand how they used Ottoman economic institutions as businessmen between the years 1839 and 1880. It aims to answer broad questions about the Hanson Family’s role in Ottoman domestic and foreign trade by using primary sources in the Ottoman Archive, the British National Archives and Oxford University Saint Anthony’s College Middle East Centre Archive. It will additionally draw from English and Turkish publications belonging to aforementioned period. These business manners which were applied by the Hanson Company shed light upon the activities of Levantine Merchants in the Ottoman Empire and their connections with statesmen through business partnerships after the Tanzimat Era. The Purpose and Questions In the field of economic history and the history of economic growth or development, there are some stereotypical questions that are frequently under consideration. At the macro level, it can be shown that the most important question is: Why are some countries or regions richer than others? In the field of business and commercial history, the questions are under the influence of more specific themes. The questions are mostly oriented towards the micro level such as firms, merchants, organization types and so on. Examining the changes in the commercial activities in accordance with financial activities of the British merchants as a foreign merchant in the Ottoman territory on the basis of private records of Hanson family can be shown main aim of this paper. In this paper, business activities of Hanson family will be dealt with by combining two questions from the general to the specific. First, with reference to nature of business history theory, biography of firms and their actors occur this paper’s general subjects. As a general question of this paper is: Which partnerships or co-operations of Hanson family affected the commercial-financial activities in the Ottoman Empire? Second, according to the Hanson Company’s records, we know that the commercial activities of Hanson Company and their private initiatives as bill broking in financial markets played some role in the interaction between finance and trade. In this context, the second question of this work is: Which institutions were used by Hansons in the financial-commercial merkets? How did they do these initiatives in financial sector? That is why, this paper c