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Under the Turk in Constantinople: A record of Sir John Finch's Embassy, 1674-1681

Chapter 50: APPENDIX I
By G. F. Abbott
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About This Book

A detailed historical account of Sir John Finch's years as English ambassador in Constantinople between 1674 and 1681, reconstructed from original dispatches, letters, and contemporary memoirs. The narrative combines transcribed correspondence, reports from other English residents and foreign envoys, and archival research to depict Ottoman administration, court politics, commercial interactions, and the daily challenges faced by diplomats and merchants. Episodic chapters juxtapose official negotiations, personal observations, and procedural details, often reproducing the language and spelling of seventeenth-century documents to convey immediacy. The work balances documentary evidence with contextual commentary to illuminate the practicalities of seventeenth-century Anglo‑Ottoman relations.


APPENDIX I

[Ellis Papers at the British Museum: Add. MSS. 28937, pp. 167-9.]

Instructions for our Trusty and wellbeloved Servant Sr John Finch Knt going in Quality of our Ambr. to reside at ye Court of ye Grand Seigr. Given at ye Court at Whitehall the ________ 1672.

1. You shall embarque your self upon ye ship designed to carry you, and dispose thereof according to ye instruc͡ons of our most Dear Brother the Duke of York, our High Admll. of England.

2. Being arriued at Constantinople you shall in ye first place informe your self from Mr Newman Secretary to ye late Ambr. Sr Daniel Haruy, and by him left in the care of our affaires, and of our subjects in that Court, in what state things now are, and by him and such others as are best able to informe you, to instruct your self in the manner of making your addresses with our credentialls to the Grand Seignior and the Grand Vizier according to the accustomed stiles used by those inuested with your character, remembering allways not to suffer it to be prejudiced or uiolated in any circumstance either by that Court, or any forreign Ministers residing there.

3. In your Addresses to ye Grand Seigr. and Vizier you shall expresse the Great Value wee haue for their persons, and satisfac͡on in the obseruance of ye peace & good correspondence these towards our Subjects in their Trade & Com͡erce, wch is so beneficiall to those parts aboue any other nac͡on, and particularly those made with Algiers, Tunis, Tripoly, which wee desire they would continue to protect & recom͡end, assuring them wee shall seuerely punish any of our subjects, that shall in any degree uiolate the same; or if in your passage, or upon the place you shall learne any infringemts. haue been made on either side, you shall as occasion shall furnish you with matter for it, frame excuses or complaints.

4. In all ye time of yr Residence there you must be carefull to maintain a good correspondence with all ye Ambrs. and Agents of Christian Princes, especially those yt shall be in a nearer degree of alliance and amity with us, But not forgetting it euen towards those that are lesse so: to protect their persons, and render your self usefull to them with all good offices, employing effectually likewise towards the good of all Christians in generall of what Degree, Quality, Sect, or opinion so euer they be, giuing the preference therein still to those of our own profession in Religion in procuring them Justice & Fauour in all things.

5. You will learne best upon the place in what manner you must proceed towards the protec͡on of all the priuiledges and im͡unityes of our subjects of the Turky Company, for whose good and Benefitt you are most especially to reside there, by preseruing firme and inuiolable to them the Capitulac͡ons that are allready in being with the Grand Seigr. and by solliciting & procuring such further additionall ones, as time and other circumstances may make usefull for them to haue, so wee need not be particular in our Direc͡on to you therein, assuring our self that you will not be wanting in any thing to performe all good offices towards them to their entire satisfac͡on.

6. You shall make it yr particular care & endeauour to be truly informed of all negotiac͡ons & practises in yt Court which may disturbe the peace of Christendom in any part of it, and accordingly informe us thereof under the surest and most speedy conueyance you can, by the hands of one of our principall Secretaryes of State, with whom you usually correspond, who will likewise take care on their parts, to signify our pleasure & further Instruc͡ons to you upon all Emergencyes, com͡unicating to you all such aduices from hence as may be of use to you there.

7. And whereas frequent Representac͡ons haue been made to us by the Turky Company and otherwise of the great mischeifs occasioned in Trade by the permitting of false and faulty monyes to be imported or passed in payment in Turky, you shall take some fitt opportunity to insinuate to the Grand Seigr. and Vizier the mischeifs and ill consequences of that abuse, and shall in some publick way, such as you shall find most fitt, disowne the same in Relac͡on to the English, and in case any English Factor shall transgresse therein, either in importing those monyes or colouring them, or in receiuing them by consignac͡on from others, wee do, with the aduice of our Priuy-Councell, hereby giue you sufficient power & authority to punish such offenders.