[François Joseph Flamenq (died August 23, 1757, in Tripoli, Syria), chancellor of the consulate in Candia [Heraklion], Crete, and later of that in Tripoli, Syria. Register of his correspondence, circa 1760, compiled by a family member, likely his father-in-law, Monsieur du Teil, consul in Candia. Correspondence exchanged from July 1, 1750, to May 15, 1760, from Alexandria, Toulon, and primarily Candia (where Flamenq arrived on April 7, 1751), then La Taquie [Lattaquié] and Tripoli in Syria. Small folio volume comprising [6] pp. of table of contents, 158 handwritten pp., and 2 blank pp. Fine ivory-colored contemporary binding, cover piqued with foxing and showing some cracks on the spine.
Initially based in Alexandria, following the Mémoire sur la Caravane d’Alexandrie pour l’Italie (pp. 1–12) that he submitted to the Court in 1750, in which he analyzed the Italians’ preference for foreign vessels (due to inspections, administrative burdens, and high duties), François-Joseph Flamenq was appointed to the chancellery of the Vice-Consulate of Candia in 1750, where he replaced Arazy. He provided valuable information on the maritime activity of two Mediterranean ports in the Levant under Louis XV: first, that of Alexandria, through the Memoir he submitted to the Court, and then primarily that of Candia—now Heraklion—in Crete. The Levant ports were the ports and cities of the Ottoman Empire, located in the Near East or North Africa, for which the sultan had relinquished certain of his prerogatives—particularly in legal matters—in favor of French merchants, mainly from Marseille. These merchants were then directly subject to the King of France, who granted them privileges. Trade relations between France and the Levant enabled the city of Marseille to enjoy great prosperity beginning in the second half of the 16th century. This commercial activity gradually declined until the Revolution. François Joseph Flamenq, cousin of Madame Villeneuve de Trans-Martelli, provides details on his work and activities (a Code of the Levant in 1752 and its abridgment in 1753, concerning ordinances, legal texts, and procedures specific to the chancelleries of the Levant, for which he was awarded 150 livres by the King; a Memoir on the Levant Customs Board: standardization of Consulate duties across all customs posts, moderation of the damage duty, etc., submitted in 1756 (pp. 101–113), with a negative and reasoned response from Vergennes; on several matters he had to address, including the plague at the end of 1753, sets forth his theories on improving trade in the face of foreign competition, discusses the tyranny of Ibrahim Kiaya, whose overthrow could impact trade with the Turks, while gradually expressing his frustration with the mediocrity of the port of Candia, which brings in only 130 livres a year, “the meagerness of this post, where I cannot make ends meet […] in the nearly four years I have been here, there have been a total of 59 incoming ships, and only 39 contracts have been signed, which, together with the patent fees, constitute the entire revenue of this chancellery, which has neither a national community nor trade here […] the most meager and fruitless of all posts in the East,” and his increasingly strong hope for a transfer or appointment as consul, recalling his achievements, his zeal in his duties, and the 20 years of service in the armies of his father, who was ruined there. He was finally appointed to the chancellery of Tripoli in Syria in May 1756, a promotion he refused, considering it to have “all the appearance of a punishment […] the worst post in the Levant,” as he explained to his minister. The latter replied rather curtly, reminding him that it was impossible to keep him in Candia given that the post of consul was held by his father-in-law, a situation contrary to the Ordinances. He complied and set sail on March 9, 1757, arriving in Alexandria on April 4, from where he departed on May 11, arriving in Cyprus on the 14th, from where he departed on the 20th, arriving in Latakia on the 22nd, and finally in Tripoli on June 12, noting the difficulties of travel due to the risks of war and English privateers. In Latakia, he took part in the effort to recover Captain Reynaud’s ship, which had been taken by two Englishmen. Out of necessity, he asked Vergennes, the ambassador in Constantinople, to cover his travel expenses—more than 107 piastres, or over 322 pounds (June 2, 1757)—but Vergennes advised him to appeal directly to the Minister of the Navy, which he did from Tripoli. “… I am in the worst country in the world, and my post is so dire that the consul and the merchants did not hesitate to attest to this in a meeting held on the subject, through which they sought to alleviate my hardships by asking the Minister for orders to grant me, from the national treasury, the sum of 600 pounds. ” The “Minute d’assemblée en faveur du chancelier de Tripoly de Syrie ” are transcribed, noting in passing the poor state of the trade, with emoluments of “one hundred piastres in peacetime, and that the chancellery is far from meeting this amount today due to the war, with only one French ship arriving for silks per year, and almost none arriving by caravan.”
He died, presumably of illness, on the following August 23, in a country, as his wife wrote, whose “deadly air […] took his life in less than three months.”
The king will grant his widow a pension of 300 livres, 200 of which are payable to her posthumous daughter, from the Navy’s disability fund.
Flamenq corresponds with Rouillé, Marquis de Joui, Minister of the Navy (regarding his Mémoire sur la Caravane de l’échelle d’Alexandrie and his grievances), and then with his successor in 1754, M. de Machault, along with Leguay, Commissioner and First Clerk of the Navy at the Court; Magy, French Consul in Chania, in Crete, Pignon, Inspector of Trade for the Levant in Marseille, Charron, Commissioner General of the Navy and Inspector of Trade in Marseille, and Isnard, Archivist of the Chamber of Commerce, with the Count of Alleurs, the French ambassador to Constantinople, to whom he reported, and with his successor in 1755, the Chevalier de Vergennes, as well as with de La Porte, the French consul in Rossete [sic] in Egypt, who sent him “two stones from Egypt for a snuffbox,”Joinville, French consul in Thessaloniki and later in Cairo, who, upon being appointed there, wished to receive his report from du Teil, the consul in La Canée, who would become his father-in-law, Clairambault, consul in Tripoli, Syria, and later in Thessaloniki, who recounts his journey and his new posting—“it is quite wrong to extol the charms and freedoms of Thessaloniki”—and then his journey from July 12 to 22, 1751, to Tripoli, confiding, while ill, his very negative first impressions upon arriving at this new position: “The posts here are not worth a damn, just like the country itself”, along with Madame de Villeneuve de Trans Martelli, wife of the Lieutenant General in Toulon (his cousin, who recommended him for a consular post), along with a copy of the authorization granted by Louis XV for his marriage to Mlle du Teil (December 31, 1755), the eldest daughter of the consul of that district, etc.
The pagination runs from 94 to 99, interrupted by three blank pages, with no apparent lack in the sequence of the correspondence.
Includes a guide to maritime navigation. A small folio volume of 28 unnumbered folios, 3 of which are left blank. Ivory-colored blank vellum with flaps.
The manuscript, written in very legible handwriting, includes reflections and calculations related to astronomy: “Explanation for calculating the phases of the Moon using tables,” “Calculation of tides” and explanations, “Finding the times of sunrise and sunset by analogy,” solved problems on the latitude of a location, the declination of a celestial body, the compass and azimuth determination, general navigation problems, “Compound Navigation Rule” (dead reckoning), “Correction for the log and its sandglass,” “Sample report to present the position to the Captain,” “How to determine one’s position at noon.”
Followed by « Description sur les différents mouillages de la Côte [de Provence, Languedoc et Roussillon], ainsi que le danger remarquable » [A description of the various anchorages along the coast [of Provence, Languedoc and Roussillon], as well as the notable dangers]. Port Vendre, Collioure, Leucate, Agde, Sète (Cette), Aigues-Mortes, Saintes-Maries de la Mer, Rhone estuary, Port-de-Bouc, Cap Couronne, Marseille, Cassis, La Ciotat, Bandol to Saint-Tropez, Golfe-Juan, Antibes.
The text block is partially detached from the binding; there are ink stains and marks on the covers.
‘P. V.’ stamp on both documents.
800 €