Cosmopolitanism and its aftermath

The rise and fall of Greek and Turkish business in Alexandria

Bibliographic Data

ID6043682
AuthorsChristine Bischoff (0000-0003-2216-7082, University of the Witwatersrand), Mehmet Demirbag (0000-0002-4417-5780, University of Essex), Geoffrey Wood (0000-0002-6690-338X, University of Western Ontario)
Year2025
Volume67
Issue2
Pages364-394
Publication date2025-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBusiness History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-6791 • E-ISSN: 1743-7938
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00076791.2023.2220278
OpenAlexW4381884226
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited64

This article explores the rise and fall of Greek and Turkish business and commerce in Alexandria, Egypt. As the existing literature alerts us, shifting forms of colonial rule made for a complex and multifaceted cosmopolitanism, in which each community secured a distinct economic space. In part, this was due to the insertion of Alexandria into the growing world economy of the nineteenth century, which allowed for both the rise of modern businesses in trade and manufacturing, and a resurgence of quasi feudal, yet export orientated, forms of agricultural production; we evaluate this process through recourse to state and private sector archives. It is concluded that neither community was able to survive the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the diminishing space it allotted to ethnic business. We explore the implications of these findings for the study of business, cosmopolitanism and decosmopolitanization

Cosmopolitanism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Feudalism · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Turkish · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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Open DOIOpen Access