Maltese economic relations in the nineteenth century : a study of consular letters at the national archives

Abstract

When it comes to Maltese history in the nineteenth century, the focus is usually in Malta’s political, social and economic relations with its then overlord the British Empire with all the positives and negatives that British colonial rule brought over to Malta and the subsequent constitutional struggle of the Maltese. This dissertation aims to look into Malta’s economic ties with the newly independent United States as this is a lightly written subject, but will also include Maltese economic relations with France and Sicily and how its trade with these centuries old trading partners had developed in the nineteenth century as well with the inclusion of relations with its old maritime enemy, Tunisia. The first questions to be tackled however was how was Malta politically and economically at the turn of the century and how did British rule shaped Maltese politics and the economy during the early years of the century? Next shall be tackled the question of what the role of the foreign consuls was stationed in Malta, this is important as the primary sources of this work shall revolve around information gathered from letters written by these consuls and what role they played. After that shall come the main chapter which shall tackle the main question of this work, what was Malta’s economic relationship with the aforementioned four countries during the first half of the nineteenth century? Was it cordial? What goods were exchanged? How did international events such as disease and war effect this trade and how long did it take for trade to recover from such events? Before these questions shall be answered however, the context of Anglo-Maltese relations has to be established as well as the importance of Malta’s trade in grain and tobacco. The reason why these were so important shall be discussed further.