Some merchant families in Constantinople before, during and after the fall of the city 1453

Abstract

The author of this short prosopographical case study is basically interested
in the various social continuities persisting during fundamental political
collapse. He attempts to point out how the military events on the Golden Horn
in the mid-15th century affected the daily life of different merchant families in
Constantinople/Istanbul, the conditions of their economic and social existence,
their business attitudes and the dimensions of their commercial activities, and
he dares to pose the question whether these merchants with their business
contacts influenced in tum the great political decisions and the general course
of history in this important area between Asia and Europe.