Abstract
In 1704, Marie Petit, a gambling house madam, accompanied John-Baptiste Fabre, a Marseillais merchant and France’s first official envoy to the Safavid Shah Sultan Hosayn, to Iran. When Fabre died, Petit assumed charge of the French delegation. This historical examination of the French mission reveals how conflicts among the gunpowder empires shaped French trade and Bourbon diplomacy in Asia. By exploring Petit’s role in the mission within the larger context of overseas trade and mercantilism, this chapter demonstrates how “western” states’ expansionist initiatives relied on provincial and foreign risk-takers, in the parlance of the time, entrepreneurs, who aligned their interests and assets with the greater good of the state.
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Takeda, J.T. (2017). “The Princesses’ Representative” or Renegade Entrepreneur? Marie Petit, the Silk Trade, and Franco-Persian Diplomacy. In: Paranque, E., Probasco, N., Jowitt, C. (eds) Colonization, Piracy, and Trade in Early Modern Europe. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57159-1_7
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